402 TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



5. Melpomene, r. /islTioixac (amusing with playing, singing, 

 dancing), points us to Mercury, the warden of Libra, because the 

 musici^ citharced(e, and the like, belonged to the ducatus of Mer- 

 cury. — Astron. y^g. p. 104. But I do not see why tragic poetry 

 was transferred to Mercury ; at least rpdyo^^ the buck, was Mer- 

 cury's animal (Asti-on. ^^g. p. no). 



6. Terpsichore, i.e. diverting by dances, clearly signifies Venus, 

 the oecodespota of Scorpio, because all Cauponia belonged to the 

 same deity (Astron. yEg. p. 196), 



7. Erato, being derived from ipdco^ signifies the Muse of erotic 

 songs ; and to Mars, the warden of Sagittarius, the ancients 

 di^crihed omnis generis procreaiionem et vivicationem. Hence 

 Mars was also called Phtha Socharis (Sw sliagal). Mars genera- 

 tor. I do no not know whether '' ApTS.z and " Epzcoac (cp-Tfo2ti. 

 generator), the surnames of Mars (Astron. JEg. loi) involve the 

 name of Erato. 



8. Polyhymnia, i.e. abundant of hymns, or by Lucian (5th Pt., 

 145) being called noXufxvtia^ the much celebrated one, denotes 

 perhaps Jupiter, the oecodespota of Capricornus, owing to this 

 planet being, next to the sun, the most celebrated god of the an- 

 cient nations. 



9. Urania, i.e. ccelestis^ the Muse of astronomy, certainly be- 

 longs to Aquarius, the house of Saturn, because the ocean, par- 

 ticularly the heavenly ocean, belonged to the ducatus of Saturn, 

 as even the monogram of Aquarius (c^-) corroborates. Urania is 

 the Egyptian Nepthys, " Venus Urania'^ (tie^-TqcJiH or iiiu '^h). 



Now, recollecting that the 9 Muses and tlie 3 Gratiaj corre- 

 sponded to the 12 signs of the Zodiac ; that both dwelt together 

 in the same heavenly firmament ; that both revolved around our 

 globe singing and dancing ; that especially the 9 Muses repre- 

 sented the 9 signs of the Zodiac from the vernal equinox to the 

 winter solstice ; that the Muses were represented with joined 

 hands and bearing garlands on their heads, as our bowl shows ; 

 that the same knew the past, the present, and the future, which 

 faculties the ancients appropriated to the zodiacal signs ; that 

 even the names and insignia of the Muses agreed with the predi 

 cates of the zodiacal gods, — nobody will gainsay that the virgins 

 on our Cyprian antique exj^ress the segments of the Zodiac. 



