182 COSMOS. 



stars Struve enumerates about 300, in which both stars are 

 white. Procyon, Atair, the Pole Star, and more especially 

 fi Ursse Min. have a more or less decided yellow light. We 

 have already enumerated among the larger red or reddish 



Siren, has a totally different etymology ; and your conjecture, 

 that it has merely an accidental similarity of sound with the 

 brightly shining star Sirius, is perfectly well-founded. The 

 opinion of those who, according to Theon Smyrneeus (Liber de 

 Astronomia, 1850, p. 202), derive Sftpiji/ from (rciptd&iv (a more- 

 over unaccredited form of veiptav) is likewise entirely erroneous. 

 While the motion of heat and ligbt is implied by the expres- 

 sion o-eipios, the radical of the word Seiprjv represents the flow- 

 ing tones of this phenomenon of nature. It appears to me 

 probable, that 2p^i> is connected with flpeiv (Plato, Cratyl. 

 398 D, TO yap f'pfiv \eyctv OTI,) in which the original sharp 

 aspiration passed into a hissing sound." (From letters of 

 Prof. Franz to me, January, 1850.) 



The Greek Setp, the sun, easily admits, according to Bopp, "of 

 being associated with the Sanscrit word svar, which does not 

 indeed signify the sun itself, but the heavens, (as something 

 shining.) The ordinary Sanscrit denomination for the sun is 

 surya, a contraction of svdrya, which is not used. The root 

 svar signifies in general to shine. The Zend designation for the 

 sun is hvare, with the h instead of the *. The Greek 0(p, Gfpoe 

 and Ofppbs comes from the Sanscrit word gharma (Nom. 

 gharmas?) warmth, heat." 



The acute editor of the Rigveda, Max Miiller, observes, 

 that " the special Indian astronomical name of the Dog-star, 

 Lubdhaka, which signifies a hunter, when considered in re- 

 ference to the neighbouring constellation Orion, seems to indi- 

 cate an ancient Arian community of ideas regarding these groups 

 of stars." He is moreover principally inclined " to derive 2<t'ptos 

 from the Veda word sira (whence the adjective sairya,} and 

 the root sri, to go, to wander ; so that the sun and the brightest 

 of the stars, Sirius, were originally called wandering stars." 

 (Compare also Pott, Etymologische Forschungen, 1833, 

 g. 130.) 



* Struve, Stellarum compositarum Mensurce micrometrwa t 

 1837, p. Ixxiv. et Ixxxiii. 



