"The ship wherein Europa was conveyed from Phoenicia into Crete had a _bull_ for its flag, and _Jupiter_ for its tutelary deity. The Boeotian ships had for their tutelar god _Cadmus_, represented with a _dragon_ in his hand, because he was the founder of Thebes, the principal city of Boeotia. The name of the ship was usually taken from the flag, as appears in the following passage of Ovid, where he tells us his ship received its name from the helmet painted upon it:-- 'Est mihi, sitque, precor, flavæ tutela Minervæ, Navis et à pictâ casside nomen habit.' 'Minerva is the goddess I adore, And may she grant the blessings I implore; The ship its name a painted helmet gives.' "Hence comes the frequent mention of ships called _Pegasi_, _Scyllæ_, _Bulls_, _Rams_, _Tigers_, &c., which the poets took liberty to represent as living creatures that transported their riders from one country to another; nor was there (according to some) any other ground for those known fictions of Pegasus, the winged Bellerophon, or the Ram which is reported to have carried Phryxus to Colchos." To quote another very learned author: "The system of hieroglyphics, or symbols, was adopted into every mysterious institution, for the purpose of concealing the most sublime secrets of religion from the prying curiosity of the vulgar; to whom nothing was exposed but the beauties of their morality." (See Ramsay's "Travels of Cyrus," lib. 3.) "The old Asiatic style, so highly figurative, seems, by what we find of {11} its remains in the prophetic language of the sacred writers, to have been evidently fashioned to the mode of the ancient hieroglyphics; for as in hieroglyphic writing the sun, moon, and stars were used to represent states and empires, kings, queens, and nobility--their eclipse and extinction, temporary disasters, or entire overthrow--fire and flood, desolation by war and famine; plants or animals, the qualities of particular persons, &c.; so, in like manner, the Holy Prophets call kings and empires by the names of the heavenly luminaries; their misfortunes and overthrow are represented by eclipses and extinction; stars falling from the firmament are employed to denote the destruction of the nobility; thunder and tempestuous winds, hostile invasions; lions, bears, leopards, goats, or high trees, leaders of armies, conquerors, and founders of empires; royal dignity is described by purple, or a crown; iniquity by spotted garments; a warrior by a sword or bow; a powerful man, by a gigantic stature; a judge by balance, weights, and measures--in a word, the prophetic style seems to be a speaking hieroglyphic."