190 



PROFESSOR D'ARCY WENTWORTH THOMPSON ON 



Fig 10.— Draco and the Two 

 Bears on an Asiatic Gem. 



Imhoof-Blumer and Keller, from whose Thierbilder I have borrowed the figure, 

 simply state that these three constellations are represented ; but they do not state, and 

 perhaps did not perceive, that there is a deeper astronomic interest in this gem, to wit, 



that as nearly as may be its centre coincides with the North 

 Pole of the heavens in the epoch of classical Greece. The 

 pole, which now lies in the Little Bear, then stood in Draco 

 between the Two Bears, somewhat nearer to the little one ; 

 and the Two Bears are the Miltonian " Star of Arcady and 

 Tyrian Cynosure," 



Magna minorque ferae, quarum regis altera Graias, 

 Altera Sidonias, utraque sicca, rates. — Ovid, TV., iv. 3, 1, 



The whole gem is an exquisite picture of the polar region of the sky, precisely as Aratus 

 describes it in a famous passage copied over and over again by Latin poets : — 



Kai ij.iv Treipaivovtri Svoo 7roXoi dju.cpOTe'pwOev' 



dXX' o-fiev ovk e7ri07TTO?, b o avnoq e/c (Sopeao 



v\]/66ev wiceavoio' Svu) Se fiiv d/xcpig e'-^ovcrai 



* A.QKTOI afxa Too-vowa-i (to St] KaXeovrai ' A./j.a£ai). 



al S' ?jTOi KecpaXdg /xev eir ipva? atev e^ovaiv 



dXXtjXwv, atel Se KaTMjudSiai (popeovrat, 



e/JuraXiv eig ojyUOt/? TeTpafxpievai .... 



Kai tiiv fxev i\.vv6<Tovpav eir'iKXr)<jiv KaXeovaiv, 



Ttjv S' krepr\v 'J&XiKrjv. 'EXtVj; ye /mev avSpeg 'A^aiol 



etv dXi TeKjualpovrai "iva -^py vrjas ayivelv 



Trj S' dpa Qoivitces tt'ktvvoi Tvepoaxri QaXacrcrav. 



aXX' i] fxev KaQapri /ecu eTrKppaacraaQai eroifit] 



7ro\Xr/ (paivo/mevr) 'EXiKtj trpwTrjs euro vvkto$' 



rj o eTeprj oXiyrj fxev, ciTap vavTricriv dipeiwv 



fietoTep)] yup -Kucra TrepicrTpe(peTai trrpocpaXiyyr 



Trj kui ^EiSovioi lOvvrara vavTiXXovrai. 



rug Se Si' dfjKpOTepas o'lrj TroTa/moio uiroppw^ 



eiXeirai /xeya Oavjua, ApaKWv, irep'i t afxipi t eayias 



luvpios' at S' apa ol cnreiptjs eKarepOe (pepovrat 



"ApicTOi, Kvaveov iveepvXayfxevai wKeavolo. — ARAT., Ph., 25—48. 



And now, to close my story, the conclusion that I wish, in a general way, to draw is, 

 that to understand the solemn and sacred and cherished myths of antiquity, we must 

 seek an interpretation in their ancient source in an ancient heaven. The one science 

 that the civilised races of old loved and understood was astronomy. 



* Cf. Virg., G., i. 244 (supra cit.) ; Ovid, Met, iii. 44 ; Id., F., iii. 107 ; Lucan, iii. 219, viii. 173, ix. 539 ; Sil. 

 Ital., Pun., iii. 192, 665, xiv. 456 ; Val. Fl., i. 17, v. 69, vi. 40, &c. 



