_Phtha_, in _Suidas_ called φθάς, is deriv’d, on the authority of _Kircher_ and _Huetius_, from the _hebrew_ פתה the same as the _greek_ word πειθω, to _persuade_, _suada_ in _latin_. It regards more particularly the serpent, the emblem of eloquence, and the divine WORD. In _Arabic_ it signifies the _son_. So that _Cnephtha_ means the entire figure, the circle, snake and wings. The supreme had no name. They held him ineffable, as well as invisible. Whence they call’d the _Jehovah_ of the _jews_ an uncertain or unknown deity, or the deity without a name. _Herodotus in Euterpe_ writes, “he heard from the priests of _Dodona_, that the ancient _Pelasgians_ made their prayers and sacrifices to the deity without any name or sirname, for at that time they knew none.” _Iamblichus_’s interpretation of _Phtha_ is very little different. He says, “It signifies him that performs all things in truth, and without lying.” The _Egyptians_ called this _Phtha Vulcan_, and say, he was the son of the supreme God; whom _Cicero_ makes the guardian god of _Egypt_, who was the author of all the philosophy of the _Egyptians_, according to _Diogenes Laertius in proem._ And this is that most ancient deity of the _Egyptians_ who was particularly design’d by the serpent. And hence the fables of the _greeks_ make _Vulcan_ the only son of _Juno_, without the help of her husband. Again, they make _Pallas_ produc’d out of _Jupiter_’s brain, who wore the _Ægis_ or snaky breast-plate, which originally was no other than our great prophylactic hierogramma, the circle and snake, us’d by the most ancient warriors as a sacred preservative. _Medusa_’s head is the very same, a circle, wings, and snakes. But the delicate _greeks_ new drest it, and made the circle into a beautiful face, more agreeable to their taste of things. And its turning men into stones means, at the bottom, nothing but the making our serpentine temples in that form by the first heroes, who bore this cognizance in their shields.