134 COSMOS. 



Besides Sirius, Vega, Deneb, Regulus, and Spica are at the 

 present time decidedly white ; and among the small double 



the members of which, although they apparently differ very widely from 

 each other, admit of being arranged somewhat in the following order. 

 By the three-fold transference of the verbal signification, we obtain from 

 the original meaning, to throw out — projicere {sagittavi, telurn) — first, 

 semi7iare, to so70 ; next, extendere, to ejctend or spread (as spun threads) ; 

 and, lastly, what is here most important, to radiate light and to shine 

 (as stars and fire). From this series of ideas we may deduce the names 

 of the divinities, Satis (the female archer); Sothis, the radiating, and 

 Seth, the fieiy. We may also hieroglyphically explain sit or seti, the 

 arrows as well as the ray ; seta, to spin ; setu, scattered seeds. Sethis 

 is especially the brightly radiating, the star regulating the seasons of 

 the year and periods of time. The small triangle, always represented 

 yellow, which is a symbolical sign for Sothis, is used to designate the 

 radiating sun when arranged in numerous triple rows issuing in a down- 

 ward direction from the sun's disk. Seth is the fiery scorching god, in 

 contradistinction to the warming, fmctifying water of the Nile, the god- 

 dess Satis who inundates the soil. She is also the goddess of the cat- 

 aracts, because the overflowing of the Nile began with the appearance 

 of Sothis in the heavens at the summer solstice. In Vettius Valens the 

 star itself is called 2^0 instead of Sothis ; but neither the name nor the 

 subject admits of our identifying Thoth with Seth or Sothis, as Ideler 

 has done. {Handhich der Chronolo^ie, bd. i., s. 126.)" (Lepsius, bd. 

 i., s. 136.) 



I will close these observations taken from the eai'ly Egyptian periods 

 with some Hellenic, Zend, and Sansci-it et^^mologies : " Sei'p, the sun," 

 says Professor Franz, "is an old root, differing only in pronunciation 

 from ■&ep, ■&ipo^, heat, summer, in which we meet with the same change 

 in the vowel sound as in relpo^ and repog or ripag. The con-eclness of 

 these assigned relations of the radicals aelp and ■&Ep, -^epog, is proved 

 not only by the employment of ^epelraTog in Aratus, v. 149 (Ideler, 

 Stemnamen, s. 241), but also by the later use of the forms aelpoc, aei- 

 ptog, and aetpcvog, hot, burning, derived from aeip. It is worthy of no- 

 tice that GELpd or 'QeLptvu inuTia is used the same as T&eptva indria, light 

 summer clothing. The fonii aeipLog seems, however, to have had a wider 

 application, for it constitutes the ordinaiy term appended to all stars in- 

 fluencing the summer heat: hence, according to the version of the poet 

 Archilochus, the sun was aelptog daTj]p, while Ibycus calls the stars gen- 

 erally aeipm, luminous. It can not be doubted that it is the sun to which 

 Archilochus refers in the words iTQ7SAovg p.£v avTov aeiptoc Karavavel o^vg 

 k7J^duTTuv. According to Hesychius and Suidas, Iislpiog does indeed 

 signify both the smi and the Dog-star; but I fully coincide with M. Mar- 

 tin, the new editor of Theon of Smyrna, in believing that the passage 

 of Hesiod {Opera et Dies, v. 417) refers to the sun, as maintained by 

 Tzetzes and Proclus, and not to the Dog-star. From the adjective asl- 

 pLog, which has established itself as tb.e ' epiiheton perpetuunC of the 

 Dog-star, we derive the verb aetpiov, which may be translated ' to 

 sparkle.' Aratus, v. 331, says of Sirius, o^ea aeipcdei, • it sparkles sti-ong- 

 ly.' When standing alone, the word Ielotjv, the Siren, has a totally dif- 

 ferent etymology ; and your conjecture, that it has merely an accidental 

 similarity of sound with the brightly shining star Sirius, is perfectly well 

 foujided. The opinion of those who, according to Theon Smyniseus 

 (Liber de Astronomia, 18iO. p. 202). derive "SeLpyv from ntipuueiv (a 



