Soon, however, religion began to lose its purity, and it then began to degenerate very fast.  Men began to repair to the tops of mountains, lonely caves and grottoes, where they thought resided their gods.  To honour them they erected altars and performed their vows.  Amongst the Ancients their Mythology went no further than the epoch of the Deluge, and in honour of which, and also of the Ark, they erected many temples called Aren, Theba, Argus (from whence was probably derived the Argo of the Argonauts, and the sacred ship of Osiris), Cibotus, Toleus, and Baris.

The symbol by which the Mythologists represented the Ark was an immense egg.  This was supposed to have been produced by Ether and Chaos, at the bidding of Time, the one ethereal being who created the universe.  By Nox (Night) the egg was hatched, which, being opened into two parts, from the upper part was formed heaven, and the lower earth.

In the sacred rites of Osiris, Isis, and the Dionysia of Bacchus, the Ark or Ship was introduced.  The Dove, by many nations, in their celebrations, was looked upon as a special emblem of peace and good-will.  Theba, in Egypt, was originally one of the temples dedicated to the Ark.  Both priests and sooth-sayers were styled Ionah or Doves.  To Dodona, in Epirus, was brought this and the first Grecian oracle all the rites and history of the Thebans.  The priestesses of this temple were known in the Latin as Columbae.  It is from this word that we derive the name Columbine, which means, in the Italian, “little dove.”  Homer alludes to the priestesses as doves, and that they administered to Zeuth (Noah).  Nonnus speaks of Cadmus, and others of Orpheus, as introducing into Greece the rites of Dionysus or Bacchus.

The Ancients, mentions Kennedy in his work on “Mythology,” have highly reverenced Noah, and designated him as Noa, Noos, Nous, Nus, Nusas, Nusus (in India), Thoth, Hermes, Mercury, Osiris, Prometheus, Deucalion, Atlas, Deus, Zeus, and Dios.  Dios was one of the most ancient terms for Noah, and whence was derived Deus—­Nusus compounded of Dios and Nusos, which gives us Dionysus, the Bacchus of the Greeks, and the chief god of the heathen world.  Bacchus was, properly speaking, Cush (the son of Ham, and grandson of Noah), though both Dionysus and Bacchus are, by ancient writers, frequently confounded with one another.

The resting of the Ark upon Mount Baris, Minyas, the Ararat of Moses in Armenia, the dispersal of the flood, the multiplication of the families of the earth, and the migration from the plains of Shinar of the descendants of the sons of Chus or Cush (as it is sometimes written), and called Chushites or Cushites, to different parts of the world, being joined by other nations, particularly those of the descendants of Ham, one of the sons of Noah.  They were the first apostates from the truth, but being great in worldly wisdom and knowledge they were thought to be, and looked upon as a superior class of beings.  Ham they looked upon as a divinity, and under the name of Ammon they worshipped him as the Sun, and Chus likewise as Apollo, a name which was also bestowed by the Ancients upon Noah.  The worship of the sun in all probability originated the eastern position in our churches.