NOTES. CXI 



Three different opinions have been propounded respecting the appellations 

 of the different days of the week taken from the planets, and respecting the 

 arrangement and sequence of the heavenly bodies, 

 Saturn, 

 Jupiter, 

 Mars, 

 Sun, 

 Venus, 



Mercury, and 

 Moon, 



as placed according to the oldest and most widely prevalent belief (Geminus, 

 Elem. Astr. p. 4 ; Cicero, Somn. Scip. cap. 4 ; Firmicus, ii. 4), between the 

 aphere of the fixed stars and the Earth, itself immoveably at rest in the centre. 

 Of the three views alluded to, one is taken from musical intervals ; another 

 from the astrological names of the planetary hours ; and a third from the 

 distribution of every three decans, or three planets who are the lords 

 (domini) of these decans, among the twelve signs of the zodiac. We find 

 the two first-named hypotheses in the remarkable passage in Dio Cassius, in 

 which he wishes to explain (lib. xxxvii. cap. 17) why the day of Saturn, our 

 Saturday, is kept by the Jews, according to their law, as the Sabbath. He 

 says : " If we apply the musica,! interval, called Sia Tea-ffdgcaif, the fourth, to 

 the seven planets, according to their times of revolution, and assign to Saturn, 

 which is the outermost of all, the first place, we come next to the fourth 

 (the Sun), and then to the seventh (the Moon) ; and thus we obtain the 

 .ilanets in the order in which they follow each other in the names of the days 

 of the week." The commentary to this passage is given by Vincent, " sur 

 les Manuscrits grecs relatifs a la Musique," 1847, p. 138 : compare also 

 Lobeck, Aglaophamus, in Orph. p. 941 946. The second explanation of 

 Dio Cassius is taken from the periodical series of the planetary hours. He 

 says : " If we begin to count the hours of the day and night from the first 

 hour of the day, calling the first hour that of Saturn, the second that of 

 Jupiter, the third hour belonging to Mars, the fourth to the Sun, the fifth to 

 Venus, the sixth to Mercury, and the seventh to the Moon, according to the 

 order assigned by the Egyptians to the planets ; and if we always begin again, 

 and go through the same round, we shall find that, after passing through the 

 twenty- four hours, the first hour of the next day is that of the Sun, the first 

 hour of the third day that of the Moon, the first of the fourth that of Mars, 

 and, in short, that the first hour of each day will be that of the planet from 

 which the day is called." Thus Paulus Alexandrinus, an astronomer and 



