400 



TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



with the neighboring two, as our Cyprian monument evi- 

 dences. 



Mount Helicon is notoriously the emblem of the elevated mount 

 of the starred heavens, and this Helicon was the dwelling of the 

 Muses as well as of the planetary and zodiacal deities : there the 

 Muses delighted the gods by songs, whilst Apollo, their leader, 

 i.e. the house of the sun, played the phorminx. 



The same residents of the star-covered Olympus continually- 

 danced around the altar of the Kronion, i.e. the earth, because 

 the signs of the Zodiac revolve around our globe every day. 

 Hence the Muses were, as the ancients bear witness, very often 

 depicted with wings. — Hesiod, Theog. i. 



The Muses were acquainted with the past, the present, and the 

 future ; and these faculties concern only the signs of the Zodiac,, 

 because the ancients predicted the fate of a human being by 

 means of the Zodiac and the planets, observed on the birth of the 

 respective individual. 



Pausanias (ix. 30, i) narrates that in mounting Helicon the 

 traveler first encountered the temple of the three Muses; after a 

 while that of three other Muses; then that of the seventh, eighth 

 and ninth Muses. On the top of the mountain (Olympus nivosus) 

 finally stood the temple of three other butdifterent Muses, viz., the 

 three Charities, the "sisters of the Muses."— Hesiod, Theog. 64. 

 All these reports concur in demonstrating that the Muses, as 

 regards their principal meaning, refer to the signs of the Zodiac. 

 However, it will be objected that Homer (Od. 24, 60), Hesiod 

 (Theog. 77), Servius, and other authorities, mention only nine 

 Muses, and that no ancient author counts twelve. This stum- 

 bling-block is removed by the explicit ancient testimony that the 

 proper Muses commenced singing at the beginning of spring — 

 " nam verno temfore nives tabescunt." Hence it is apparent 

 that the proper nine Muses signified the actual signs Aries, Tau- 

 rus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius ; 

 whilst the improper Fierides, tii« "sisters of the Muses, the Cha- 

 rites, referred to Capricornus, Aquarius, and Pisces, the top of 

 the Olympus nivosus. 



Moreover, Hesiod (Theog. 64) asserts that the 9 Muses and 

 the 3 Gratis dwelt together, and danced together, and sang to- 

 gether ; therefore both classes of deities must have belonged to 



