'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from September 1850 to June 1852. Edited by the Secretary. Volume X.' [‎122] (255/458)

J22 COMMANDER F. JONES,
herself worshipped atone time nearly over all the East, and, according
to Servius, was considered in the mythology as synonymous with
Luna.* In the fifth century before Christ, the Persian wars with Greece,
under the generals of Darius Hystaspes, though vigorously conducted,
did not end with the anticipated success, but it is not improbable that
this intercourse with the Greeks, particularly with the isles of the Me
diterranean, impressed the early Persians with devotional ideas in the
absence of any strict religious system of their own. On their return
from these expeditions, and during intervals of peace, when trade and
familiar intercourse had succeeded to the former enmity, it is not unlikely
they founded the mart on the banks of the Tigris for the convenience of
surrounding nations, dedicating it, at the same time, to the worship of
Opis, by instituting the religious forms in vogue at Delos ; from whence,
indeed, they may have transported the image of the frigid virgin of the
North. We have the authority of Herodotus for saying that no nation in
the world was so ready as the Persian to adopt foreign customs,! and the
celebrated Datis, himself a Mede and a conqueror, confirms the thruth
of the statement in his address to the inhabitants of Delos by publicly
venerating their idols, and in offering incense on the altars of Diana and
Apollo.^ Like many other cities of Persia, Opis, perhaps, contained a
portion of the captives of the Grecian wars, from the prevailing customs
of transplanting the vanquished,§ either to colonize new cities, or to
serve as mercenaries in the ranks of the army, where their discipline
tended to the impovement of the irregular hordes of Persia, and mate
rially aided, not only in the subjugation of new states, but in the con
solidation of the empire also ; for they assisted the monarch in quelling
disorders amongst his own subjects, which we are told were prevalent
enough. The rude effigies which we now discover here may have been
the domestic deities of such colonised families ; indeed, the minute
emblems, perhaps, of Opis herself, and as such sufficiently interesting to
the traveller, though of no real value. It is to be regretted, indeed, that • * * §
• Melpora, xxx., and translators note 43. Bryant’s Mythology will further elucidate her
sacred position in the estimation of the ancients.
f Herod in Clio, cxxxv.
$ Herod in Erato, xcvii. “ Why, oh sacred people, do you fly, thinking so injuriously of me.
If I had not received particular directions from my master to this effect, I, of my own accord
would never have molested you nor offered violence to a place in which two deities were born*
§ Herod in Erato, cxix. Clesias, Diod. Sicul: and the sacred records of Mebemiah and
Ezra, all afford evidence of this custom. Hecren says the Persians extended the practise.
Asiat. Hist. chap. xi. 340.
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