70.

Young women were, by the later Greeks, and by the Romans, styled Nymphae;
but improperly. Nympha vox, Graecorum [Greek: Numpha], non fuit ab origine
Virgini sive Puellae propria: sed solummodo partem corporis denotabat.
AEgyptijs, sicut omnia animalia, lapides, frutices, atque herbas, ita omne
membrum atque omnia corporis humani loca, aliquo dei titulo mos fuit
denotare. Hinc cor nuncupabant Ath, uterum Mathyr, vel Mether: et fontem
foemineum, sicut et alios fontes, nomine Ain Omphe, Graece [Greek: numphe],
insignibant: quod ab AEgyptijs ad Graecos derivatum est.--Hinc legimus,
[Greek: Numphe pege, kai neogamos gune, numphen de kalousi ktl.] Suidas.

[Greek: Par' Athenaiois he tou Dios meter, Numphe]. Ibidem.

[832] Naptha is called Apthas by Simplicius in Categoric. Aristotelis.
[Greek: Kai ho Aphthas dechetai porrhothen tou puros eidos.] The same by
Gregory Nyssen is contracted, and called, after the Ionic manner, [Greek:
Phthes: hosper ho kaloumenos Phthes exaptetai]. Liber de anima. On which
account these writers are blamed by the learned Valesius. They are,
however, guilty of no mistake; only use the word out of composition.
Ain-Aptha, contracted Naptha, was properly the fountain itself: the matter
which proceeded from it was styled Apthas, Pthas, and Ptha. It was one of
the titles of the God of fire, called Apha-Astus, the Hephastus of the
Greeks; to whom this inflammable substance was sacred.

See Valesij notae in Amm. Marcellinum. l. 23. p. 285.

Epirus was denominated from the worship of fire, and one of its rivers was
called the Aphas.

[833] Pliny. l. 31. p. 333.

[834] Marcellinus. l. 23. p. 285.

[835] Pliny. l. 6. p. 326.

[836] Strabo. l. 7. p. 487. See Antigoni Carystii Mirabilia. p. 163.

[837] [Greek: En tei chorai ton Apolloniaton kaleitai ti Numphaion; petra
de esti pur anadidousa; hup' autei de krenai rheousi chliarou Asphaltou].
Strabo. l. 7. p. 487.

[838] Strabo. Ibidem. l. 7. p. 487. He supposes that it was called
Ampelitis from [Greek: ampelos], the vine: because its waters were good to
kill vermin, [Greek: Akos tes phtheirioses ampelou]. A far fetched
etymology. Neither Strabo, nor Posidonius, whom he quotes, considers that
the term is of Syriac original.

[839] Philostrati vita Apollonii. l. 8. c. 4. p. 116.

[840] Dionis Historia Romana. Johannis Resin: Antiq. l. 3. c. 11.

[841] Pausanias. l. 9. p. 718.

[842] Evagrius. l. 3. c. 12.

[843] Marcellinus. l. 15. c. 7. p