DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0119
109
of the ocean, she naturally appeared to be the sovereign of hu-
midity ; and by seeming to operate so powerfully upon the consti-
tutions of women, she equally appeared to be the patroness and
regulatress of nutrition and passive generation i whence she is said
to have received her nymphs, or subordinate personifications,
from the ocean ;* and is often represented by the symbol of the
sea-crab;1 an animal that has the property of spontaneously de-
taching from its own body any limb, that has been hurt or muti-
lated, and re-producing another in its place. As the heat of the
Sun animated the seminal particles of terrestrial matter, so was
the humidity of the Moon supposed to nourish and mature them ;l
and as her orbit was held to be the boundary that separated the ce-
lestial from the terrestrial world,4' she was the mediatress between
both ; the primary subject of the one, and sovereign of the other,
who tempered the subtility of a?therial spirit to the grossness of
earthly matter, so as to make them harmonise and unite.5
I iEschyl. Prometh. Vinct. 138. Callimach. Hymn, in Dian. 13. Catul-
lus in Gell. 84.
1 See coins of the Brettii in Italy, Ilimera in Sicily, &c.
3 Duobus his reguntur omnia terrena, calore quidem solis per diem,
hurnore vero lunse per noctem.-'Nam at calore solis animantur se-
mina, ita lume humore nutriuntur, penes ipsam enitn et corporum om-
nium ratio esse dicitur et potestas. Schol. Vet. in Horat. Carm. Sec.
Luna alit ostrea; et impletechinas, et muribus fibras,
Et pecui addit. Lucil. apud Anl. Gell, 1. xx. c. 8.
* l&dnos yap *(Ttiv aBavaffias Kai yeveffeus 6 irept tt\v ffi\7ivt]v Spop-os. Ocell. Lucan.
de Universo, p. 516. ed. Gale.
Atto yap ttjs (TtKnviairqs (Ttpaipas, tjv kaxa-Trlv M€I/ 7WJ/ KaT' ovpavov kvkXoiv, irptinrp/ 5e
iitiv Tvpos vfias, avaypatpovffw ol (ppovrunai twv juerewpwv, axpi 7?JS etr^aT^s b at\p
xafTt) Tofifis tipOaaiLv. Philon. de Somn. vol. i. p. 641. Oper.
5 'HAlos 8e KapSias cxoiv Sui/a/up, wenrep alfxa Kai irvevp.a, 5ia7rejU7ret Kai SiaaKeZavPVffLi/
e£ havrov 9epft0T7)Ta Kai (par yrj 5e Kai BaXaaari xpwn KaTa <pvaw b Koap.os, Stra KoiXia
Kai kwtci %uov ff^cr;, tjMov /j.era£v Kai yr\s, &mtp KapSiar Kai not\ias ipsap, i) ti
liahBaKov a\Ko airXayX"oy, eyiceip.a'ri, ttjv t' avwBev u\eav evravda Siaire/nrci, Kai toj
evrtvOev avaBvpnaacis iretyti tivi Kai Kadaptrti MTrrvyovffa irepi tavrqir avatitooxriv, Plu-
tarch, de Facie in Orbe Lunai, p. 928,
of the ocean, she naturally appeared to be the sovereign of hu-
midity ; and by seeming to operate so powerfully upon the consti-
tutions of women, she equally appeared to be the patroness and
regulatress of nutrition and passive generation i whence she is said
to have received her nymphs, or subordinate personifications,
from the ocean ;* and is often represented by the symbol of the
sea-crab;1 an animal that has the property of spontaneously de-
taching from its own body any limb, that has been hurt or muti-
lated, and re-producing another in its place. As the heat of the
Sun animated the seminal particles of terrestrial matter, so was
the humidity of the Moon supposed to nourish and mature them ;l
and as her orbit was held to be the boundary that separated the ce-
lestial from the terrestrial world,4' she was the mediatress between
both ; the primary subject of the one, and sovereign of the other,
who tempered the subtility of a?therial spirit to the grossness of
earthly matter, so as to make them harmonise and unite.5
I iEschyl. Prometh. Vinct. 138. Callimach. Hymn, in Dian. 13. Catul-
lus in Gell. 84.
1 See coins of the Brettii in Italy, Ilimera in Sicily, &c.
3 Duobus his reguntur omnia terrena, calore quidem solis per diem,
hurnore vero lunse per noctem.-'Nam at calore solis animantur se-
mina, ita lume humore nutriuntur, penes ipsam enitn et corporum om-
nium ratio esse dicitur et potestas. Schol. Vet. in Horat. Carm. Sec.
Luna alit ostrea; et impletechinas, et muribus fibras,
Et pecui addit. Lucil. apud Anl. Gell, 1. xx. c. 8.
* l&dnos yap *(Ttiv aBavaffias Kai yeveffeus 6 irept tt\v ffi\7ivt]v Spop-os. Ocell. Lucan.
de Universo, p. 516. ed. Gale.
Atto yap ttjs (TtKnviairqs (Ttpaipas, tjv kaxa-Trlv M€I/ 7WJ/ KaT' ovpavov kvkXoiv, irptinrp/ 5e
iitiv Tvpos vfias, avaypatpovffw ol (ppovrunai twv juerewpwv, axpi 7?JS etr^aT^s b at\p
xafTt) Tofifis tipOaaiLv. Philon. de Somn. vol. i. p. 641. Oper.
5 'HAlos 8e KapSias cxoiv Sui/a/up, wenrep alfxa Kai irvevp.a, 5ia7rejU7ret Kai SiaaKeZavPVffLi/
e£ havrov 9epft0T7)Ta Kai (par yrj 5e Kai BaXaaari xpwn KaTa <pvaw b Koap.os, Stra KoiXia
Kai kwtci %uov ff^cr;, tjMov /j.era£v Kai yr\s, &mtp KapSiar Kai not\ias ipsap, i) ti
liahBaKov a\Ko airXayX"oy, eyiceip.a'ri, ttjv t' avwBev u\eav evravda Siaire/nrci, Kai toj
evrtvOev avaBvpnaacis iretyti tivi Kai Kadaptrti MTrrvyovffa irepi tavrqir avatitooxriv, Plu-
tarch, de Facie in Orbe Lunai, p. 928,