DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0087
77
Sun under the title of Bacchus Sebazius;' and another is men-
tioned by Apollonius Rhodius, which was dedicated to Mars upon
an island in the Euxine Sea near the coast of the Amazons.2,
102. The large obelisks of stone found in many parts of the
North, such as those at Rudstone and near JBoroughbridge in
Yorkshire, belonged to the same religion: obelisks, as Pliny ob-
serves, being sacred to the Sun; whose rays they signified both by
their form and name.3 They were therefore the emblems of light,
the primary and essential emanation of the Deity; whence radiating
the head, or surrounding it with a diadem of small obelisks, was a
mode of consecration or deification, which flattery often employed
in the portraits both of the Macedonian kings and Roman empe-
rors.4 The mystagogues and poets expressed the same meaning
by the epithet ATKEI02 or ATKAIOX; which is occasionally
applied to almost every personification of the Deity, and more
especially to Apollo ; who is likewise called ATKHTENETHZ, or as
contracted ATKHrENHX.which mythologists have explained
by an absurd fable of his having been born in Lycia ; whereas it
signifies the Author or Generator of Light; being derived from
ATKH otherwise ATKOS, of which the Latin word LUX is a
contraction.
103. The titles LUCETIUS and DIESPITER applied to
Jupiter are expressive of the same attribute; the one signifying
luminous, and the other the Father of Day, which the Cretans called
by the name of the Supreme God.6 In symbolical writing the
same meaning was signified by the appropriate emblems in various
countries ; whence the ZETS MEIAIXIOS at Sicyon, and the
1 Macrob. Sat. i. c. 18.
f Argonaut, lib. ii. 11G9..
3 Lib. xxxv.'. I. 14.
to cjiois yweo-eus etrn oTjjueiov. Plutarch. Q. R,
+ SeePlin. Paiiegy.rI.'s. lii- and the coins of AntiochusIV. and VI. of Syria,
Philip IV. of Macedonia, several of the Ptolemies, Augustus, &c.
5 II. A. 101. Schpl. Didym. et Ven. Heraclid. Pant. p. 417. ed. Gale.
6 Macrob. Sat. i. c. 15.
Sun under the title of Bacchus Sebazius;' and another is men-
tioned by Apollonius Rhodius, which was dedicated to Mars upon
an island in the Euxine Sea near the coast of the Amazons.2,
102. The large obelisks of stone found in many parts of the
North, such as those at Rudstone and near JBoroughbridge in
Yorkshire, belonged to the same religion: obelisks, as Pliny ob-
serves, being sacred to the Sun; whose rays they signified both by
their form and name.3 They were therefore the emblems of light,
the primary and essential emanation of the Deity; whence radiating
the head, or surrounding it with a diadem of small obelisks, was a
mode of consecration or deification, which flattery often employed
in the portraits both of the Macedonian kings and Roman empe-
rors.4 The mystagogues and poets expressed the same meaning
by the epithet ATKEI02 or ATKAIOX; which is occasionally
applied to almost every personification of the Deity, and more
especially to Apollo ; who is likewise called ATKHTENETHZ, or as
contracted ATKHrENHX.which mythologists have explained
by an absurd fable of his having been born in Lycia ; whereas it
signifies the Author or Generator of Light; being derived from
ATKH otherwise ATKOS, of which the Latin word LUX is a
contraction.
103. The titles LUCETIUS and DIESPITER applied to
Jupiter are expressive of the same attribute; the one signifying
luminous, and the other the Father of Day, which the Cretans called
by the name of the Supreme God.6 In symbolical writing the
same meaning was signified by the appropriate emblems in various
countries ; whence the ZETS MEIAIXIOS at Sicyon, and the
1 Macrob. Sat. i. c. 18.
f Argonaut, lib. ii. 11G9..
3 Lib. xxxv.'. I. 14.
to cjiois yweo-eus etrn oTjjueiov. Plutarch. Q. R,
+ SeePlin. Paiiegy.rI.'s. lii- and the coins of AntiochusIV. and VI. of Syria,
Philip IV. of Macedonia, several of the Ptolemies, Augustus, &c.
5 II. A. 101. Schpl. Didym. et Ven. Heraclid. Pant. p. 417. ed. Gale.
6 Macrob. Sat. i. c. 15.