250 
BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 
cites the names of the two attendants on Cleopatra, 
Eiras, and Charm ion, the Rainbow and the Dove, as 
indicating the priestly office, and bringing down to a 
later epoch in Egyptian history a remembrance of the 
circumstances under which the earth was again peopled. 
The rainbow was certainly the most renowned of Arkite 
emblems, and I know not why Hesiod should designate 
it “The Great Oath,” except through the prevailing 
power of a tradition, divine in its origin. As such, 
Homer knows it well, - * * and, in accordance with established 
usage in the ancient world, he calls it, in a hymn to Selene, 
the sign and intimation (of Divine promise) to mortals.t 
The appeal to it by the Deity as something superior to 
the secondary gods is characteristic of Hesiod, who de¬ 
scribes Iris as the servant of Jove, who fetches from 
afar, in a golden cup, the waters of many names; making 
her the representative of covenant and of purification. 
Osiris entering the ark, Deucalion reproving the lawless¬ 
ness of the men of violence by whom he was surrounded, 
Nannacus sacrificing in the temple, are but versions 
of a history, of which the heavens bear the best secular 
memorial, after the special and Divine record given for 
“our edification.” But did Noah understand the purport 
* “ ’I pissiv eoLKores as re Kpovlatv 
E v vetyei (TTripL^e, repas fAepbircav avOpdoTTcov." 
* II., a. 27. 
“ Hsrre Troptyvperii/^Ipii/ 6urjro?(TL rauvo'a'D 
Zevs el * bvpav60ev f repas enixevai.” 
II., P. 547. 
f “ T eKficop 5e fipbro^s nai crri(xa rervurai 
v. 13. 
