38 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[Febeuary 1, 1901. 



the real nieaninfj of which had long been forgotten. This 

 Cepheus, who was ultimately supplied with a pedigree 

 from Lvcaou (i.e., the votary of Zeus Ly(uios), t^^* Callisto 

 (the G-Ve(ri-&e((r), Areas (1. ' Le dieu-soloil,' and 2. The 

 Bearwnrd) and others, is really identical with the Ph. and 

 coustellational Cepheus. '-"' We have here a remarkable 

 picture of a portion of the heavens. Cepheus, who was 

 also Baal Tsephon ('Lord-of-tlie-North'), from near tlie 

 Pole, drops, as it were, Mtclu.'a'.'f Head {i.e., the stai' Atgol, 

 ' the Ghoul,' evidinitly so styled from its extraordinary 

 variations iu brilliancy) into the vase held up by Sterope 

 ('the Bright' or ' Lightner'), one of the Pleiades, im- 

 mediately beneath. 



No. 17. Vinjin and Dog. Ob. ' Head of Aphrodite of 

 Eryx.' Eev. ' Hound looking back.' Period of transition. 

 Town finally destroyed in the first Punic War. A very 

 ancient seat of the Ph. cult of 'Aschtharth Erek-hayim 

 (' Astarte lougae vitse auctor'), called Aphrodite Eryk- 

 ine, (-3) and, in Attica, Erigone, who, according to the 

 Athenian legend, was changed into Virgo, and her faithful 

 little dog, 'eanis ululans Mera,' '-^* Maira ('the Sparkler '), 

 into Procijon. Dogs were sacrificed to the Ph. goddess 

 'Aschtharth Melekhet (-5) Aschamaim ('Astarte, Queen of 

 heaven ') = Aphrodite Ourauia. 



No. 18. Sirius. ' Forepart of dog 1. surrounded by 

 rays ; Sirius.' Ceos. Second Century B.C. Very early 

 coins of Cartha'a, the ancient Ph. capital of the island, 

 bear (1) an Amphora, which from the Bab. Cylinders 

 downwards, is a frequent symbol of Aquarius ; or (2) a 

 Doljjhiu, the fish sacred to the Ph Poseidon; or (3) a 

 Bunch of Grapes (Vide No. 11). Local legend : — Aristaeus 

 prays to Zeus and Sirius against the plague. Other coins 

 of Ceos bear a Star (Sirius) only on the Eev. The cult 

 of astral divinities is not naturally Helenic. 



No. 19. Perseus. Ob. 'Helmeted head of Perseus r.' Eev. 

 ' Gorgon's head ; beneath, harpa v.' Seriphos. Cir. b.c. 300. 

 Perseus was especially honoured here. ('^) The scimitar 

 or sickle with which the Bab. Merodach is armed iu his 

 fight against the Dragon, reappears as the sickle used by 

 the Ph. Krouos against Ouranos. This weapon, called iu 

 Cauaanite Merch, a word which the Egyptians borrowed 

 in the form kurp, is the harpc which the Ph. Perseus uses 

 against the )SVa-Hu/(tiS'^c'r (Cetus), which latter constellation- 

 figure appears on the coins of Itanos (Crete) and Agri- 

 gentum. The whole story of Cepheus, Cassiepeia, 

 Andromeda and Perseus is Phceniciau. (-^) 



Such are a few instances of Greek constellation-figures 

 as coin-tyjies. How they got there is no legitimate cause for 

 wonder. Their absence from the coins would have been 

 truly remarkable. For, the great historical fact imder- 

 lying the whole matter is simply that at an eaidy period, 

 long before coined money, Semites skilled iu letters, 

 navigation, astronomy, etc., invaded Hellas ; and that the 

 Greeks, the quickest of mankind, promptly absorbed this 

 knowledge, reproduced and bettered it. The Greeks 

 themselves were not naturally stellar votaries. Tbeir 

 great Aryan divinities, Zeus, Hera, Aidoueus (;=Pluto), 

 Demeter, Hestia, Hephaistos, Apollo, Athena, Artemis, 

 Hermes, Pan, etc., do not appear as sky-figures. It is the 

 Phfjenician personages, Poseidon (;= the Charioteer),(-^^ 



-' The Ph. Liglit-god (Vide Berard, Bes Cnltes Arcadiens, p. 49 

 ef eeq.). 



-- Ph, KHpTi, the sacred 'Stone.' Cf. Cephas. 



-' Pans. VIII. xxiv. G. 



'■' Iljgiuits, Fiih. c\xx. 



°; Vide Jlavei-ii, Die I'hbnizier, i. tU4. 



■"' I'aus. II. xviii. 1. 



-' Vide Grujjpe, Der phoinikische urtexl der Kassiepela-lejeiide, 

 1888. 



-- Vide K. I!. Ji', Primitive Constellations, i. 11-2. 



Herakles (=the .^Meeier), Eshmiia (=t\\e finake-holder). 

 Aphrodite (=:the Virgin), Cepheus and his family, Areas 

 (=the Bearward), etc., with sacred animals of Western 

 Asia, e.g., the Bear, Serpent, Horse, Lion, Dog. Engle, 

 Dolphin, etc., that we find sphered on high. And, lastly, 

 history, archaeology, and astronomy unite in showing that 

 a region of which Babylon was about the southern point, 

 was the primitive home of most of the constellation-figures 

 which we have received through the medium of Greece. 



Note. — The following coins are also shown on the 

 Plate : - 



No. (5, Pegasus. Corinth. Cir. bc. 431—338. Eev. 

 Head of Astarte- Aphrodite. 



No. 6b. Eev. Pegasus. ' Forepart of bridled horse 

 galloping r.' Larissa (Thessaly). b.c. 480 — 450. 



No. 8. Ob. Pegasvs. 'With pointed wing flying r.: 

 beneath tunny.' Cyzicus. b.c. 450 — 400. 



No. 14a. Twins. Eev. ' Altar surmounted by the 

 busts of the Dioscuri 1., wearing ^nlei, their heads and 

 shoulders appearing over the top.' Mantiueia. b.c. 431 — 

 370. 



.No. 15a. Snake-holder. Eev. 'Asklepius feeding ser- 

 pent from patera.' Larissa, b.c. 450 — 400. The Horse 

 on the Ob. may be Pegasus (Vide No. 6b). 



THE CANALS OF MARS. 



By Miss M. A. Oer. 



The physical condition of Maa-s is a problem over which 

 discussion still rages with unabated vigour. While 

 Mr. Lowell sees in the Martian " canals " a vast system 

 of artificial inigation, and M. du Ligoudes geological 

 fissures, thi-ough which rise tO' the frozen surface vivi- 

 fying vapoui's from a still heated interior, M. Anfconiadi 

 ascribes their doubling to a defect in focussing, and 

 othei-s disbelieve in even their single existence. But 

 the enigmatical lines have appeared to so many, and 

 in the main with such consistent similarity, that the 

 ranJjs of these unbelievers grow thin. Between rejecting 

 the canals altogether, however, and accepting them as 

 lactual physical entities, there are other possible 

 alternatives. Mr. Walter Maunder, in an article in 

 Knowledge for November, 1894, and more recently 

 Siguor CeruUi, in recounting his obsei'vations of Mars 

 in the opposition of 1896-7, at his private observatory 

 of CoUurania (Teramo), showed how the mathematical 

 lines and spots we find in the faint mai'kings of Mai's 

 might be merely the easiest form in which, with oui- 

 present optical means, we could be cognizant of its 

 real feattu'es. This latter treatise elicited replies from 

 Schiapai'elli and Flammarion, but their arguments in 

 favour' of the physical existence of the markings as such, 

 and of actual changes taking jilace in them, are not 

 altogether conclusive. Siguor Cerulli's observations 

 during the last opposition have confirmed him in the 

 belief that the markings are optical, and his new report* 

 is substantially a full exposition of his theory. These 

 observations extended from August, 1898, to March, 

 1899, and were made with a 15J in. Cooke equatorial, 

 with powers of 400 and 500, always without stops or 

 coloiu-ed screens, the object being not to get .sharp defini- 

 tion of any special feature, but as complete a picture 

 as might be of all the phenomena. The author shows 

 what is the explanation, on his theoi-y, of the features 

 seen and their appai'ent variations, and brings f orwai'd 

 ingenious and novel ai'guments +o prove his case. 



It must be remembered that in a bird's-eye view of a 



* Nuove osservazioni di Marte : Saggio di una interpretazione ottiea 

 delle sensazioni areoscopielie. By V. Cenilli. Colhu-ania, 1900. 



