with a hawk with these data, some philosophers have concluded that the situation of Leo ascertained the position of the summer Solstice. Visconti, however, rejects this opinion, on the ground that Libra, which, he says, must be the symbol of the equinox, would in that case be misplaced, there being only one sign between it and Leo. He then concludes that this Solstice must have been in the sign preceding Leothat is, in Cancer; and he remarks, as a proof of this opinion, that in the Zodiacal line between Gemini and Leo, there is the figure of Isis in a boat, pouring water from two jars, emblematical of the inundation of the Nile-a phenomenon always contemporary with the beginning of

summer.

The circular Zodiac is to be seen on the ceiling of an inner apartment, but the catasterisms, and the figures which accompany them, are to all appearance mingled together in so confused a manner, that nothing certain as yet can be deduced from them. In the centre is a fox or jackal; the ursa major is close to it, in the form of a female cynocephalus. A north line drawn from the centre passes through Cancer, which is here a beetle. This sign is nearer the centre than any of the others.

The eye is among the constellations; Virgo has a palm branch in her hand; Sagittarius is a Centaur with two heads, on the one is a mitre, the other is that of a hawk; he is winged, is shooting with a bow and arrows, and has a scorpion's tail besides his own. In Libra, Harpocrates is seated on the bar of the balance; Aquarius is in every respect the male character, except in having large hanging breasts, Near Capricorn, is the figure of Hermes, probably intended for the constellation Canopus; and, as in the large Zodiac in the pronaon, of the two Gemini, one has evidently been painted black, the other brown.

In another compartment of the same ceiling on which this Zodiac is painted, are a variety of boats, with four or five human figures in each, one of whom is in the act of spearing some animal or crocodile's egg: and in another part of the wall, others are equally intent on similar employments, stamping at the same time with their feet on the victims of their fury, among which are several human figures."

Such are the Zodiacs of Dendera; the figures on which, it is obvious, are the same with those of our sphere. It has long been a matter of just surprise that the constellations such as they are here represented, have never been referred with certainty to any particular age or country, or a satisfactory interpretation ever been given of them. Some suppose them of Chaldean, some of Egyptian invention, while others derive them partly from these countries, and partly from Scythia, assigning as a reason, that several of the signs have a common relation to every position of the globe; that Aries, and Taurus, for instance, are well associated to the labors of rural life; Virgo to agriculture; that Scorpio is emblematical of pestiferous blights; Cancer and Libra, of the motion of the sun; while Sagittarius, Aquarius, and Pisces, clearly allude to the vicissitude of climate. Their import seems equally doubtful, for at one time we find it conjectured that their adoption was founded upon

allegories supposed to be contained in the several figures, liat Libra simply denoted the equality of day and night; Taurus, the season for laboring the earth; Virgo, that for gathering in its fruits, &c. Others, improving upon this conjecture, supposed that the signs served to connect the labors of husbandry with the celestial phenomena, and thus to answer the purpose both of a rural calendar and astronomical ephemeris. Mr. Colebroke says expressly, that we have the authority of the Vedas for considering the signs as indices both to the seasons and months. Mr. Bryant was of opinion that the zodiac was nothing more than an assemblage of Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Aries was a representation of Ammon, Taurus of Apis, Leo of Osiris, and Virgo of Isis. They called the Zodiac the great assembly or senate of the twelve gods. The planets were esteemed lictors and attendants, who waited on the chief deity, the Sun.

In every interpretation of these signs, we invariably find a mixed import in regard to the whole, and frequently a variable import in respect to individual signs; and so far as I am aware, no systematic explanation has yet been given of them-an expla nation illustrative of a unity of design in their configuration and numerical arrangement. As their signification, however, would probably throw considerable light on the country and age to which they belong, I have endeavoured to supply this desideratum in the following manner, with the assistance, chiefly, of Mr. Bryant's Analysis of Ancient Mythology. I am aware that this work is regarded by many with little esteem, but whatever may be thought of his System, it must be allowed that the accredited information which he has brought forward to its support, is of great value, and in point of authority equal to any other performance of the kind. On this account, I have, without surrendering entirely to this author, released myself from the perplexing labor of consulting numerous authorities, however important some of them may be, being convinced that a multitude of evidence is both unnecessary and embarrassing, where the matter is sufficiently obvious without it.

Mr. Bryant, in his account of the gods of Greece, observes,I have mentioned that the nations of the East acknowledged originally but one deity, the sun, but when they came to give the titles of Orus, Osiris, and Cham, to some of the heads of their family, they too in time were looked up to as gods, and severally worshipped as the sun. This was practised by the Egyptians; but this nation, being much addicted to refinement in their worship, made many subtile distinctions, and supposing that there were certain emanations of divinity, they affected to particularise each by some title, and to worship the deity by his attributes. This gave rise to a multiplicity of gods; for the more

curious they were in their disquisitions, the greater was the number of these substitutes. Many of them at first were designed for mere titles; others as I before mentioned, were derivatives and emanations, all of which in time were esteemed distinct beings, and gave rise to a most inconsistent system of Polytheism. The Grecians, who received their religion from Egypt and the East, misconstrued every thing which was imported, and added to these absurdities largely. They adopted deities, to whose pretended attributes they were totally strangers, whose names they could not articulate, or spell. This blindness in regard to their own theology, and to that of the countries whence they borrowed, led them to misapply the terms which they had received, and to make a god out of every title. But however they may have separated, and distinguished them under different personages, they are all plainly resolvable into one deity, the sun. The same is to be observed in the gods of the Romans, as may in a great measure be proved from their own writers. There are few characters, which at first sight appear more distinct than those of Apollo and Bacchus. Yet the department which is generally appropriated to Apollo, as the sun, I mean the conduct of the year, is by Virgil given to Bacchus, or Liber. He joins him with Ceres, and calls them both the tright luminaries of the world.

Vos, O, Clarissima Mundi

Lumina, labentem Cœlo qui ducitis Annum,
Liber, et Alma Ceres.

Quidam ipsum Solem, ipsum Apollinem, ipsum Dionysium eundem esse
Volunt." Hence, we find that Bacchus is the sun, or Apollo. In rea-
lity, they are all three the same; each of them the sun. In short, all
the gods were one, as we learn from the Orphic poetry: some changed
with the seasons.
It was, therefore, idle in the ancients to make a dis-
quisition about the identity of any god, as compared with another, and
to adjudge him to Jupiter rather than to Mars, to Venus rather than to
Diana. 66 Some," says Diodorus, "think that Osiris is Serapis ; others
that he is Dionusus; others still that he is Pluto; many take him for
Zeus, or Jupiter; and not a few for Pan." This was an unnecessary
embarrassment, for they were all titles of the same god, there being
originally by no means that diversity which is imagined, as Sir John
Marsham has very justly observed. It is said above, that Osiris was by
some thought to be Jupiter, and by others to be Pluto. But Pluto
among the best theologists was esteemed the same as Jupiter; and,
indeed, the same as Proserpine, Ceres, Hermes, Apollo, and every other
deity. There were, to be sure, a number of strange attributes, which
by some of the poets were delegated to different personages; but
there were other writers who went deeper in their researches, and
made them all centre in one. They sometimes represented this
sovereign deity as Dionusus, who, according to Ausonius, was wor-
shipped in various parts, under different titles, and comprehended all
the gods under one character. Sometimes the supremacy was given to
Pan, who was esteemed lord of all the elements, but more generally it
was conferred on Jupiter. It may appear strange that Hercules and Jupiter,
or whomever we put for the chief deity, should be of all ages. This
must have been the case if they were the same as the boy of love, and
Bacchus ever young, and were also the representatives of Chronus and
Saturn. But the ancients went further, and described the same deity
under the same name in various stages of life. But the most extraordi-
nary circumstance was, that they represented the same deity of different

sexes. In Cyprus there was a bearded Venus under the name of Aphroditus. She was considered as prior to Zeus, and to most of the Gods. Clausus speaks of her as masculine, and Valerius Soranus, among other titles, calls Jupiter the mother of the gods.

Porphyry acknowledged, that Vesta, Rhea, Ceres, Themis, Priapus, Proserpina, Bacchus, Attis, Adonis, Silenus, and the Satyrs, were all one and the same.' 978

Mr. Bryant has supported all this by many apposite quotations, which, as his work is in the hands of almost every one, I have omitted for the sake of brevity.

Taking this as a ground work, I think it will not be difficult to show that the signs of the zodiac are merely so many personified attributes of the sun, and that each constituted a proper and understood symbol of that luminary.

Aries. This was a representation of Ammon, the Egyptian and Lybian Jupiter, whose temple stood in the midst of the deserts of Barca. The idol was adorned with ram's horns, and Lucan calls it Corniger. On some ancient medals he appears of a human shape, having two ram's horns growing from beneath his ears. He is the same as Osiris, the sun, and the reason why the ram was adopted as his symbol is explained by Herodotus in Euterpe 42.

Taurus. This is evidently the Apis of Egypt, in which the soul of Osiris was supposed to reside. It was considered a sort of incarnation of the deity, in a particular animal, revealed to them at his birth, by certain external marks, which announced his conception by a ray from heaven.

All the learned agree that the oxen Apis and Minevis, (local names for the same animal) consecrated to Osiris after his apotheosis, were symbols of the sun. The Bull was considered the

guardian of the solar year of 365 days, and the genius who presided over the overflowing of the Nile. As among the Egyptians, so among the Scythians, Persians, and aborigines of Hindostan, the bull was the emblem of plenty; and the inhabitants of the latter country from the earliest periods of their history, have given to the cavern whence the Ganges issues, the name of the Cow's Mouth. The practice was common in antiquity, of figuring the ocean, impetuous rivers, torrents, &c. by this emblem. The bull of Iswarra is celebrated in India, and worshipped by the people on the Caveri, and the Jungum Sect profess to owe their first institution to an appearance of the sacred bull on earth. In the same country, it is also a sym

Analysis, Vol. I. p. 302, to the end of the Volume.

bol of divine justice, and Siva is figured riding upon him, performing the office of a judge. In Phoenicia, Adonis was worshipped under the figure of a bull, and the Greeks esteemed it sacred to Epaphus.-The Theophania were festivals in honor of Apis.

Gemini. Some of the Greeks represent these as Castor and Pollux, others as Apollo and Hercules; but this distinction is a matter of indifference, both being equally symbols of the sun.

The whole history, (says Mr. Bryant,) of Castor and Pollux, the two Dioscuri, is very inconsistent. Sometimes they are described as two mortals of Lacedæmon, who were guilty of violence and rapine, for which they were slain. At other times they are represented as two principal deities, and styled Dii Magni, &c. The deity alluded to under the name of Castor was the sun. His rites were first introduced from Canaan. The title of Anac was conferred upon him and his brother Pollux, which was a Canaanitish term of honor. Castor and Pollux are two names for the same personage, and the deity originally referred to by this title was the sun.

"The Spartans," says Plutarch, "call the ancient statues of the Dioscuri, dokana, beams; they are two pieces of wood joined together by two cross pieces." Dr. Long thought that this was a description of the abbreviated character, for the twins on our sphere.'

Before sculpture was adopted, the ancient idolaters made use of rough-hewn logs of wood, or stone, for images of their gods; by degrees they gave them human shape, but still with their legs joined together. Dædalus first formed them with their legst asunder, and was therefore said to make walking statues.

Mr. Hamilton observes, 66 one of the Gemini has been painted black, the other brown." From this fact, some may suppose them intended for a representation of Hermes, who, on account of symbolising both hemispheres, was often painted with one side of his face black, the other white. Still, however, it would be equally an emblem of the sun, because Zeus and Hermes were originally the same.

The Chaldeans and Egyptians esteemed Hermes as the chief deity, the same as Zeus, Bel, and Adonis. Ham was the Hermes of the Egyptians, and his oracle was styled Omphi; and when particularly spoken of as the oracle, it was expressed P'Omphi, and P'Ompi, the Pompe of the Greeks. Hence, Hermes had the name of Pompaios, which was misinterpreted the messenger, and conductor; and the deity, in conse→ quence of it, was made the servant of the gods, and attendant upon the dead. But Pompaios related properly to divine influence; and Pompe

was an oracle.2