was mourned, the month of mourning in Irish', the month which, it has been shown, was assigned by some traditions to the commencement of the deluge. And therefore Horace may have had some motive besides the gloominess of the season for calling him the mournful Orion2; and as the entrance of Osiris into the ark was considered his death, so, for the same reason, Orion was said to have been killed by a scorpion, that being the Novembrian sign. For the same reason probably it was reported, that his sight was taken from him, and restored again by the sun. But the loss of his eyes inflicted by Enopion may have originated in the imprecation pronounced by Noah upon his undutiful son. Diodorus attributes to him the entire formation of the Pelorian Promontory, in Sicily, on the summit of which he built a temple to Neptune, which was in high esteem among the natives. Pelorus may be interpreted the Hill of Bel, and was consecrated by the descendants of Orion, or Ham, to him who 5 1 The Mi Saman of the ancient Irish fell on the month of November. It was also named Mi Du, that is, the month of mourning. Vallancey's Collect. iii. 444. 2 Tristis Orion. - Hor. Epod. 10. 3 Palæphatus. 4 At least Hesiod is said by him to have affirmed, 'Opiwva πрOσχῶσαι τὸ κατὰ τὴν πελωριάδα κέιμενον ἀκροτήριον, καὶ τὸ τέμενος τοῦ Ποσειδῶνος κατεσκευάσαι τιμώμενον ὑπὸ τῶν ἐγχωρίων διαφερόντώς.-Diod. Sic. 1. iv. 284. 5 Bochart imagines that & IIéλwpos, was in the Phoenician language , Hobel Haros, vel etiam Hobel Horos; nam apud Syros camets sonat o. Gubernator sive nauclerus ducis. Geog. Sac. 1. i. c. 28. But if the etymology is correct, the meaning is rather Gubernator dux, the pilot chief. But I prefer Bel and Har, or Hor, a hill. was at once Neptune and Baal. This then being the history of Orion, the following passage in the prophet Amos, and his allusions to the deluge, will be better understood." Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night; that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth.”1 1 Amos, ch. v. 8. 1 THERE are only two other passages in Scripture, besides that above mentioned, in which Orion is introduced, and both of them deserve some consideration. Job speaks of God as the maker of "Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south." These of course are not the Hebrew names, which are represented by our translators in the margin thus, Ash, Cesil, and Cimah. How little certainty there is of the precise meaning of these words, is sufficiently proved by the diversity of opinion exhibited by translators and commentators. The Vulgate and the Chaldee Paraphrase render them Arcturus, Orion, and the Hyades: the Syriac and Arabic, the Pleiades, and Arcturus, and the Giant, i.e. Orion: the Septuagint has, the Pleiad, and Hesperus, and Arcturus. There can be little doubt, that they are intended either for 1 Job, ix. 9. constellations, or for single stars; and therefore some of the most conspicuous have been selected. But as they had no connection with the astronomical fables of the Grecian sphere, it is difficult to identify them; but it may not be so difficult, by investigating the origin of their names, to trace their connection with a period much more remote. The root of Ash is Hush, to congregate, or break forth the former meaning has induced translators to interpret it of the Pleiades, because they are a remarkable cluster. But it is necessary to look a little further. From the same root comes the Arabic, Aswah, a dark and perilous business; Aswaton, the twilight; and Asjah, the evening. From the same root come Husis, and Husma, in Greek, which signify rain or water. Hence certain stars were called Huads, or Hyads, which Tiro placed upon the head of the bull; but Aulus Gellius, correcting him, affirms, that they were within the circle of the zodiac', and arranged in such a way as to look like the head of a bull; so that the whole head was formed by them alone. The Greek Upsilon (v) is supposed by some to be imitative of a bull's horns, and in fact on some globes the horns of Taurus have precisely that form, with a star upon each tip. These stars, whose names are plainly commemorative of the bursting forth of the waters, when the flood-gates of heaven were 1 Ita in circulo, qui Zodiacus dicitur, sitæ locatæque sunt, ut ex earum positu species quædam et simulacrum esse videatur Tauri capitis. Aul. Gell. Noct. Att. 1. xiii. 9. opened, and the horned ark was the only object left visible, were sometimes confounded with the Pleiades; as by Ovid, who says, that "the seven radiant stars shine on the forehead of the bull." 1 The situation of these indeed was so little determined, or at least so little generally known, that Hyginus places them between the head of Taurus and the head of Aries; Aben Ezra in the tail of Aries; Proclus on the back of Taurus; Aulus Gellius supposes them to form his body. The truth is, that there never was any idea of a resemblance between the constellations, and the things whose names they bore: there was no reference to the pictorial art: there was no imperial standard of drawing, to which all the delineations upon the heavenly globe were to be reduced; but the first astronomers, having divided the stars into clusters, for the convenience of distinction, gave to each the name of something which they regarded with reverence, or which they wished to consecrate in the memory of future ages: and therefore, in the southern hemisphere, where in all probability astronomy was first cultivated by the navigators of the Indian ocean, most of the names allude to that catastrophe which filled their minds with awe, while its horrors and its mercies were forcibly impressed upon the imagination by the liveliness of a recent tradition. Hence the largest of the constellations, with which they were acquainted, 1 Ore micant Tauri septem radiantia flammis Fast. iv. |
