SKYFFARTH — OX THE THEORY OF THE MOON's MOTIONS. 417 



that time only one close conjunction of Venus with the sun was 

 possible, namely, a.d. 4S, May 29; for the il of Venus lay only 

 5° wcbt of the sun ; therefore Venus stood, during the conjunction, 

 32' only from the sun's northern borders. In the same year, as 

 Aurelius Vict. (Claud, iv. 12) reports, " in ^EgiEO mari repente 

 insula ingens emersit nocte, qua defectus lunae acciderat," name- 

 ly, A.D. 4S, June 14, 6h., which confirms Venus's transit a.d. 48. 

 All these reports put beyond question that the foundation of 

 Rome, as well as the consulates and the reigning of Claudius, are 

 to be postdated by one year. 



Since, however, so many hypotheses exist concerning the myth 

 of PhcEuix, it will be necessary to add some new proofs clearly 

 evidencing that the /rue Phxnix signified the planet Venus, and 

 that its combustions were transits of Venus. Thus, for instance, 

 Lepsius (Vorbedingungen zur Entstehung einer Chronologic, etc. 

 Berlin, 1S4S, p. 180) imagined the Phcenix to signify the human 

 soul, purified, during the period of its transmigrations, in animal 

 bodies. Hence he concluded that the Phoenix period, commen- 

 cing with the Canicular periods, contained exactly 1500 years, 

 sometimes however 1,000 years, sometimes 500, sometimes only 

 250 years. This chimera, however, is inconsistent with all ancient 

 reports concerning the Phoenix, and it is apparently refuted by 

 all epochs of ancient history- to which a reappearance of the Phoe- 

 nix is linked. The true Phoenix, represented by a crane (Jer. 

 viii. 7) is simply Venus, as its Coptic name Bene, and the hiero- 

 glyphic term Bennoh, and many other circumstances demonstrate. 

 Further, the Egyptian sacred records, e.g. Lepsius's Todtenbuch 

 (xxx. Si) themselves enumerate the planets, according to their 

 apparent celerities, in the following order : [Saturn,] Jupiter, 

 Mars, Venus, Mercury ; of which, the latter two are called '"Ben- 

 noh" and " Choli." The same records (iv. 13) call the same 

 Bennoh "thegreatestof the stars," and this clearly denotes Venus. 

 The said hymns, moreover, refer to Bennoh what the Greeks and 

 Romans referred to Venus, viz. all objects of beauty, e.g. "the 

 four gamuts (musical scales) of the Muse of the seven tones.'' 

 Besides, Strabo (x. 3, p. 474) tells us that "the ancients veiled 

 their physical conceptions by riddles, and added myths to their 

 scientific contemplations." Thus, e.g., the 12 works of Hercules 

 signified the effects of the sun, during the year, in the 12 signs of 

 iii — 27 



