Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1865-11-11
NAPOLEON A MYTH.

.. NAPOLEON A MYTH. .I.
Archbishop Whately turned into ridicule
the negative criticism of infidelity by his
"historical doubts" concerning Napoleon
Bonaparte, showing that the existence of
the French Emperor could be thrown into
uncertainty by the same reasoning that in
tidels applied to the life of Christ. The
later phase of infidelity which resolves the
gospel narrative into myth, is met with
equal success by an ingenious brochure, un-
der the name Of j. b. Peres, published at
Paris in 1861, by the late Frederic Monod.
1t does not appear that the author of this
pamphlet had seen Whately's. and his mode
of conception is entirely distinct from that
of the archbishop. AS satire upon Strauss
and his school of criticism, it is so clever
and effective that we give the substance of
it in a free translation. The pamphlet is
entitled Comme Quoi Napoleon ma famais er-
iste
Napoleon Bonaparte, of whom so many
things have been said and written, never
even existed. He is nothing but an allie
gorical parsonage. He is the sun persona
fled, and our assertion will be made good if
we make it appear that everything that has
been published about Napoleon Bonaparte
is borrowed from the great luminary. Here
is summarily what is asserted concerning
this marvellous man. They tell us
That he is named Napoleon Bonaparte;
That he was born on an island in the
Mediterranean
That his mother was named Letttid;;
That he had three sisters and four BROTH
ers, of whom three were kings;
That he had two wives, one of whom bore
him son;
That he put an end to a great revolution;
That he had sixteen marshals of his en-
pire, of whom twelve were actively in SER
vice;
That he triumphed in the South, and sue
cumbed in the North;
And, finally, after a reign of twelveyears,
he who began by coming from the East
disappeared in the Western ocean.
1t only remains to ascertain If these diff
ferent particulars are borrowed from the
sun, of which we hope whoever reads this
tract will be convinced.
And, first, everybody knows that the sun
is called Apollon by the poets. But the
difference between Apollon and Napoleon
is not much, and it will appear still less, if
we go back to the Specification of these
names, or to their origin.
1t is established that the word ApoVOn
signifies ectern,inatOr, and it appears that
this name was given to the sun by the
Greeks because of the mischief which he
did to them before Troy, where apart of
their army perished by excessive heat, and
by the contagion that resulted from it at
the time of the outrage committed by
Agamemnon upon Chryses, priest of the
sun (as may be seen at the beginning of the
Iliad of Homer), and the brilliant imagina-
.tion of the Greek poets transformed the
rays of the sun into fiery bolts which the
angry god hurled upon all sides, and which
would utterly have exterminated them had
they not, to appease his wrath, restored to
liberty Chryseis, daughter of the priest
Chryses. 1t is very likely, then, that, for
this reason, the sun was called Apollon !;
but whatever the circumstance or cause
which gave to that luminary such name,
it is certain that he is called the eXtermin-
ator. But Apollon is the same word as
Apoleon. They are derived from Apollyo or
Apoleo, two Greek words which are but one
and which signify to destroy, to kill, to ex-
terminate. Hence if the pretended hero of
our age were called Apoleon, he would
have the same name with the sun, and,
moreover, he would fill out all the meaning
of that name, for they picture him to us as
the greatest eXterminator of men who has
ever existed. But this parsonage is named
Napoleon. and consequently, there is in his
name an initial letter which is not in the
name of the sun. Yes, and not only let
ter, but syllable more; for, according to
the Inscriptions which are engraved in all
parts of the capital, the true name of this
pretended hero was, Neapoleon, or Neapol-
ion. This may be seen especially Oh the
column of the Place Vendome.
But this additional syllable makes no
difference; this syllable, like the rest of the
name, is doubtless Greek, and in Greek, ne
or mai is one of the strongest alternatives
which we would render by the word indeed.
Hence it follows that Napoleon signifies the
true exterminator, the real Apollon. He
is, therefore, truly the sun. -......r
But what shall we say of his other name?
What connection cam the word Bonapdrte
have with the luminary of the day? At
first, one may not perceive any but we can,
at least, understand that as bona pqrte signi-
fies the good part, it here refers without
doubt to something which has two sides,
the one good, the other bad, in which re-
spect also Napoleon corresponds with the
sun; for nothing answers more directly to
the sun than the effects of his diurnal revo-
luton, and these effects are day andEnight,
light and darkness light that his pres
ence produces and the darkness that pre-
borrowed from the Persians. 1t is the en-
pire of 0rmuzd and that of Ahriman, the
empire of light and of darkness, and of
good and evil genii, and it is to the latter,
to the geMi of evil and of darkness, that
one is sometimes consigned by the i'm
predatory expression, Abi in n,alan, parten.
And if by 0adla parse we understand the,
darkness, no doubt by bona pdyte we ought,
to understand the light, that is, the day in
opposition to the night. We can not doubt,
then, that this name has reference to the
sun, especially when we see it connected
with Napoleon, whichis the sun himself as
we proceed to prove. L oaoyGel ip ,iJ3.
! 2. Apollon, according to Greek my tholo-
gy, was born In an island of the lMediter-l
ranean (Delos), and so they make Napoleon,