Marlborough College.
_The Sun Feminine in English_ (Vol. ii., p. 21).--MR. COX may perhaps be
pleased to learn _why_ the northern nations made the sun feminine. The
ancient Germans and Saxons--
"When they discovered how the sun by his heat and influence
excited venereal love in creatures subserviant to his dominion,
they then varied his sex, and painted him like a woman, because
in them that passion is most impotent, and yet impetuous; on her
head they placed a myrtle crown or garland to denote her
dominion, and that love should be alwaies verdant as the myrtle;
in one hand she supported the world, and in the other three
golden apples, to represent that the world and its wealth are
both sustained by love. The three golden apples signified the
threefold beauty of the sun, exemplified in the morning,
meridian, and evening; on her breast was lodged a burning torch,
to insinuate to us the violence of the flame of love which
scorches humane hearts."--_Philipot's Brief and Historical
Discourse of the Original and Growth of Heraldry_, pp. 12, 13.
London, 1672.