37. Mars the Red: referring to the ruddy colour of the planet, to
which was doubtless due the transference to it of the name of
the God of War. In his “Republic,” enumerating the seven
planets, Cicero speaks of the propitious and beneficent light of
Jupiter: “Tum (fulgor) rutilis horribilisque terris, quem Martium
dicitis” — “Then the red glow, horrible to the nations, which
you say to be that of Mars.” Boccaccio opens the “Theseida” by
an invocation to “rubicondo Marte.”