A New System

Jacob Bryant examines ancient mythology by tracing names, titles, and symbols across Egyptian, biblical, Greek, and Roman sources. This second volume opens with his argument that Phoinic or Phoenix originally served as a title of honour in Egyptian and Canaanitish settings, rather than naming a province. He connects the palm with royalty, victory, and immortality, then considers its relationship to the Phoenix bird, drawing on Greek and Hebrew passages alongside other citations.

Bryant also argues that Greek traditions turned titles into deities and credited individual heroes with achievements that belonged to whole peoples. His treatment of Osiris compares accounts of supposed travels through Egypt, Arabia, India, Greece, and Italy, together with associations involving agriculture, music, and cities. These are Bryant’s interpretations of ancient traditions. The volume offers readers interested in the history of scholarship a detailed encounter with his comparative methods and the textual evidence he used to support them.