OF FOREST-TREES. 321 



who delight to play with words, (by antiphrasis,) a minime lucendo, be- BOOK IV. 

 cause of its density % 



' ' ■ nulli penetrabilis astro, 



whence Apuleius used luco sublucido ; and the poets, suhlustri umhra : 

 others (on the contrary) have taken it for light in the masculine, umhra, 

 non quia minime, sed quia maxime luceat ; by so many lamps suspended 

 in them before the shrine ; or because they kindled fires, by what ac- 

 cident unknown : 



seu coeli fulraine misso; 



Sive quod inter se bellum silvestre gerentes, 



Hostibus intulerant ignem formidinis ergo. lucret. lib. v. 



Whether it were 



By lightning sent from heaven, or else there 

 The salvage men in mutual wars and fight. 

 Had set the trees on fire, their foes t'afFright. 



« The learned Mr. Bryant, in his Analysis of Ancient Mythology, has something extremely 

 curious upon the derivation of the word lug us. He says that the sun, by the Amonians, 

 was styled El-Uc, which the Grecians changed into Ai/ko?, Lucos. He was also styled 

 El-Uc-Or, which was changed to AuKUfet;? : and El-Uc-Aon, rendered Lycaon, Kvv.aav. As 

 this personage was the same as El-Uc, Auko? ; it was fabled of him that he was turned into i 

 a wolf. The cause of this absurd notion arose from hence : every sacred animal in Egypt 

 was distinguished by some title of the deity. But the Greeks never considered whether the 

 term was to be taken in its primary, or in its secondary acceptation ; hence they referred the 

 history to an animal, when it related to the god from whom the animal was denominated. 



Lucos, was, as I have shewn, the name of the sun ; hence, wherever this term occurs 

 in composition, there will be commonly found some reference to that deity, or to his sub- 

 stitute, Apollo. We read of Av^js AttoXXovo? U^ov : of Lycorus, a supposed son of Apollo : of 

 Lycomedes, another son ; of Lycosura, the first city which the sun beheld. The people of 

 Delphi were, of old, called Lycorians ; and the summit of Parnassus, Ly carta. Near it was a 

 town of the same name ; and both were sacred to the god of light. From Lucos, in this 

 sense, came lux, luceo, lucidus, and Jupiter Lucetius, of the Latins : and At^xfof, Ay^y**, 

 Af^veuo! , of the Greeks: also Auxafa?, and a^ni^tXvHo?, though differently expressed. Hence it 

 was, that many places, sacred to Apollo, were styled Leuce, Leitca, Auxja, Leucas, Lemate : 



Mox et LeucatiE nimbosa cacumina mentis, 



Et formidatus nautis aperitur Apollo. virg. 



Hence, also, inscriptions DEO LEUCANIiE : which term seems to denote sol-fons, the 

 fountain of day. The name Lycophron, AiiKo<ppav, which some would derive from Avxoo a 

 wolf, signifies a person of an enlightened mind. Groves were held very sacred : hence 

 Lucus, which some would absurdly derive a non lucendo, was so named from the deity there 

 worshiped. Vol. L p. 79- 



