epherd God Apollo.

[703][Greek: Phoibon kai Nomion kikleskomen, exet' ekeinou,]
[Greek: Exet' ep' Amphrusoi zeugetidas etrephen hippas,]
[Greek: Eitheou hup' eroti kekaumenos Admetoio.]

These Hippai, misconstrued mares, were priestesses of the Goddess Hippa,
who was of old worshipped in Thessaly, and Thrace, and in many different
regions. They chanted hymns in her temples, and performed the rites of
fire: but the worship growing obsolete, the very terms were at last
mistaken. How far this worship once prevailed may be known from the many
places denominated from Hippa. It was a title of Apollo, or the Sun, and
often compounded Hippa On, and contracted Hippon: of which name places
occur in Africa near Carthage[704]. [Greek: Hete de Kirta polis entautha
kai hoi duo Hippones.] Argos was of old called Hippeion; not from the
animal [Greek: Hippos], but [705][Greek: apo Hippes tou Danaou,] _from
Hippa the daughter of Danaus_. That is from a priestess, who founded there
a temple, and introduced the rites of the Goddess whom she served. As it
was a title of the Sun, it was sometimes expressed in the masculine gender
Hippos: and Pausanias takes notice of a most curious, and remarkable piece
of antiquity, though he almost ruins the purport of it by referring it to
an horse. It stood near mount Taygetus in Laconia, and was called the
monument of Hippos. The author tells us, [706]_that at particular intervals
from this monument stood seven pillars, [Greek: kata tropon oimai
archaion,] placed_, says he, _as I imagine, according to some antient rule
and method; which pillars were supposed to represent the seven planets_. If
then these exterior stones related to the [707]seven erratic bodies in our
sphere, the central monument of Hippos must necessarily have been designed
for the Sun. And however rude the whole may possibly have appeared, it is
the most antient representation upon record, and consequently the most
curious, of the planetary system.

It is from hence, I think, manifest, that the titles Hippa, and Hippos,
related to the luminary Osiris; and betokened some particular department of
that Deity, who was the same as Dionusus. He was undoubtedly worshipped
under this appellation in various regions: hence we read of Hippici Montes
in Colchis: [Greek: Hippou kome] in Lycia: [Greek: Hippou akra] in Libya:
[Greek: Hippou oros] in Egypt: and a town Hippos in Arabia Felix. There
occur also in composition[708], Hippon, Hippor