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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![pass their time in sacrifices and choral solemnities, or in litera- ture and philosophy. To some the deity has appeared in a visible form, not in dreams or signs; and, addressing them as friends, has prevented their departure from the island. Saturn himself is confined in a deep cavern, sleeping on a gold- coloured rock, sleep being contrived by Jupiter as his chain. From the top of the rock birds fly down, and bring him ambrosia, which fills the whole island with fragrance. There are likewise genii, the companions of Saturn when he reigned over men and gods, who minister to him; these divine beings are endued with prophetic powers, and their most important predictions are com- municated to Jupiter as the dreams of Saturn, and they become the foreknowledge of Jupiter. In the treatise, (De Defectu Oraculorum,'(231) by the same writer, one of the interlocutors says that among the many desert isles near Britain some are believed to be the seats of genii and heroes. That he had himself, being on a mission from the Em- peror, sailed to one which was next to them, from motives of curiosity; it had few inhabitants, but they were deemed holy by the Britons, and their persons and property were respected as inviolable. When he lately visited the island, the air was shaken, and there were many portents, with hurricanes and lightning. When quiet was restored, the islanders said that one of the supernatural beings had passed away—an event which caused a disturbance in nature. Plutarch adds, similarly to the other passage, that in one of the islands Saturn is confined; that he sleeps under the custody of Briareus; that sleep is his chain, and that he is attended by ministering genii. (232) These passages involve the idea of a great open sea encircling the north of Europe, and connected with the Caspian. Other writers had relegated Saturn into these distant regions : the Frozen Sea, in the extreme north, is often called Cronian. (233) (231) c. 18. (232) Compare Hesiod, Theog. 734—5. (233) Plin. iv. 30; Dionys. Perieg. 32, with C. Mutter's note; Orph. Argou. ]0S4. Claudian, Laud. Stilicii. 198.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21015855_0506.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
