in Ionia, was confessedly so
denominated from its being a sacred[826] place, and abounding with waters;
by which, people who drank them were supposed to be inspired. They are
mentioned in an antient oracle quoted by Eusebius[827]: [Greek: En Didumon
gualois Mukalesion ENTHEON hudor.] I have mentioned that all fountains were
esteemed sacred, but especially those which had any praeternatural quality,
and abounded with exhalations. It was an universal notion that a divine
energy proceeded from these effluvia, and that the persons who resided in
their vicinity were gifted with a prophetic quality. Fountains of this
nature, from the divine influence with which they were supposed to abound,
the Amonians styled Ain Omphe, sive fontes Oraculi. These terms, which
denoted the fountain of the prophetic God, the Greeks contracted to [Greek:
Numphe], a Nymph; and supposed such a person to be an inferior Goddess, who
presided over waters. Hot springs were imagined to be more immediately
under the inspection of the nymphs: whence Pindar styles such fountains,
[828][Greek: Therma Numphan loutra]. The temple of the Nymphae Ionides, in
Arcadia, stood close to a fountain of great [829]efficacy. The term Nympha
will be found always to have a reference to [830]water. There was in the
same region of the Peloponnesus a place called [Greek: Numphas], Nymphas;
which was undoubtedly so named from its hot springs: [831][Greek:
Katarrheitai gar hudati--Numphas]: _for Nymphas--abounded with waters_.
Another name for these places was Ain-Ades, the fountain of Ades, or the
Sun; which, in like manner, was changed to [Greek: Naiades], Naiades, a
species of Deities of the same class. Fountains of bitumen, in Susiana and
Babylonia, were called Ain-Aptha, the fountains of Aptha, the God of fire;
which by the Greeks was rendered Naptha, a name given to [832]bitumen. As
they changed Ain Omphe to Numpha, a Goddess, they accordingly denominated
the place itself [Greek: Numpheion], Nymphaeum: and wherever a place occurs
of that name, there will be found something particular in its
circumstances. We are told by [833]Pliny that the river Tigris, being
stopped in its course by the mountains of Taurus, loses itself under
ground, and rises again on the other side at Nymphaeum. According to
Marcellinus, it seems to be at Nymphaeum that it sinks into the earth. Be it
as it may, this, he tells us, is the place where that fiery matter called
naptha issued: from whence, u