English
Roaod and aronnd the Titan brood of earth RoU'd the hot fapoor OB its 6er7 surge; 025 The liquid heat air's pure exfianse dirine Saffas'd : the radiance keen of qaiTering flame That shot fitMn writhed lightnings, each dim orb, Strong though they were, intolerable smote. And scorched their blasted Tision. Through the Toid Of Erebus, the pretemstural glare 930 Spread, mingling fire with darkness. Bot to see ^ With human eje, and hear with ear of man Had been, as if midway the spacious bearen, Hurling with earth shock'd — e'en as nether eartli OSS Crash'd from the centre, and the wreck of heaven Fell ruining from high. So vast the din. When, gods encountering gods, the clang of arms Comnungled, and the tumult roar'd from hearen. 040 Shrill msh*d the hollow winds, and ronsM throughout A shaking, and a gathering dark of dust ; The omsh of thunders and the glare of flames. The fiery darts of Joye : full in the midst Of cithsr host they swept the roaring sound 045 Of tempest, and of shouting : mingled rose The din of dreadful battle. There stem strength Put forth the proof of prowess, till the fight Dedin'd : bot first in opposite array Full long they stood, and bore the brunt of war. 050 Amid the foremost towering in the van The war unsated Gyges, Briareus, And Cottus bitterest conflict wag'd : for they Successire thrice a hundred rocks in air Huri'd from their sinewy grasp : with nussile storm 055 The Titan host overshadowing, them they drove AH haughty as they were, with hands of strength, O'ercoming them beneath the expanse of earth. And bound with gallbg chains ; so far beneath This earth, as earth is disUnt from the sky : 960 So deep the space to darksome Tartarus.'' Eiion's TramtlaUon, p. 108 to 114. Thus far Hesiod's description of the War between the Gods and the Giants in the West. He also gives a description of the battle between Jupiter and Typhous, or the moon's ascending node personified ; but as it contains no fact to point out the time, it would be useless to insert it here. There are many other descriptions of this wa7% differing from each Digitized by Google 40 THE ANCIENT ASTRONOMY other, as well as the places in which it-was supposed to have commenced and ended, each poet endea- vouring to transfer it to his own country. In some of these, we are told that the stai-s 8 and 7 o^ Cancer, called the Aselliy assisted Jupiter in his war with the Giants. This is a most material fact, because it serves to point out the time, independent of all other considerations. Hesiod notices the same thing, but in a very different manner : for, considering the in- consistency of two insignificant little asses assisting mighty Jove in his war with the Ittans, he meta- morphoses them with Prasepe, into three mighty Giants, by the names of Briareus, Gyges, and Cottus. "When the War between the Gods and the Giants was feigned to take place in India, 945 years B.C. the solstitial Colure cut the Lunar Asterism Aslesha in 3° 20', and the opposite one Sravana in 10°; which Colure, therefore, divided the heavens in two equal portions, and formed the boundary between light and darkness at the moment of the autumnal equinox ; the enlightened half belonging to the Gods, and the dark half to the Akuras, called also, from their mother, Danavas, and Daityas, the Titans of the west. At that period the stars 8, 7, and Prcesepe, were in the dark half, or on the side of the Titans, as will be seen from their respective longitudes at the time, which were, 7 Cancri, 945 B. C. 2* 26° 40' 14* 8 Cancri, . . . . 2 27 50 54 o Praesepe, (mean) . 2 26 19 52 Hence Hesiod, in alluding to the first War between the Gods and the Giants, tihat is to say, the one in India, poetically describes Cottus, Briareus, and Gyges, as bound with a chain of iron force, beneath the spacious ground, in the abyss where earth's utmost Digitized by Google OF THE HINDUS. 41 boundaries endy v. 822 — 830. The earth and sea were then supposed flat, and to extend to the starry heavens, m the same plane with the solstitial Colure, which was supposed to surround the earth as a wall of brass/ leaving a passage to Tartarus in the begin- ning of Cancer y and another passage in the beginning of Ccqpricom — the former for the departed spirits to enter, the other to admit of their ascending to heaven, when their period of punishment terminated. Fitmi the longitudes of the stars 7 and 8 of Can- cer in 945 B. C. it must be obvious that the war between Jupiter and the Titans must have been sub- sequent to that period ; for these stars could not assist Jupiter until they were m the enlightened hemis{Aere, or at least in the boundary between light and dark- ness. Now the star 8 is the nearest to that boundary, being distant from the beginning of Cancer only 2° 9' 6* : the annual rate of precession at that period was 49' 6 ; consequently the war in the West must have been at least 156 years later than the one in India. We kaow, however, from other circumstances, to be noticed hereafter, that it began about 33 years still later, that is to say, at the autumnal equinox in the year 756 B.C. and terminated at the era of Nabonassar. If the star 7 had been employed in the calculation, the time would come out conmderably later, that is to say, 241 years ; to which if we add the former 156 years, ^jdA take the mean, we get 193 years; therefore 945 — 193=752 years, differing only four years from 756 B.C. To meet with extraordi- nary accuracy in ancient observations is not to be ex- pected; therefore what is here exhibited must be considered as sufficiently exact to indicate the time. But over and above all tiiis, there is another circum- stance to be noticed, which is, that as the stars y and Digitized by Google 42 THE ANCIENT ASTRONOMY Prasepe have a more northern latitude than the star 8, they would appear m Egypt and other northern places to be in the horizon, or above it, when the star 8 was in three signs, or the beginning of Cancer y at the time of the autumnal equinox at noon ; so that in fact they would then be in the enlightened hemi- sphere, ready to co-operate with Jupiter against the Titans y according to the fiction of the poets. Hesiod therefore makes Cottus say : " O imperial son of Sa- turn ! by thy counsels have we risen again, from bit- ter bondage and the depth of darkness, all unhoping of relief," v. 872 — 875. After the war was finished, Hesiod points out the staJ:ion or place of Gyges, Cot- tus, and Briareus. " There the Titanic gods in mur- kiest gloom lie hidden ; in a place of darkness where vast earth has end ; fi'om thence no open egress lies : Neptune's huge hand with brazen gates the mouth has closed ; a wall environs every side. There Gyges, Cottus, high-soul'd Briareus dwell vigilant, the faith- ful sentinels of aegis-bearer Jove. Successive there the dusky earth and darksome Tartarus^ the sterile ocean and the star-bright heaven arise and end, their source and boundaiy," v. 970 — 981. And again: '[ There night and day near passing, mutual greeting still exchange, alternate as they glide athwart the brazen threshold vast," v. 992 — 995. Here it is sufficiently plain that the horizon is meant, both east and west, as^ the points where the day begins and ends. At noon, at the autumnal equinox, the stai's 8 and y, with PrcesepCy would be in the western hori- zon ; and at midnight, they would be in the eastern horizon. In giving this explanation, my principal object was to point out> that the mighty giants Cottus, Gyges, and Briareus, of Hesiod, were no other than Digitized by Google OF THE HINDUS. 43 the stars 8 and y, called the Aselli by other poets, together with Prasepe : but whether they be consi- dered so or not, is of no material consequence, as it is only to the positions of the stars we refer. It may now be proper to mention the manner in which the Aselli assisted Jupiter. The stars 8 and y of Cancer, or the Aselli, being found in the enlightened hemisphere, and at or near the entrance into Tartarus, in the beginning of the sign Cancer, when the Giants attempted to ascend to the celestial regions that way, the Aselli set up such.