Neptune, an ancient Roman god of the waters. It is doubtful whether he was originally a marine deity, for the old Italians were the very opposite of a maritime people, yet his name is commonly connected with nato, to swim ; hence at an earlier period he may have borne another designation, afterwards forgotten. When the Romans became a maritime power, and had grown ac- quainted with Grecian mythology, they, in accordance with their usual prac- tice, identified him with the Greek god whom he most resembled. This was Poseidon, also Po- teidan (connected with TTOTOQ, a drink; trov- TOQ, the sea ; and wora- l^iix;, a, rive?-). Poseidon appears in his most primitive mythological form as the god of wa- ter in general, or the fliud element. He Avas the son of Cronos (Sat- urn) and Rhea, and a brother of Jupiter. On the partition of the uni- verse among the sons of Cronos, he obtained the sea as his portion, in the depths of which he had his palace near ^Egre, in Euboea. Here also he
Figure of Neptune.
kept his brazen -hoofed and golden -maned steeds, in a chariot drawn by which he rode over the waves, which grew calm at his approach, while the monsters of the deep, recognising their lord, made sportive hom- age round his watery path. But he sometimes pre- sented himself at the assembly of the gods on Olympus, and in conjunction with Apollo built the walls of Troy. In the Trojan war he sided with the Greeks; nev^erthe- less he subsequently showed himself inimical to the great sea-wanderer Ulysses, who had blinded his son Polyphemus. He was also believed to have created the horse, and taught men its use. The symbol of his power was a trident, with which he raised and stilled storms, broke rocks, etc. According to Herodotus, the name and worship of Poseidon came to the Greeks from Libya. He was worshipped in all parts of Greece and Southern Italy, especially in the seaport towns. The Isthmian games were held in his honor. Black and
white bulls, boars, and rams were offered in sacrifice to him. Neptune was commonly represented with a tri-* dent, and with horses or dolphins, often along with Am- phitrite, in a chariot drawn by dolphins, and surrounded by tritons and other sea-monsters. As befitted the fluct- uating element over which he ruled, he is sometimes figured asleep or reposing, and sometimes in a state of violent agitation. See Vollmer, Mythologisches Worter- buch, s. v. ; Westcott, Hand-book of A rchceol. p. 16(5, 107.
Nepveu, Francois, a French ascetic author, was born April 28, 1639, at St. Malo. Admitted in 1654-into the Society of Jesus, he was professor of the humani- ties, rhetoric, and philosophy, and afterwards occupied different positions; at the time of his death, which oc- curred in Februarjf, 1708, he was rector of the college of Rennes. All his works treat of practical religion or morality; they have frequently been reprinted even in our day, and translated into several languages. The principal are, De r Amour de Jesus-Christ (Nantes, 1684, 12mo ; 5th ed. Paris, 1756, 12mo) : — Exercices interieurs pour honorer les myst'eres de Jesus-Christ (Paris, 1791, 2 vols. 12mo; Lyons, 1836, 12mo) : — Reti-aite selon Vesprit et la methode de St. Ignace (Paris, 1687, 12mo): — Ma- niere de se preparer a la mort (Paris, 1693, 1697, 12mo) : — Pensees et reflexions Chi-etiennes pour tous les jours de I'annee (Paris, 1695, 4 vols. 12mo, and 1850, 8vo) ; transl. twice into Latin (Ingolstadt, 1727, and Heidelberg, 1774, 4 vols. 8vo); into Flemish (1837, 1839, 4 vols. 4to) ; twice into German (1752 and 1829) ; and twice into Italian (1715 and 1842): — L'Esprit du Christianisme, ou la conformite du Ch-etien avec Jesus-Christ (Paris, 1700, 12mo) -.—Conduite Chretienne (Paris, 1704, 12mo) : — Retraite spirituelle (Paris, 1708, 12mo). Nepveu is also the author of the philosophical theses maintained in 1679 by Louis de la Tour d'Auvergne, prince de Tu- renne, and remarkable not only for their extent and so- lidity, but still more because they are ornamented with sj'mbols, inscriptions, and vignettes, due to the good taste of J. Charles de la Rue. See Moreri, Grand iJic- tionn, Histor. s. v. ; Hoefer, Nouv. Biocj. Generale, s. v.
Nequiti is the name of a secret association among the natives of Congo, who celebrate their mysteries in dark and sequestered places, where none but the ini- tiated are allowed to enter.
Ner (Heb. id. 13, light; Sept. N/jp), a Benjamite, according to 1 Cbron. viii, 33, father of Kish and Abner, and grandfather of king Saul. B.C. cir. 1140. Abner was, therefore, uncle to Saul, as is expressly stated in 1 Sam. xiv, 50. But some confusion has arisen from the statement in 1 Chron. ix, 36, that Kish and Ner were both sons of Jehiel, whence it has been concluded that they were brothers, and consequently that Abner and Saul were first cousins. The ex])lanation of this, how- ever, is that there was an elder Kish, uncle of Saul's fa- ther, or, rather, Ner's grandfather. See Saul. " The name Ner, combined with that of his son Abner, may be compared with Nadab in ver. 36, and Abinadab, ver. 39; Avith Jesse, 1 Chron. ii, 13, and Abishai, ver. 16; and with Juda, Luke iii, 26, and Abiud, Matt, i, 13" (Smith). Gesenius, misled by 1 Sam. ix, 1, gives the following genealogj'^ {Thesaur. p. 9) : Abiel I