416 COSMOS. 



tury, as is ascertained from passages in Proclus (ad Tim. 

 ed. Basil, p. 14,) from Olympiodoms, as well as by a 

 late scholium to Pindar, (Isthm. vol. ii). (Compare Olym- 



Mercury; Libra: Moon, Saturn, Jupiter; Scorpio: Mars, Sun, 



Venus ; Sagittarius : Mercury which may here serve as 



an example for the first four days of the week : Dies Solis, 

 Luna, Martis, Mercurii). As, according to Diodorus, among 

 the Chaldeans, the number of the planets (star-like) originally 

 amounted only to fh e, and not seven, all the here-mentioned 

 combinations in which more than five planets form periodical 

 series, appear to be not of old Chaldean origin, but much 

 rather to date from a subsequent astrological period. (Le- 

 tronne, Sur Vorigine du Zodiaque grec, 1840, p. 29.) 



With respect to the concordance of the arrangement of the 

 planets as days of the week with their arrangement and dis- 

 tribution among the decans in the zodiacal circle of Bian- 

 chini, a brief explanation will, perhaps, be acceptable to some 

 readers. If a letter is assigned to each cosmical body, in the 

 order of succession adopted in antiquity (Saturn a, Jupiter b> 

 Mars c, Sun d, Venus e, Mercury f, Moon y,) and with these 

 seven members the following periodical series are formed : 



abed efg, abed.... 



there is obtained, 1st. by passing over two members of the 

 distribution among the decans, each of which comprises three 

 planets (the zodiacal sign of the first one giving, in each 

 case, its name to the week-day), the new periodical series 



a d y efb e,adgc.... 



that is: Dies Saturni^ Solis, Lunce, Martis, and so on; 

 Sndly. the same new series, 



a d g c. . . . 



obtained by the method of Dio Cassius, according to which 

 the successive week-days take their names from the planet 

 which rules the first hour of the day: so that alternately a 

 member of the periodical seven-membered planet-series is to 

 be taken, and twenty-three members to be passed over. 

 Now, it is immaterial in the case -wf a periodical series, 



