DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0037
27
our word, Earth. Her fecundation by the descent of the active
spirit, as described in the passage of Virgil before cited, is most
distinctly represented in an ancient bronze at Strawberry Hill.
As the personified principle of the productive power of the Earth,
she naturally became the patroness of agriculture ; and thus the
inventress and tutelar deity of legislation and social order, which
first arose out of the division, appropriation, and cultivation of the
soil.
37. The Greek title seems originally to have had a more general
signification : for without the aspirate (which was anciently added
and omitted almost arbitrarily) it becomes EPE; and, by an abbre-
viation very common in the Greek tongue, PE or PEE; which, \
pronounced with the broad termination of some dialects, become
PEA ; and with the hissing one of others, PES or RES ; a word
retained in the Latin, signifying properly matter, and figuratively,
every quality and modification that can belong to it. The Greek
has no word of such comprehensive meaning ; the old general term
being, in the refinement of their language, rendered more specific,
and appropriated to that principal mass of matter, which forms the
terraqueous globe; and which the Latins also expressed by the same
word united to the Greek article t>j epa—TERRA.
38. The ancient word, with its original meaning, was however
retained by the Greeks in the personification of it: Rhea, the first
of the goddesses, signifying universal matter, and being thence
said, in the figurative language of the poets, to be the mother of
Jupiter, who was begotten upon her by Time. In the same figu-
rative language, Time is said to be the son of Oupxvos, or Heaven;
that is, of the supreme termination and boundary, which appears to
have been originally called xoiXov, the hollow or vault ; which the.,
Latins retained in their word COELUM, sometimes employed to .
signify the pervading Spirit, that fills and animates it. Hence
Varro says that Ccelum and Terra; that is, universal mind and
productive body; were the great gods of the Samothracian mysteries;
and the same as the Serapis and isis of the later Egyptians; the
Taautes and Astarte of the Phoenicians; and the Saturn and Ops
our word, Earth. Her fecundation by the descent of the active
spirit, as described in the passage of Virgil before cited, is most
distinctly represented in an ancient bronze at Strawberry Hill.
As the personified principle of the productive power of the Earth,
she naturally became the patroness of agriculture ; and thus the
inventress and tutelar deity of legislation and social order, which
first arose out of the division, appropriation, and cultivation of the
soil.
37. The Greek title seems originally to have had a more general
signification : for without the aspirate (which was anciently added
and omitted almost arbitrarily) it becomes EPE; and, by an abbre-
viation very common in the Greek tongue, PE or PEE; which, \
pronounced with the broad termination of some dialects, become
PEA ; and with the hissing one of others, PES or RES ; a word
retained in the Latin, signifying properly matter, and figuratively,
every quality and modification that can belong to it. The Greek
has no word of such comprehensive meaning ; the old general term
being, in the refinement of their language, rendered more specific,
and appropriated to that principal mass of matter, which forms the
terraqueous globe; and which the Latins also expressed by the same
word united to the Greek article t>j epa—TERRA.
38. The ancient word, with its original meaning, was however
retained by the Greeks in the personification of it: Rhea, the first
of the goddesses, signifying universal matter, and being thence
said, in the figurative language of the poets, to be the mother of
Jupiter, who was begotten upon her by Time. In the same figu-
rative language, Time is said to be the son of Oupxvos, or Heaven;
that is, of the supreme termination and boundary, which appears to
have been originally called xoiXov, the hollow or vault ; which the.,
Latins retained in their word COELUM, sometimes employed to .
signify the pervading Spirit, that fills and animates it. Hence
Varro says that Ccelum and Terra; that is, universal mind and
productive body; were the great gods of the Samothracian mysteries;
and the same as the Serapis and isis of the later Egyptians; the
Taautes and Astarte of the Phoenicians; and the Saturn and Ops