Cyclops Christiannus; or, an argument to disprove the supposed antiquity of the Stonehenge and other megalithic erections in England Britanny / A. Herbert.

  • Herbert, A. (Algernon), 1792-1855.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cyclops Christiannus; or, an argument to disprove the supposed antiquity of the Stonehenge and other megalithic erections in England Britanny / A. Herbert. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    synod of the Hyperboreans/' Hecataeus related that the Hyperboreans had a certain peculiar dialect, and a great and most ancient familiarity with the Greeks. And if he was well informed in supposing that the Hyperboreans used the Metonic6 cycle of nineteen years, that circumstance affords an indication of their acquaintance with the progress of philosophy. Diod. ii. 47. The Responses of the Hyper- borean Oracle were circulated in the Greek language, under the name of Logia. Servius in iEn. iv. 146. But, if we conclude that this was one of the Grecian establishments in the Mseotian track of colonization, we should content ourselves with ascending the stream of the Tanai's from its estuary, without attempting to cross the Ural Mountains, which perhaps no Greek had ever seen. It was indeed true, that beyond Boreas did mean beyond some mountains whence Boreas descended ; and the misapplication of that truth introduced the notion of the Riphseans, whose course is more to the north and south. But any ancient Greek, from the remote age of Tyrtseus downwards, could have told Pherenicus and Hecataeus, that Hyperborea signified the parts beyond Mount Haernus, and that “ the House of Boreas, and “ the Boreadae, were in Thrace 7; 'EGxciTiy QprjKrjg dvaxftytspou, sv9’ dpa ti)v ye (Orithyia) QptjiKiOQ BopsrjQ dvepeixparo Keicpo7ru]9ei>. The Hyperborean temple was in the habit af sending sacred gifts to Athens, to be forwarded from thence to the temple of Delos. What Callimachus says is, that Delos every year received gifts from various quarters, of which the Ari- maspians were one ; but not, every year from the Arimaspians. The gifts, of which the nature is not on record, were enclosed in wheaten straw, and faithfully transmitted from hand to hand through the various tribes of barbarians, till they reached the Adriatic, whence they were conveyed to the Greeks of Dodona. Herod, iv. 33. Callim. Del. 284. Another 6 Invented by Meton or by his friend Phsenus about b.c. 430. 7 Hence the confused geography of Vah Flaccus, Q,ualis ubi a gelidis Boreas convallibus Ilebri Tollitur, et volucres Rhiphcea per ardua nubes Preecipitat.—2. 515.