The mythological astronomy, in three parts / [Sampson Arnold Mackey].

  • Mackey, Sampson Arnold
Date:
1827
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The mythological astronomy, in three parts / [Sampson Arnold Mackey]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    zodiac, and of his being- used in ploughing- the g-round; which last employment procured him the epithet of Apis or Ab-is—Ab-isis, contracted; Isis, with the ear of corn, is the symbol of har- vest, and- as the Bull ploughed the g-round, he was the figurative father of harvest, i. e. Abis from x\b, father; and Isis, harvest. In the cir- cular and oblong- zodiacs from Tentyra (both of which may be seen in Denon’s Travels in Egypt) the Bull is the most distinguished of all the ani- mals, in the solar round, he was, therefore, the father of the fires, i. e. it was Ab-irim. The bright star in that constellation, is the most bril- liant of all the stars or fires in the zodiac, it was the father fire, i. e. it was Ab-ir. The city of ABBIRopolis in Goshen, and AbarA in Hin- doostan were so called from the abundance of cattle. Now the veneration of the ancients for the constellation of the Bull, is well known ; and at the return of the Equator to the various stars that composed it, one or other of the great nations ended and began their reckoning, at which time they had a grand festival, and then putting off the old man with his deeds, they began a new aera, of 1,2, 3, 4, &c. of this the Jews were ac- quainted ; and being willing to have something of antiquity prefixed to their annals, they began a narrative from the beginning of Taurus ; and during the passage of the Equator from the first star in the Bull’s north horn to the brig-lit star Al-de-biran, they have given a list of ten ances- tors in one line and seven in another. The rea- der ought to examine the fourth and fifth chap- ters of Genesis, where he will find a great sameness in the two lines of descent. In one, Me/husael, begets Lantech, in the other it is Me-