Abury, A Temple of the British Druids, With Some Others, DescribedStukeley, William
History
Abury, A Temple of the British Druids, With Some Others, Described
Stukeley, William
Avebury (England) -- Antiquities; Druids and Druidism
A fit emblem of his resurrection from the dead, and of returning to an
immortal life.
[Illustration:
TAB. XXXI.
_The Long Barrow S. of_ Silbury Hill.
_An Archdruids barrow._]
No wonder then, from such reasons as these, and others as obvious,
the ancients concluded this to be the most divine of all animals, and
thought it the aptest symbol of the Νους ἑτερος, the other, or second
mind of _Plato_, whom they affirmed to be the creator of the world. I
know not whether this notion of theirs did not farther contribute to
it; they thought these animals brought forth by the mouth. They have
too no limbs, or members for action, but exert their mighty power by
the mouth only; whence _Horus Apollo_ says, “a serpent is the symbol
of the mouth.” This well represents the omnific WORD, which _Suidas_
speaks of from _Trismegistus_, all perfect, fruitful, the workman,
creator of the world.
CHAP. XII.
_The second sort of temples called_ Dracontia, _like that of_
Abury, _have been built frequently in old times. The traces of
them pursued. Part of the history of_ Phut, _third son of_ Cham.
_A genealogy of the most ancient sacred and heathen families._
Phut _had a fleet of ships upon the_ Mediterranean. _The_
Typhon, Typhis, Python _of antiquity, called_ Apollo Pythius
_after death. He was a builder of these serpentine temples.
Like the emperor_ Augustus _in countenance. He erected the
first patriarchal temple at_ Delphos, _a_ Dracontium. Parnassus
_originally_ Larnassus, _which is no other than our_ Hakpen _of_
Abury. _The sabbath observed there originally._ Ææas, _a son of_
Phut’_s, built the_ Dracontium _at_ Colchis. Perseus, _another
son of his, bore the sacred hierogram, the circle, snake, and
wings, in his shield; whence the_ Medusa’_s head._
_Zoroaster Magus, in Euseb. p. e._ II. 7. _Plato_, _Porphyry_, and
others of the old philosophers, define God to be every where and no
where, who fills all space, and is contain’d in none; “from whom
came all things that are, and which are not yet; eternal, immutable,
omnipresent, incomprehensible, immaterial, without parts, beginning
or end.” If we put this definition into a geometrical figure, in
order to form a symbol, we cannot possibly do it better than by
describing the circle. A circle then in hieroglyphics means, divine;
but particularly, as it is the most perfect and comprehensive of all
geometrical figures, they design’d it for the symbol of the first and
supreme being; whose resemblance we cannot find, whose center is every
where, and circumference no where. It well pictur’d out, as _Abenephi_
the _Arabian_ and others assert, the divine nature of God.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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