Qrigiii of Mythblogi/. 19^' 



tiie dog-star, as well as of the Indian Sunja, which pri* 

 marily denoted the sun ; and of the Welch Seren, a star,. 



The wife of Osiris was Isis, and Sir William Jones 

 supposes these characters tO' represent the powers of na- 

 ture, considered as male and female. Now Isis is a Cop- 

 tic word signifying the earthy still recognized in the \\'ord 

 isi. As the sun, acting upon the earth,. is the immediate 

 parent of vegetable productions, it is not improbable that 

 this circumstance gave rise to the fabled connection oC 

 Qsiris and Isis,-* 



J^al/aSj M'ns a name given- to a giant, a son of Tartarus 

 and Terra, who was killed by Miner\a^ The goddess 

 covered herself with his skiriy whence,- as some suppose, 

 she received- her name, Pallas, pellis. This Pallas^ the 

 same as Minerva, was the daughter of Jupiter, and god- 

 dess of wisdom. I'here was also a Pallas^ a son of Cri- 

 Hs, who married the nymph Styx, by whom he had vic- 

 tory and valor. From these characteristics, as well as. 

 from the similitude of names, there can be little doubt 

 that Pallas is a word formed from pellis, pal, pell, a skin, 

 as shields were originally made of hides. Hence Palla- 

 dium, a defense — the name given to the famous statue csf 

 Minerva, which protected Troy. The Gallans in Africa 

 still make their shields of skins.t 



Ogyg'es; is represented as the first monarch of Greece, 

 in v/hose days Attica was laid waste by a deluge. He was 

 the son of Terra or of Neptune. The root of this word. 

 is a primitive name of water — in Hiberno-Celtic, oige or 

 vice; in Chaldaic, o«^' ; in Ethiopic, Ao//^' ; in the Li- 

 vish, or Livonic, a dialect of Russia, yogg ; in Latin, 

 aqua ; in Spanish, agua ; in Portuguese, agoa ; in He- 

 ^ew, ajx. the root of ocean. Hence the names of many 

 rivers, as oka, okka, and others in the Russian dominions. 

 To this word the Greeks added gyges, the name of one 



* See Park, under the words mentioned, and Ladolf^s Lexicon, 

 Coll. 142 — Asiat- Res. i. 253. Cluvcr, lib. i. ca. 27, cites the opin- 

 ion (>f Macrobius. Saturn, i. 21, " N'ec in occuUo est, ncque aliud 

 esse Osirim, quani solem, riec Isin aliud esse quam terrani." It is 

 obvious that Ooiiis is nothing else than the sun, and Isis the earth.... 

 See Chamberlaijnc''s Oratio Domhtica, p. SO. 



] See Leinprlere under Pallas.^ Palladium, and I\'nnsrx-a. ; «nd LU' 

 dolt" 'a History of Ethiopia, b. i cii. 1-6, 



