70 COSMOS 



From the Italian school of philosophy, the expression pas* 

 ed, in this signification, into the language of those early poets 



into three parts, the Olymipus, Cosmos, and Ouranos (Stob., i., p. 488. 

 riiilolaUs, p. 94, 202) ; this division applies to the different regions sur 

 rounding that mysterious focus of the universe, the 'EaTia tov TzavTOi 

 of the Pythagoreans. In the fragmentary passage in which this divi- 

 sion is found, the term Ouranos designates the iunermost region, situ- 

 ated between the moon and earth; this is the domain of changing 

 things. The middle region, where the planets circulate in an invaria- 

 ole and harmonious order, is, in accordance with the special concep- 

 tions entertained of the universe, exclusively termed Cosmos, while the 

 word Olymptis is used to express the extex'ior or igneous region. Bopp, 

 the profound philologist, has remarked, that we may deduce, as Pott 

 has done, Etymol. Forschungen, th. i., s. 39 and 252 {Etym,ol. Research' 

 r,s), the word Koai^iog from tlie Sanscrit root 'sud\ purificari, by assum- 

 ing two conditions; first, that the Greek k in Koafxoc comes from the 

 palatial f , which Bopp represents by 's and Pott by f (in the same man- 

 ner as 6eKa, decern, taihun in Gothic, comes from the Indian word dd- 

 san), and, next, that the Indian d' cox-responds, as a general rule, with 

 the Greek 6 ( Vergleichende Grammafik, ^ 99 — Comparative Grammar), 

 which shows the relation of Koa/iog (for Kodfior) with the Sanscrit root 

 Uud\ whence is also derived Kada^og. Another Indian term for the 

 world is gagat (pronounced dscliagaf), which is, properly speaking, the 

 present participle of the verb gagdmi (I go), the root of which is gd. 

 In restricting ourselves to the circle of Hellenic etymologies, we find 

 {Etymol. M., p. 532, 12) that Koafiog is intimately associated with Ku^to, 

 or rather with Kaivvfiai, whence we have KeKaaf^evoc or KeKa('^fj,tvoc. 

 Welcker (Eirie Kretische Col. in Theben, s. 23 — A Cretan Colony in 

 Thebes) combines with this the name Kudtiog, as in Hesychius Kadfiog 

 signifies a Cretan suit of arms. When the scientific language of Greece 

 was introduced among the Romans, the word mundus, which at first had 

 only the primary meaning o^ KOGfiog (female ornament), was applied to 

 designate the entire universe. Ennius seems to have been the first 

 who ventured upon this innovation. In one of the fragments of this 

 poet, preserved by Macrobius, on the occasion of his quarrel with Vir- 

 gil, we find the word used in its novel mode of acceptation : " Mic7idns 

 caeli vastus constitit silentio''^ (Sat., vi., 2). Cicero also says, ^^ Quern jws 

 lucentem rmmdum vocamus''' (Tima^us, S. de Univer., cap. x.). The 

 Sanscrit root mand, from which Pott derives the Latin mvndus {Etym. 

 Forsch., th. i., s. 240), combines the double signification of shining and 

 adorning. Loka designates in Sanscrit tlie world and people in general, 

 in the same manner as the French word mande, and is derived, accord- 

 ing to Bopp, from luk (to see and shine); it is the same with the Scla 

 vonic root srcjet, which means both light and world. (Grimm, Deutsche 

 Gramm., b. iii., s. 394 — iGerman Grammar.) The word loelt, which 

 the Germans make use of at the present day, and which was weralt in 

 old German, xoorold in old Saxon, and veruld in Ang lo-Saxon, was, ac- 

 cording to James Grimm's interpretation, a period of time, an age (««- 

 cnlum), rather than a term used for the world in space. The Etruscans 

 figured to themselves miindi/s as an inverted dome, symmetrically oj> 

 posed to the celestial vault (Olfried Milller's Etrtiskcn, th. ii., s. 96, 

 &c.). Taken in a still more limited sense, the word appears to have 

 signified among the Goths the terrestrial surface girded by seas {marei, 

 meri), the merigard, literally, garden of seas. 



