656 Os'vsres. htft> the town, and have named it after the prince. For the pre- sent however we are proceeding on a different assumption r and while we wait for those criteria which may perhaps at some future time ascertain the historical reality of Ogyges, we venture to treat him as a mere creature of the imagination, and inquire into the process by which he acquired his name. If we are not mistaken in our view of his character, his name must have been derived not from any religious rites by which either Thebes or Eleusis were afterwards distinguished, but from the great convulsion which marked his reign. The pro- position implied in his name is not, as it would be on J. K's hypothesis, that the Eleusinian mysteries were established from time immemorial in Attica : this would contradict the current legend without any adequate cause: it is, that the waters once covered the face of Attica, which at length emerged from them and became a habitable region. If this is what -the name of Ogyges imports, its signification can be no other than that of man of thejlood^ and all that we have to consider is, whether its etymology or its affinities justify us in afifixing this sense to it. And here it appears to us that without appealing to any doubtful text, Ave can shew that it suggests this meaning quite as naturally as that of darkness : and that if we deny the claim of Ogyges to any participation in the gloomy rites in which J. K. has initiated him, we make him ample amends by introducing him into a family of the highest antiquity, the members of which are all more or less connected with the humid element. I have already intimated that it is not a new thought which I am here suggesting: on the contrary it may be con- sidered as the received opinion, and all that I have to do is to explain and illustrate it, and to shew that it is in perfect harmony with all those facts and allusions which led J. K. to his hypothesis. The same view is adopted by Mr Keightley in his Mythology^ p. ^69^ where he observes that Ogyges is a personification of ivatei If the plan of his excellent work had required or permitted him to dwell on this subject he would have discussed it in a manner which would have ren- dered the following remarks superfluous. But in another passage p. 250, he has pointed out the great family to which the name of Ogyges belongs and has mentioned some of its
