Goats

GOATS. Dæmons are sometimes called Goats, or hairy, either from an imagination of their appearing in the shape of Goats, or from the Hebrews worshipping Idols under this form; or, lastly, from their adoring real Goats. In Leviticus¹, God commands his people to bring all the animals which he required to be sacrificed, to the door of the Tabernacle: And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto Devils; literally, to Goats, after whom they have gone a whoring. And in the Chronicles it is 2 Chron. xi. 15. Isa. xiii. 21.said, that Jeroboam established Priests for the High-places, and for the Goats and the Calves which he had made. Isaiah, speaking of the state which Babylon was to be reduced to after its destruction, says, that the Goats shall dance there; and in another Isa. xxxiv. 14.place, that the Goats shall cry to their fellows.

The generality understand this as meaning Devils, Spectres, Satyrs, figures of Goats, to which the Egyptians and idolatrous Hebrews paid their adorations. Herodotus says, that at Mendes in lower Egypt, the He and She-Goat were worshipped; that this Deity was described as the Greeks represent the God Pan, with the face and thighs of a Goat: not that they believed him to be of this figure; for in their opinion he did not at all differ in form from other Gods; but because it was customary with them to represent him thus, Herodot. l. 1. c. 46.and they were persuaded, that the Gods chose to be set before their adorers in the shape of some animals. They paid divine honours also to real Goats, and they are commonly to be seen doing so in the table of Isis. The abominations which were committed during the feasts of these infamous Deities, are but too well known; and the ancient Authors, who speak of them, too apparently justify the terms, Prostitution and Fornication, which are used by Moses, where he mentions the worship which was paid them.

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