DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0120
110
140. The Greeks attributed to her the powers of destruction as
Well as nutrition; humidity, as well as heat, contributing to putre-
faction : whence sudden death was supposed to proceed from
Diana as well as from Apollo ; who was both the sender of disease,
and the inventor of cure: for disease is the father of medicine, as
Apollo was fabled to be of iEsculapius. The rays of the Moon
were thought relaxing,, even to inanimate bodies, by means of their
humidity : whence wood cut at the full of the moon was rejected
by builders as improper for use.1 . The Ilithyiaj, supposed to pre-
side over chilcUbirthj were only personifications of this property,1
which seemed to facilitate delivery by slackening the powers of
resistance and obstruction ; and hence the crescent was universally
worn as an amulet by women ; ask still continues to be in the
southern parts of Italy; and. Juno Lucina, and Diana, were the
same goddess, equally personifications of the Moon.3
141. The ^Egyptians represented the Moon under the symbol of
a cat; probably on account of that animal's power of seeing in
the night; and also, perhaps, on account of its fecundity ; which
seems to have induced the Hindoos to adopt the rabbit as the sym-
bol of the same deified planet.4 As the arch or bend of the mys-
tical instrument, borne by Isis and called a sistrum, represented
the lunar orbit, the cat occupied the centre of it; while the rattles
below represented the terrestrial elements;5 of which there are
1 VtveraL pe fcai Trepi ra crjivxa toiv cruifxaruy (htiStiAos tj ttis o-€\ijvt)s tivvafiis' tuv re
yap ^vKorj ra Tefivoizzva reus -Traj/tfeA^^at? airo[3aA\ov<Tiv ol removes, us turaXa Kai
fivSorra vax«« 5i' vyporiira. Plutarch. Sympos. lib. in. qu. 10.
1 —'OSev oijxai Kai TTjvAprep.iv, Aoxeiav Kai Zi\ei6viav, ovk ovaav erepav t) ri\v creX-i}-
vvp>, avofiatrBat. Ibid.
3 Tu Lucina dolentibus
Juho dicta puerperis
Tu potens Trivia, et notho es
Dicta lumine Luna. Catull. xxxiv. 13.
♦Maurice's Indian Antiquities, vol. i. p. 513. See fabulous reasons as-
signed for the /Egyptian symbol. Demetr. Plialer. s. 159.
5 Plutarch, dc If. et Osir. p. 876.
140. The Greeks attributed to her the powers of destruction as
Well as nutrition; humidity, as well as heat, contributing to putre-
faction : whence sudden death was supposed to proceed from
Diana as well as from Apollo ; who was both the sender of disease,
and the inventor of cure: for disease is the father of medicine, as
Apollo was fabled to be of iEsculapius. The rays of the Moon
were thought relaxing,, even to inanimate bodies, by means of their
humidity : whence wood cut at the full of the moon was rejected
by builders as improper for use.1 . The Ilithyiaj, supposed to pre-
side over chilcUbirthj were only personifications of this property,1
which seemed to facilitate delivery by slackening the powers of
resistance and obstruction ; and hence the crescent was universally
worn as an amulet by women ; ask still continues to be in the
southern parts of Italy; and. Juno Lucina, and Diana, were the
same goddess, equally personifications of the Moon.3
141. The ^Egyptians represented the Moon under the symbol of
a cat; probably on account of that animal's power of seeing in
the night; and also, perhaps, on account of its fecundity ; which
seems to have induced the Hindoos to adopt the rabbit as the sym-
bol of the same deified planet.4 As the arch or bend of the mys-
tical instrument, borne by Isis and called a sistrum, represented
the lunar orbit, the cat occupied the centre of it; while the rattles
below represented the terrestrial elements;5 of which there are
1 VtveraL pe fcai Trepi ra crjivxa toiv cruifxaruy (htiStiAos tj ttis o-€\ijvt)s tivvafiis' tuv re
yap ^vKorj ra Tefivoizzva reus -Traj/tfeA^^at? airo[3aA\ov<Tiv ol removes, us turaXa Kai
fivSorra vax«« 5i' vyporiira. Plutarch. Sympos. lib. in. qu. 10.
1 —'OSev oijxai Kai TTjvAprep.iv, Aoxeiav Kai Zi\ei6viav, ovk ovaav erepav t) ri\v creX-i}-
vvp>, avofiatrBat. Ibid.
3 Tu Lucina dolentibus
Juho dicta puerperis
Tu potens Trivia, et notho es
Dicta lumine Luna. Catull. xxxiv. 13.
♦Maurice's Indian Antiquities, vol. i. p. 513. See fabulous reasons as-
signed for the /Egyptian symbol. Demetr. Plialer. s. 159.
5 Plutarch, dc If. et Osir. p. 876.