An historical survey of the astronomy of the ancients / by Sir George Cornewall Lewis.
- George Cornewall Lewis
- Date:
- 1862
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An historical survey of the astronomy of the ancients / by Sir George Cornewall Lewis. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.
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![of Ninus; and he was generally regarded in later times as a primitive king of Babylon, f65) His name was connected with the lofty temple in the middle of the city; a gate of Babylon was likewise called after him, (66) and he was regarded as the pri- mitive teacher of astronomy to the Assyrians. (67) Belus is the Hellenized form of Baal, who was worshipped in Syria as well as in Assyria. (68) The early mythology of the Greeks connected Belus with Africa, rather than with Asia. Thus iEschylus, in his tragedy of the Supplices, describes Belus, the son of Libya, as the father of iEgyptus and Danaus. (69) According to Apollo- dorus,(70) Agenor and Belus were the sons of Neptune and Libya; Agenor became king of Phoenicia, and Belus king of Egypt. The early logographer, Pherecydes, likewise establishes an affinity between Agenor, Belus, iEgyptus, and Danaus, though by different links. (71) Pausanias explains the presence of Belus at Babylon, by saying that he derived his name from the Egyptian Belus, son of Libya. (72) Writers of the historical school transferred him to Asia: thus Herodotus places his name both among the primitive rulers of Persia and in the series of the Heraclide kings of Lydia;(73) Virgil makes him the father of Dido, and the first of the Tyrian kings; (74) Alexander of (65) Babrius, part i. procem. ii., says that the iEsopian fable was invented by the ancient Assyrians, o\ irpiv ttot rjaav im NtVov re mi Br]\ov. (66) Herod, i. 181, iii. 156, 158. Diodorus, ii. 8, 9, states that Jupiter was called Belus by the Babylonians. This statement recurs in Agath. ii. 24. Some precious stones found in Assyria received the name of Belus, from the great god of the country, Plin. xxxvii. 55, 58. (67) See above, p. 258. (68) See Dr. W. Smith's Diet, of the Bible, in Baal; Winer, in Baal and Bel. (69) Suppl. 314—20. Pausanias mentions a monument of ^E^yptus, the son of Belus, at Patrse, where he took refuge, in order to avoid Danaus at Argos, vii. 21, § 13. (70) i. 4. (71) Fragm. Hist. Gr. vol. i. p. 83, fr. 40. (72) iv. 23, § 10. (73) i. 7, vii. 61, 150. He says that the Persians were originally called Cephenes by the Greeks, from their king Cepheus, son of Belus; that Perseus, the son of Jupiter and Danae, married Andromeda, daughter of Cepheus, and that bis son Perseus gave his name to the nation. (74) Ma., i. 622, 729.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21015855_0428.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
