Etruscans, Tyrrhenians or Tuscans. 171 
T am not aware of any attempt having been made to ex- 
plain the import of theword Rasena, San Son expressed by 
the Ionians Zan, Zen Zena were the original names of the 
Sun, the great object of antient worship ( Bryant’s Mytho- 
logy, 1. 34.) 
The word Rha is one of great antiquity and was the an- 
tient name of the river Volga.— Rhea is the most antient of 
the goddesses. Itis found in composition in the following 
words Rhadamanthus, Rhabduchi, the Greek name for 
lictors ; Rhama and Rhamna, a village of Attica in which 
was acelebrated temple of Amphiaraus ; Rhamnus another 
village of Attica, wherein was to be seen the statue of Nee 
mesis by Agorachritus the scholar of Phidias, which statue 
Varro esteemed of greater excellence than any other he had 
everseen; Rhapsodi; Rhapton or Rhassta the capital accord- 
ing to Stephanus of inner Ethiopia, inhabited by a nation 
called Rhapsi ; Rharias oue of the names of Ceres—Rhee 
cius a charioteer of Castor and Pollux—Rhenus and Rhoda- 
nus the names of the Rhine and Rhone; Rhamnenses one 
of the tribes of Rome as established by Romulus. Other exe 
amples might be added, but these will probably be thought 
sufficient. The two words Rha and Sen give us the two first 
syllables of Rasena. But the Greeks in foreign words 
continually omitted the Nu final and substituted the Sigma 
which would make of it Rhoe-ses, or Rhoe-sos, thus the 
swamps which divided Attica from the territory of Eleusinie 
um had the appellative of Rhoesoi—econverted by the Latins 
into Rhaetii. 
Plutarch in his Symposiacs introduces the Etruscan Lycias 
ascholar of Pythogaras, and makes him aflirm Pythagoras 
was a Tuscan, assigning as the reason that certain of the 
symbols used by the Pythagorians were carefully observed by 
the Etruscaus only. 
Alciat has made a collection of the Pythagorian Symbols or 
precepts, they are as follow :— 
Ne 
