[137] The epoch which gave birth to the present age, _Caliyug_ (the
earthen age,) 4927 years before the present day, or 3200 years before
Christ. See Legentil, Voyage aux Indes, t. i. p. 253.;--Bentley,
Calcutta Memoirs, vol. viii. of the 8vo edition, p. 212. This period
is only fifty-nine years farther back than the deluge of Noah,
according to the Samaritan text.
[138] The person named Satyavrata plays the same part as Noah, by
saving himself with fourteen saints. See Sir W. Jones, Calcutta
Memoirs, vol. i. p. 230. 8vo edition;--also in the Bagvadam, or
Bagavata, translated by Fouché d’Obsonville, p. 212.
[139] Cala-Javana, or, in common language, Cal-Yun, to whom his
partisans might have given the epithet, _deva_, _deo_, (dieu, god),
having attacked Chrishna (the Indian Apollo), at the head of the
northern nations (the Scythians, of whom was Deucalion, according
to Lucian), was repulsed by fire and water. His father Garga had
for one of his surnames _Pramathesa_ (Prometheus); and, according
to another legend, he was devoured by the eagle Garuda. These
particulars have been extracted by Mr Wilfort (in his Memoir upon
Mount Caucasus, Calcutta Memoirs, vol. vi. p. 507, 8vo edition),
from the Sanscrit drama, entitled Hari-Vansa. Mr Charles Ritter, in
his Vestibule of the History of Europe before Herodotus, concludes
that the whole fable of Deucalion was of foreign origin, and had
been brought into Greece along with the other legends of that part
of the Grecian worship which had come from the north, and which had
preceded the Egyptian and Phenician colonies. But if it be true that
the constellations of the Indian sphere have also names of persons
celebrated in Greece, that Andromeda and Cepheus are represented
under the names of _Antarmadia_ and _Capiia_, &c. we should perhaps
be induced to draw, with Mr Wilfort, a conclusion quite the reverse.
Unfortunately the authenticity of the documents referred to by this
writer has been doubted among the learned.
[140] About 4000 years before the present time. See Bentley, Calcutta
Memoirs, vol. viii. p. 226. of the 8vo edition, Note.
[141] See Plato’s Timæus and Critias.
[142] Euterpe, chap. xcix. et seq.
[143] Herodotus thought he had discovered relations of figure and
colour between the Colchians and Egyptians; but it is infinitely more
probable that those dark-coloured Colchians of which he speaks, were
an Indian colony, attracted by the commerce anciently established
between India and Europe, by the Oxus, the Caspian Sea, and the
Phasis. See Ritter, Vestibule of Ancient History before Herodotus,
chap. i.
[144] Euterpe, chap. cxliii.
[145] Ibid. cxliv.
[146] Euterpe; cxli.
[147] Ibid. clix., and in the fourth Book of the Kings, chap. 19, or
in the second of the Paral. chap. 32.
[148] Syncell. p. 40.
[149] Syncell. p. 51.
[150] Ibid. p. 91. _et seq._
[151] Diod. Sic. lib. i. sect. 2.
[152] Tacit. Annal. lib. ii. cap. 60.
N. B.--According to the interpretation given by Ammianus, lib. xvii.
cap. 4., of the hieroglyphics on the obelisk of Thebes, which is at
present in Rome in the place of St John of Latran, it appears that a
Rhamestes was styled, after the eastern manner, lord of the habitable
earth; and that the history told to Germanicus was only a commentary
on this inscription.
[153] Pliny, lib. xxxvi. cap. 8, 9, 10, 11.
[154] That of Ramestes in Ammian. loc. cit.
[155] Stromat. lib. vi. p. 633.
[156] See the “Precis du Systeme Hieroglyphique des Anciens
Egyptiens,” by M. Champollion the younger, p. 245; and his Letter to
the Duke de Blacas, p. 15 et seq.
[157] This important bas-relief is engraved in the second volume of
M. Caillaud’s Voyage à Meroë, Plate xxxii.
[158] Syncell, p. 59.
[159] Canon, p. 355.
[160] The whole ancient mythology of the Brahmins has relation to the
plains or the course of the Ganges, where their first establishments
were evidently formed.
[161] The descriptions of the ancient Chaldean monuments have a
strong resemblance to what we see of those of the Indians and
Egyptians; but these monuments are not equally well preserved,
because they were only built of bricks dried in the sun.
[162] Clio, cap. xcv.
[163] Clio, cap. vii.
[164] Stephen of Byzantium, at the word _Chaldæi_.
[165] Josephus, (Contra App.) lib. i. cap. xix.
[166] Diod. Sic. lib. ii.
[167] Josephus (contra App.) lib. i. cap. 6; and Strabo, lib. xv. p.
687.
[168] See in the Memoirs of the Academy of Belles Lettres, vol. v.
the memoir of Freret on the History of the Assyrians.
[169] Strabo, lib. xi. p. 507.
[170] Syncellus, p. 38 and 39.
[171] N. B.--It is very remarkable that Herodotus does not mention
having seen monuments of Sesostris, except in Palestine, and does not
speak of those of Ionia, but upon the authority of others, adding, at
the same time, that Sesostris is not named in the inscriptions, and
that those who had seen these monuments attributed them to Memnon.
See Euterpe, chap. cvi.
[172] Justin, lib. i. cap. i. Vetleius Paterculus, lib. i. cap. 7.
[173] See Moses of Chorene, Histor. Armeniac. lib. l. cap. i.
[174] See the Preface of the Brothers Whiston, regarding Moses of
Chorene, p. 4.
[175] Zendavesta of Anquetil, vol. ii. p. 354.
[176] Mazoudi, ap. Sacy, MS. of the Royal Library, vol. viii. p. 161.
[177] See the preface to the edition of Chou-king, by M. de Guignes.
[178] Chou-king, French translation, p. 9.
[179] See the Yu-kong, or first chapter of the second part of the
Chou-king, pp. 43-60.
[180] See the excellent and magnificent work of M. de Humboldt upon
the Mexican monuments.
[181] Geminus, who was cotemporary with Cicero, explains their
motives at length. See M. Halma’s edition at the end of the Ptolomée,
p. 43.
[182] The whole of this system is developed by Censorinus, De Die
Natali, cap. xviii. and xxi.
[183] Ideler. Historical Researches regarding the Astronomical
Observations of the Ancients. M. Halma’s translation, at the end of
his Canon de Ptolomée, p. 32. _et seq._
[184] Bainbridge, Canicul.
[185] Petau, Var. Dios. lib. v. cap. vi. p. 108.--Also, La Nanze,
Acad. de Bell. Lett. t. xiv. p. 346.
[186] Petau. loc. cit. M. Ideler asserts that this concurrence of
the heliacal rising of Sirius also took place in 2782 before Christ.
(Historical Researches in M. Halma’s Ptolomée, vol. iv. p. 37.) But
with regard to the Julian year 1598 after Christ, which is also the
last of a great year, Petau and Ideler differ much from each other.
The latter refers the heliacal rising of Sirius to the 22d July; the
former to the 19th or 20th of August.
[187] See, in the great work on Egypt, Antiq. Memoirs, vol. 1. p.
803. the ingenious Memoir of M. Fourier, entitled Recherches sur les
Sciences et le Gouvernement de l’Egypte.
[188] These are the words of the late M. Nouet, Astronomer to the
Expedition to Egypt. See Volney, New Inquiries regarding Ancient
History, vol. iii.
[189] Delambre, Abregé d’Astronomie, p. 217; and in his note upon the
Parantaellons, in his History of the Astronomy of the Middle Age, p.
lij.
[190] Delambre, Report upon M. de Paravey’s Memoir regarding the
Sphere, in the 8th vol. of the Nouvelles Annales des Voyages.
[191] Ideler, loc. cit. p. 38.
[192] See Laplace, Systeme du Monde, 3d edition, p. 17; and the
Annuaire of 1818.
[193] See on the Inaccuracy of the Determinations of the Sphere of
Eudoxus, M. Delambre, in the first volume of his History of the
Astronomy of the Ancients, p. 120. et seq.
[194] See the Preliminary Discourse of the History of the Astronomy
of the Middle Age, by M. Delambre, p. viii. et seq.
[195] Euterpe, chap. iv.
[196] Diog. Laert. lib. i. in Thalet.
[197] Saturnal. lib. i. cap. xv.
[198] Bibl. lib. i. p. 46.
[199] Geogr. p. 182.
[200] See regarding the probable newness of this period the excellent
dissertation of M. Biot, in his Researches respecting several points
of the Egyptian Astronomy, p. 148 _et seq._
[201] See M. Delambre, Hist. de l’Astronomie, vol. i. p. 212. See
also his analysis of Geminus, _ibid._ p. 211. Compare this with M.
Ideler’s Memoirs on the Astronomy of the Chaldeans, in the fourth
volume of M. Halma’s Ptolemy, p. 166.
[202] See Bailly, History of Ancient Astronomy; and M. Delambre, in
his work on the same subject, vol. i. p. 3.
[203] See Laplace, Exposé du Systeme du Monde, p. 330; and the
Memoir of Mr Davis, on the Astronomical Calculations of the
Indians.--Calcutta Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 225, 8vo. edition.
[204] See Mr Bentley’s Memoirs on the Antiquity of the
Surya-Siddhanta, Calcutta Memoirs, vol. vi. p. 540; and on the
Astronomical Systems of the Indians, ibid., vol. viii. p. 195. of the
8vo edition.
[205] Manuscript Memoirs of M. de Paravey, on the sphere of Upper
Asia.
[206] See the profound essay on the Astronomy of the Indians in M.
Delambre’s Histoire de l’Astronomie ancienne, vol. i. p. 400-556.
[207] See the Memoir of Sir William Jones, on the Antiquity of the
Indian Zodiac, Calcutta Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 289 of the 8vo edition.
[208] The following are Mr Wilfort’s own words, in his memoir on the
Testimonies of Ancient Hindoo Books, respecting Egypt and the Nile,
Calcutta Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 433 of the 8vo edition:
--“Having desired my pundit, who is a learned astronomer, to point
out in the heavens the constellation of Antarmada, he directed me
immediately to Andromeda, which I had taken care not to shew him as a
constellation that I knew. He afterwards brought me a very rare and
curious book, in Sanscrit, in which there was a particular chapter
on the Upanacshatras, or extra-zodiacal constellations, with figures
of Capeya, of Casyape, seated, and holding a lotus-flower in her
hand; of Antarmada, chained, with the fish near her; and of Parasica,
holding the head of a monster, which he had killed, dropping blood,
and having snakes for hair.”
Who does not recognise in this, Perseus, Cepheus, and Cassiope? But
we must not forget that this pundit of Mr Wilfort’s has become much
suspected.
[209] Chou-king, p. 6 and 7.
[210] Idem, p. 66. _et seq._
[211] See, in the Connaissance des Temps of 1809, p. 382, and in M.
Delambre’s Histoire de l’Astronomie ancienne, vol. i. p. 391, the
extract of a memoir by P. Gaubil, on the Observations of the Chinese.
[212] Thus at Dendera, the ancient Tentyris, a city below Thebes,
in the portico of the great temple, the entrance of which faces the
north, there are seen on the ceiling the signs of the zodiac marching
in two bands, one of which extends along the eastern side, and the
other along the opposite one. Each of the bands is embraced by the
figure of a woman of the same length, the feet of which are toward
the entrance, the head and arms toward the bottom of the portico;
the feet are consequently to the north, and the heads to the south.
(Great Work on Egypt, Antiq. vol. ix. pl. 20.)
The Lion is at the head of the band which is on the western side;
his direction is toward the north, or toward the feet of the figure
of the woman, and his feet are toward the eastern wall. The Virgin,
the Balance, the Scorpion, the Saggittary and the Capricorn, follow
marching in the same line. The latter is placed toward the bottom of
the portico, and near the hands and head of the large figure of the
woman. The signs of the eastern band commence at the extremity where
those of the other band terminate, and are consequently directed
toward the bottom of the portico, or toward the arms of the large
figure. They have the feet toward the lateral wall of their own side,
and the heads in the contrary direction to those of the opposite
band. The Aquarius marches first, and is followed by the Fishes,
the Ram, the Bull, and the Twins. The last of the series, which is
the Crab, or rather the Scarabæus, (for this insect is substituted
for the crab in the zodiacs of Egypt), is thrown to a side upon the
legs of the large figure. In the place which it should have occupied
is a globe resting upon the summit of a pyramid, composed of small
triangles, which represent a sort of rays, and before the base of
which is a large head of a woman with two small horns. A second
scarabæus is placed awry and cross-wise upon the first band, in the
angle which the feet of the large figure form with the body, and
before the space in which the Lion marches, which is a little behind.
At the other end of this same band, the Capricorn is very near the
bottom, or at the arms of the large figure; and, upon the left band,
the Aquarius is separated to some distance from it. The Capricorn,
however, is not repeated like the Crab. The division of this zodiac,
from the entrance, is therefore made between the Lion and the Cancer;
or if it be thought that the repetition of the Scarabæus marks a
division of the sign, it takes place in the Crab itself; but that of
the lower end is made between the Capricorn and Aquarius.
In one of the inner halls of the same temple, there was a circular
planisphere inscribed in a square, the same that has been brought to
Paris by M. Lelorrain, and which is to be seen at the Royal Library.
In it, also, the signs of the zodiac are observed among many other
figures which appear to represent constellations. (Great Work on
Egypt, Antiq. vol. iv. pl. 21.) The Lion corresponds to one of the
diagonals of the square; the Virgin, which follows, corresponds to
a perpendicular line which is directed toward the east; the other
signs march in the usual order, till we come to the Crab, which, in
place of completing the chain, by corresponding to the level of the
Lion, is placed above it, nearer the centre of the circle, in such a
manner that the signs are upon a somewhat spiral line. This Crab, or
rather Scarabæus, marches in a contrary direction to the other signs.
The Twins correspond to the north, the Sagittary to the south, and
the Fishes to the east, but not very exactly. At the eastern side of
this planisphere is a large figure of a woman, with the head directed
toward the south, and the feet toward the north, like that of the
portico. Some doubt might therefore also be raised regarding the
point at which the series of the signs ought to commence. According
as one of the perpendiculars or one of the diagonals is taken, or the
place where one part of the series passes over the other part, the
division will be judged to be at the Lion, or between the Lion and
the Crab; or lastly at the Twins.
At Esne, the ancient Latopolis, a city placed above Thebes, there
are zodiacs on the ceilings of two different temples. That of the
great temple, the entrance of which faces the east, is upon two
bands, which are contiguous and parallel to one another, along the
south side of the ceiling. The female figures which embrace them are
not placed in the direction of their length, but in that of their
breadth, so that one lies across near the entrance, or to the east,
the head and arms toward the north, and the feet toward the lateral
wall, or toward the south, and the other is in the bottom of the
portico, equally across, and looking toward the first. The band
nearest the axis of the portico, or the north, presents first, on
the side of the entrance, or east, and toward the head of the female
figure, the Lion, placed a little behind, and marching toward the
bottom, the feet directed toward the lateral wall. Behind the Lion,
at the commencement of the band, are two smaller Lions. Before it is
the Scarabæus, and then the Twins marching in the same direction;
then the Bull and the Ram, and the Fishes close to each other,
placed across upon the middle of the band, the Bull having its head
toward the lateral wall, the ram toward the axis. The Aquarius is
more distant, and resumes the same direction toward the bottom as
the first signs. On the band nearest the lateral wall and the north,
we see first, but at a considerable distance from the wall of the
bottom, or the west, the Capricorn, which marches in a contrary
direction to the Aquarius, and is directed toward the east, or the
entrance of the portico, having the feet turned toward the lateral
wall. Close upon it is the Sagittarius, which thus corresponds with
the Fishes and Ram. It also marches toward the entrance; but its feet
are turned toward the axis, and in a contrary direction to those of
the Capricorn. At a certain distance before, and placed near one
another, are the Scorpion and a woman holding the Balance. Lastly, a
little before, but still at a considerable distance from the anterior
or eastern extremity, is the Virgin which is preceded by a sphinx.
The Virgin and the woman holding the Balance, have also their feet
toward the wall, so that the Sagittary is the only one which is
placed with its head contrary to the other signs.
To the north of Esne is a small isolated temple, equally facing the
east, and having a zodiac also in its portico (Great Work on Egypt,
Antiquities, vol. i. Plate 87.) This zodiac is upon two lateral and
separated bands. That which extends along the south side commences
with the Lion, which marches toward the bottom, or toward the west,
the feet turned toward the wall, or the south. It is preceded by
the Scarabæus, and the latter by the Gemini, marching in the same
direction. The Bull, on the contrary, faces them, having a direction
toward the east. But the Ram and the Fishes resume the direction
toward the bottom, or toward the west. On the band of the north
side, the Aquarius is near the bottom, or the west, marching towards
the entrance or east, the feet turned toward the wall, preceded by
the Capricorn and Sagittary, both marching in the same direction.
The other signs are lost; but it is clear that the Virgin must have
marched at the head of this band, on the side next the entrance.
Among the accessory figures of this small zodiac, must be remarked
two winged Rams placed across, the one between the Bull and the
Twins, the other between the Scorpion and Sagittary, and each nearly
in the middle of its band; the second, however, a little more
advanced toward the entrance.
It was at first thought, that, in the great zodiac of Esne, the
division of the entrance took place between the Virgin and the Lion,
and that of the bottom between the Fishes and the Aquarius. But Mr
Hamilton, and MM. de Jollois and Villiers, have supposed, that, in
the Sphinx, which precedes the Virgin, they found a repetition of the
Lion, analogous to that of the Cancer in the great zodiac of Dendera;
so that, according to them, the division would be at the Lion. In
fact, without this explanation, there would only be five signs on one
side, while there would be seven on the other.
With regard to the small zodiac of the north of Esne, it is not known
whether some emblem analogous to this Sphinx may have occurred in it,
because this part is destroyed.--See British Review, February 1817,
p. 136; and Critical Letter on Zodiacomania, p. 33.
[213] Description of the Pyramids of Ghiza, by M. Grobert, p. 117.
[214] Connaissance des Temps for the year xiv.
[215] Observations upon the zodiac of Dendera, in the Revue
Philosophique et Litteraire, 1806, p. 257, _et seq._
[216] Ægyptiaca, p. 212.
[217] See in the British Review of February 1817, p. 13. _et seq._
the article No. vi. upon the origin and antiquity of the zodiac.
It is translated at the end of Swartz’s Critical Letter upon the
Zodiacomania.
[218] See M. Nouet’s Memoir in Volney’s New Inquiries regarding
Ancient History, vol. iii. p. 328-336.
[219] Eratosthenes has made but one constellation of the Scorpion
and Talons. He indicates the commencement of the latter without its
termination; and as he gives 1823 years to Scorpio, properly so
called, there remain 1089 for the other, on the supposition that
there is not an empty space between these two constellations.
[220] See the great work on Egypt. Antiq. Mem. vol. i. p. 486.
[221] Rhode. Essay upon the Age of the Zodiac, and the Origin of the
Constellations, in German. Breslau, 1809, p. 78.
[222] According to the tables of M. Delambre’s note above, the
solstice has remained 3474, or at least 3307 years, in the
constellation of virgo, the one which occupies the greatest space in
the zodiac, and 2617 in that of the Lion.
[223] Translation of Herodotus by Larcher, vol. ii. p. 570.
[224] See the Dissertation of the Abbé Dominique Testa, Sopra due
Zodiaci novellamente scoperte nell’ Egitto, Rome, 1802, p. 34.
[225] Delambre. Note at the end of the Report on the Memoir of M. de
Paravey. This report is printed in the Nouvelles Annales des Voyages,
vol. viii.
[226] See the work of M. Biot, entitled, Recherches sur plusieurs
points de l’Astronomie Egyptienne, appliquées aux monumens
astronomiques trouvés en Egypte; Paris, 1823, 8vo.
[227] Letronne. Researches into the history of Egypt during the
domination of the Greeks and Romans, p. 180.
[228] Id. ibid. p. xxxviij.
[229] Letronne. Ibid. p. 456, and 457.
[230] Letronne. Critical and Archæological Observations upon the
object of the zodiacal representations which remain to us of
antiquity, occasioned by an Egyptian zodiac painted in a mummy case,
which bears a Greek inscription of the time of Trajan; Paris, 1824,
8vo, p. 30.
[231] Idem, p. 48, and 49.
[232] Varro, de Ling. Lat. lib. vi. Signa, quod aliquid significent,
ut libra æquinoctium; Macrob. Sat. lib. i. cap. xxi. Capricornus ab
infernis partibus ad superas solem reducens Capræ naturam videtur
imitari.
[233] See the Memoir on the Origin of the Constellations, in Dupuis’s
Origine des Cultes, vol. iii. p. 324. _et seq._
[234] Id. ibid. p. 267.
[235] Dupuis himself suggests this second hypothesis. Ibid. p. 340.
[236] Ægyptiaca, p. 215.
[237] See in the Great Work on Egypt, Antiq. Mem. vol. i., the memoir
of M. Remi Raige upon the nominal and original zodiac of the ancient
Egyptians. See also the table of the Greek, Roman, and Alexandrian
months, in M. Halma’s Ptolemy, vol. iii.
[238] See the Historical Researches regarding the Astronomical
Observations of the ancients, by M. Ideler, a translation of which
has been inserted by M. Halma in the third volume of his Ptolemy: and
especially M. Freret’s memoir on the opinion of Lanauze, relative
to the establishment of the Alexandrian year, in the memoirs of the
Academy of Belles Lettres, vol. xvi. p. 308.
[239] See the Memoir of Sir William Jones on the Antiquity of the
Indian Zodiac. Calcutta Memoirs, vol. ii.
[240] See the Zodiac explained, or Researches regarding the Origin
and Signification of the Constellations of the Greek Sphere,
translated from the Swedish of M. Swartz; Paris, 1809.
[241] Saturnalia, lib. i. cap. xxi. sub. fin. _Nec solus Leo, sed
signa quoque universa zodiaci ad naturam solis jure referuntur, &c._
It is only in the explanation of the Lion and Capricorn, that he
has recourse to some phenomenon relative to the seasons; the Cancer
itself is explained in a general point of view, and with reference to
the obliquity of the sun’s march.
[242] See the Memoir of M. Guignes on the Zodiacs of the Eastern
Nations, in the Memoirs of the Academy of Belles Lettres, vol. xlvii.
[243] See M. de Fortia d’Urban’s History of China before the Deluge
of Ogyges, p. 33.
[244] Copies have been printed separately, under the title of
_Description Geologique des Environs de Paris_, par MM. G. Cuvier et
Al. Brongniart. Second edition. Paris, 1822, 4to.
[245] See Professor Buckland’s work, entitled _Reliquiæ Diluvianæ_.
Lond. 1823, 4to, p. 185 et seq.; and the article _Eau_, by M.
Brongniart, in the 14th volume of the _Dictionnaire des Sciences
Naturelles_.
[246] A full view of the arrangement of rocks is given in note O.
[247] See my “Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles,” t. v. part ii.
p. 300.
[248] Id. vol. v. part ii. p. 355 and 525.
[249] See my “Recherches,” vol. v. part ii. p. 447.
[250] Researches, &c. vol. v. part ii. p. 475, _et seq._
[251] Researches, vol. v. part ii. p. 485 and 486.
[252] Researches, vol. v. part ii. p. 143.
[253] Researches, vol. v. part ii. p. 127.
[254] We expect a fuller knowledge of it from M. Conybeare’s
researches.
[255] Researches, vol. v. part ii. p. 343.
[256] Ibid. p. 120.
[257] Researches, vol. v. part ii. p. 358. _et seq._
[258] Ibid. p. 376.
[259] Ibid. p. 380.
[260] Researches, vol. v. part ii. p. 225.
[261] Researches, vol. v. part ii. p. 161, 232, and 350.
[262] Researches, vol. v. part iv. p. 310, _et seq._
[263] Ibid. p. 163.
[264] Ibid. p. 316.
[265] P. 317.