THE PLANETS. 415 



fifteenth century. The symbolizing habit of consecrating 

 certain metals to the planets belongs, undoubtedly, to the new 

 Platonic doctrines of the Alexandrian school in the fifth cen- 



sion in which their names have been applied to the week- 

 days." A commentary upon this passage is given by Vin- 

 cent, Sur les Manuscrits grecs relative a la Musique, 1847, 

 p. 138; compare also Lobeck, Aglaophamus, in Orph. p. 941- 

 946). The second explanation of Dio Cassius is borrowed 

 from the periodical series of the planetary hours. " If," he 

 adds, " the hours of the day and the night are counted from 

 the first (hour of the day), and this ascribed to Saturn, the 

 following to Jupiter, the third to Mars, the fourth to the Sun, 

 the fifth to Venus, the sixth to Mercury, the seventh to the 

 Moon, always recommencing from the beginning ; it will be 

 found, if all the twenty-four hours are gone through, that 

 the first hour of the following day coincides with the Sun, the 

 first of the third with the Moon ; in short, the first hour of 

 any one day coincides with the planet after which the day is 

 named." In the same way, Paulus Alexandrinus, an astro- 

 nomical mathematician of the fourth century, calls the 

 ruler of each week-day that planet whose name agrees with 

 the first hour of the particular day. 



These modes of explaining the names of week-days have 

 hitherto been very generally considered as the more correct ; 

 but Letronne entertains a third explanation, the distribution 

 of any three planets over a sign of the zodiac, which he 

 considers to be the most adequate, upon the evidence of the 

 long-neglected zodiacal circle of Bianchini, preserved in the 

 Louvre, to which I nryself directed the attention of archaeo- 

 logists in 1812, on account of the remarkable combination 

 of a Greek and Kirgisch-Tartar zodiac. (Letronne, Obscrv. 

 crit. et archeol. sur I'objet des representations zodiacales, 1824, 

 pp. 97-99). This distribution of planets among the 36 decans 

 of the Dodecatomeria is precisely that which Julius Firmicus 

 Maternus (ii. 4,) describes as " signorum decani eorumque 

 domini." If those planets are separated, which in each of 

 the signs are the first of the three, the succession of the 

 planetary days in the week is obtained. (Virgo : Sun, Venus, 



