188 Dr. Hager on the Nama and Origin of the Pyramids. [O@ober 1, 
guages for expreffing a pyramid than amud 
or amiid (“Dy with a kzbbutz)acolumn, apil- 
lar: for thamar, a palm-tree and fome other 
words, are much lefs in ufe than émid*. 
. A pyramid is, according to the ancients, 
a column reprefenting fire: therefore the 
chemifts, from time immemorial, have re- 
pretented fire by a pyramid A. The Scho- 
liafi of Horace attefts, that the pyramids 
were thus called from the figure fimilar to 
fire; he fays that the pyramids are regum 
LE Zyptiorum fepulcra, ingenti mole conjlruc- 
fz, et in cacumeéen edudia in modum flame 
efurgentis: UNDE ET NOMEN ACCE- 
PzruntTt+. Ur fignifies fire in. Hebreaw 
and Chaldaic; amid ur is a column of 
fire, and ur-amiid,a fire column. For al- 
though the genitive regularly ought to be 
after the nominative in Hebrew, we have 
inftances encugh of words being tranf 
poled ; and after all, one might fay, that 
the Greeks to diftinguifh a pyramid from 
another pillar, called it Idp-auis, a fire- 
column, as their language admits compo- — 
fitions of words, which is not the cale in 
feveral other languages. But let us fup- 
pofe the Chaldéans called it uwr-amid, for 
they’ were the oldeft_ worfhippers of fire 
we know, and Bel, which was the fuz, and 
their god, was reprefented and worfhipped 
by the fire. Nov, if the Egyptians re- 
ceived the wr-amud of the Chaldeans, their 
article, which they ufe to prefix to words, 
beiog a p, (as it is known) we fhall have 
pur-amud. ‘The fame might be the cafe 
with the Greeks ; for fome of them ufed to 
prefix, and even to infert, an F to feveral 
words. Thus they faid Feomepa inftead of 
Eomepe 3 2Fs¢, inftead of tic, &c. Befides 
that, Fur was the ancient name of Fire, 
we know not only from the Latin furor, 
but alfo from the moft ancient Germant. 
The word mvp, fire, was, according to 
Plato, a foreign word, which the Greeks 
had taken from the bardarians§. F. and 
P. are two letters which continually are 
confourded, juft like tordands. Thus 
the Perfians were called by fome Fars; 
and, by others, Parth; confequently ur- 
amid, fur-amiid, and up-apsts may be the 
Jame. The Greek accent on the laf fyl- 
lable confirms what I fay: for it fhews the 
t¢ not to be a mere additional Greek termi- 
nation, but an effential fyllable, belonging 
to the root. Nor isthe change of # into z, 
* See Taylor's Hebr. Concord. Buxtorf. Lexic. 
Chaid. and other lexicographers. 
+ Apud Iablonfky in Prolegomen. ad Panth. 
fezypt. ; 
{ Adelung’s Worterbuch, 
§ Plato in Cratylo, 
or of d into s, contrary to the rules of the 
moft rigorous etymology. For we know 
how frequently the vowels are changed in 
different dialects; and thus alfo demd in 
Perfian, is dens in Latin, or ode in Greek. 
But the obelifes afford a further proof 
of the pyramids being derived from Baby- 
lon. That Semiramis erected an obelifk 
one hundred and thirty feet high, is atteft- 
ed by Diodorus Siculus*, This magnifi-” 
cent pillar was brought from Arwfexia (not 
from Egypt) 4ffyria being aflat country,and 
deftituteof marbles. Obelifkos, is likewile not 
an Eg yptianappellation: itsroot has hither= 
to as little been found in the Eg yptzan 
lapguage, as that of pyramis. We received 
that name firft from the Greeks—icxoe is 
theGreek diminutive; like @ac:Aicuoc,a little 
king, from Bacirsig; rasioxos, a little boy, 
from. aig; xulcxos, a little dog, from 
uvav, &c-  Befides, the Greeks ufed to 
prefix ano to words which originally had 
none. : : 
Thus, inftead of zam, in Perfian; 
nama, in Samfkrit; women, in Latin; a 
name, they have made ¢Gvoa; inftead of 
dend, in Perfian; dezda, in Samfkrit ; 
dens, in Latin; a tooth; they have made 
ada'¢, "oddvrog 5 and the cafe feems to have 
been the fame with O-del-ifkos; or, they 
have corrupted it from ha bel, the god Bel, 
with the Heorew and Chaldaic article ha: 
thus they feem alfo to have made Affpria 
from Syria, which was the common name 
of both countries. ) 
Now the odelifts were, after the 
clear teftimony of Pliny, pillars dedicated 
tothe Sun; (Solis numini facrati+) ; for 
they reprefented, as he favs, the rays of 
the fun (radiorum ejus argumentum in ef- 
Jigie eff); and therefore we find, in the 
Latin infcription, which is on a great obe- 
lifk ftill exiftant at Rowe, that Augu/tus had 
dedicated it to the fun: Soli donum deditt. 
That the faa at Babylon was worfhipped 
under the name.of Bel, has been fo often 
repeated, that it is fuperfluous to prove it 
here. The Phoenician coins found in 
Spain, prove, amongft other monuments, 
that Baal or Bel was the name of the fun§, 
The firft obel#ks in Egypt were alfo ereét- 
ed at Heliopolis, or in the town of the /unl}, 
There is then no wonder if an obeli/z was 
called after Bel, whom it was to reprefent, 
* Diodor. Sic. Jib. ii. 
+ Plin. Nat. Hit. lib. xxxvi. cap. 14. * 
f{ The Obelifk of Sefoftris, in Piazza Co.’ 
lonna. 
§ See Court de Gebelin Monde Primitif, 
vol. 4. 
| Lablonfey Prolegom. cit. 
O-be-liftots 
