“This history relates to an Amonian temple founded in the extreme parts of Africa, in which there were three priestesses of Canaänitish race, who on that account are said to be in the shape of swans: the swan being the insigne under which their country was denoted. The notion of their having but one eye among them took its rise from a hieroglyphic very common in Ægypt and Canaän: this was the representation of an eye, which was engraved on the pediment of their temples.” BRYANT. The Gorgons were probably similar personages: they are described by Æschylus with wings and serpentine locks: attributes apparently borrowed from the emblematical devices in the temples of Ægypt. Gorgon was a title of Minerva at Cyrene in Lybia. [172] _When Perseus smote_ _Her neck._] The island of Seriphus is represented as having once abounded with serpents; and it is styled by Virgil in his Ciris _serpentifera_: it had this epithet, not on account of any real serpents, but according to the Greeks, from Medusa’s head, which was brought thither by Perseus. By this is meant the serpent-deity, whose worship was here introduced by a people called Peresians. It was usual with the Ægyptians to describe upon the architrave of their temples some emblem of the deity who there presided: among others the serpent was esteemed a most salutary emblem, and they made use of it to signify superior skill and knowledge. A beautiful female countenance surrounded with an assemblage of serpents was made to denote divine wisdom. Many ancient temples were ornamented with this curious hieroglyphic. These devices upon temples were often esteemed as talismans, and supposed to have a hidden influence by which the building was preserved. In the temple of Minerva, at Tigea, was some sculpture of Medusa, which the goddess was said to have given to preserve the city from ever being taken in war. It was probably from this opinion that the Athenians had the head of Medusa represented on the walls of their Acropolis; and it was the insigne of many cities, as we find from ancient coins. Perseus was one of the most ancient heroes in the mythology of Greece: the merit of whose supposed achievements the Helladians took to themselves, and gave out that he was a native of Argos. Herodotus more truly represents him as an Assyrian; by which is meant a Babylonian. Yet he resided in Ægypt, and is said to have reigned at Memphis. To say the truth, he was _worshipped_ at that place: for Perseus was a title of the deity, and was no other than the Sun, the chief god of the gentile world. His true name was Perez; rendered Peresis, Perses, and Perseus: and in the account given of this personage we have the history of the Peresians in their several peregrinations; who were no other than the Heliadæ and Osirians. It is a mixed history in which their forefathers are alluded to: particularly their great progenitor, the father of mankind. He was