104 



" cording- to Lucian and other writers, conneclcd witli tlie v.or- 

 " ship of those depicted in the starry spheres." The adoration of 

 the bull Apis* arose in its having been a t3pe of a cycle which 

 bore a reference to Uie revolutions of both sun and moon, to 

 both which luminaries it nas therefore sacred. I need not dwell 

 upon the connexion between the planet Mercury an'd Thoth, 

 and such like, but I cannot omit the fact, so important here, that 

 tlie fable of the twelve-j- labours of Hercules was invented to bear 

 an allusion to the passage of the sun through the twelve signs 

 of the Zodiac. 



And here, before we proceed, it will not be amiss and may 

 be required, since the present existing division of the Zodiacal 

 belt into constellations has been mentioned as being the model 

 of a fable so antient, to demonstrate its antiquity also. It is ac- 

 knowledged that the celestial sphere is indebted to the Greeks 

 for very little more than a new |nomenc.lature to some of the 

 constellations, and a new fable connected therewith ; we must 

 ascend far higher for its invention. Besides the allusions, of Ho. 

 nier|| and Hesiod, to the Pleiades and other assemblages of stars, 

 the latter§ describes the Zodiac as the crown of Pandora. He- 

 rodotus says, that the Egyptian priests claimed the invention of 

 this belt. Constellations are named or alluded to in the sacred 

 writings, in Job, f in Isaiah, tlie Psalms, and elsewhere ; and the 



* Savary's Letters, L. 61; 



f See Barrett's Orig. of Constellations, p. 16G, &c. and Gebelin. 



t Maurice on Ruins of Babylon, p. 79. Barrett, &c. &c. 



II See Barrett, C. 2, and throughout, and Maurice, p. 42, &c. 



§ Tlicog. 580. 



^ Job 9. V. 8 and 9.— Is. 13. 10, and 40. 22.— Ps. 147. 4, Sec— 2. Esd. 2. 6. 



