NOTES. CV11 



Egyptians as well as Greeks should give the name of " the bright" to the 

 faintest of all the planets (probably, he surmises, only because it brings good for- 

 tune). According to Diodorus, it was " because Saturn was the planet which, 

 made known the future with the most fulness and clearness." (Letronne, 

 sur 1'origine du Zodiaque grec, p. 33 ; and in the Journal des Savants, 1836, 

 p. 17. Compare also Carteron, Analyse de Recherches Zodiacales, p. 97.) 

 Names which pass from one nation to another by means of equivalents, do 

 indeed often depend in their origin on accidental circumstances which it is 

 impossible to trace ; but yet it may be well to remark here, that, linguistically, 

 <l>aiveiv expresses merely shining ; therefore, a faint, continuous, equable light : 

 while <TTi\&iv supposes an interrupted more vividly bright and more 

 sparkling light. The descriptive appellations fyaivwv for the remoter planet, 

 Saturn ; and (mXficav for the nearer planet, Mercury appear to me the more 

 appropriate, because, as I have already remarked (Kosmos, Bd. iii. S. 84 ; Eng. 

 ed. p. 66), in the daytime, in Fraunhofer's large Refractor, Saturn and Jupiter 

 appear faint in their light, in comparison with the sparkling Mercury. 

 There is indicated, as Professor Franz remarks, a successive increase of bright- 

 ness from Saturn (paivcav) to Jupiter, the lustrous guider of the luminous 

 chariot ((jxt&wv) ; to the coloured glowing Mars (irvp6eis) ; to Venus 

 (<pu(r(t>6pos) ; and to Mercury (crn\&(av). 



The Indian appellation of the " slow-moving" (sanaistschara), for Saturn, 

 being known to me, it led me to inquire from my celebrated friend Bopp, 

 whether, in the Indian names for the planets, as in those of the Greeks, and 

 possibly of the Chaldeans, it was possible to distinguish between mytholo- 

 gical and descriptive names. I subjoin the information for which I am in- 

 debted to this great philologist ; placing the planets, however, as in the above 

 table, in the order of succession of their real distances from the Sun (begin- 

 ning with the greatest distance), instead of m the order in which they are 

 arranged in the Amarakoscha (in Colebrooke, p. 17 and 18). According 

 to the Sanscrit nomenclature, there appear in fact, among five names, to be 

 three which are descriptive ones : those for Saturn, Mars, and Venus. 



" Saturn : sanaitschara, from 'sanais, slow, and tschara, moving ; also 

 sauri, a name of Vishnu (derived as a patronymic from 'sura, grandfather of 

 Krishna), and 'sani. The planetary name 'sani-vara, for dies Saturni, is 

 radically allied with the adverb 'sanais, slow. The appellations of the days of 

 the week according to the planets do not, however, appear to have been 

 known to Amarasinha. They are probably of later introduction. 



