DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9841#0051
XXIII.J CHANGE IN THE SUN'S PLACE OF RISING. 33
The Greek's idea calls to mind Herodotus's mention
of what he heard in Egypt, about the change which had
happened, in ancient times, in the sun's usual places of
rising and setting2.
Ne is that same great glorious lamp of light,
That doth enlumine all the lesser f'yres,
In better case, ne keeps his course more right,
But is miscaried with the other spheres.
And if to those Egyptian wizards old,
Which in star-read were wont have best insight,
Faith may be given, it is by them told
That since the time they first tooke the Sunnes hight,
Foure times his place he shifted hath in sight,
And twice hath risen where he now doth west,
And wested twice where he ought rise aright3.
I have never before noticed an instance, in any part
of Greece or Turkey, of a church not standing due
east and west4. In England there is sometimes a de-
viation, determined by the place where the sun rises on
the day of the saint to whom the church is dedicated.
This peculiarity in our old ecclesiastical architecture has
been celebrated by a living poet5.
A passage of Ezekiel shews how greatly the Jews
abominated the oriental custom of turning the face to
the east in prayer". The Jews themselves seem to have
turned towards the sanctuary, even in the time of David7;
2 Herodotus, ji. 142. 'Ey toivvu toOtw tw xp°vi? Te-rpa/cie eXeyov
ef ificcov tov rikiov dva-relXni. See also Butleb, Hudibras, Canto in.
v. 865. foil.
3 Spenser, Faerie Queene, Book v. Introd. Stan. !i.
4 No doubt such may be found. Colonel Leake, Travels in the More'a,
I. p. 297. speaks of the church of Asdmatos, near Cape Matapan, which
" instead of facing to the East, as Greek churches usually do, faces south-
eastward, towards the head of the port, which is likely to have been the aspect
of the temple," (of the Taenarian Poseidon.)
6 Wordsworth.
6 Ezekiel, viii. 16—18. The ruins of a temple called Ghebri Bena,
the temple of the Ghebers, were visited by Mr Keppel, Journey from India
to England, Vol. i. Ch. x. He observes, " The gradual slope of the plain to
the west would indicate that on that side was the ascent to the temple."
7 psai.ms, v. 7. xxviii. 2.
C 2
The Greek's idea calls to mind Herodotus's mention
of what he heard in Egypt, about the change which had
happened, in ancient times, in the sun's usual places of
rising and setting2.
Ne is that same great glorious lamp of light,
That doth enlumine all the lesser f'yres,
In better case, ne keeps his course more right,
But is miscaried with the other spheres.
And if to those Egyptian wizards old,
Which in star-read were wont have best insight,
Faith may be given, it is by them told
That since the time they first tooke the Sunnes hight,
Foure times his place he shifted hath in sight,
And twice hath risen where he now doth west,
And wested twice where he ought rise aright3.
I have never before noticed an instance, in any part
of Greece or Turkey, of a church not standing due
east and west4. In England there is sometimes a de-
viation, determined by the place where the sun rises on
the day of the saint to whom the church is dedicated.
This peculiarity in our old ecclesiastical architecture has
been celebrated by a living poet5.
A passage of Ezekiel shews how greatly the Jews
abominated the oriental custom of turning the face to
the east in prayer". The Jews themselves seem to have
turned towards the sanctuary, even in the time of David7;
2 Herodotus, ji. 142. 'Ey toivvu toOtw tw xp°vi? Te-rpa/cie eXeyov
ef ificcov tov rikiov dva-relXni. See also Butleb, Hudibras, Canto in.
v. 865. foil.
3 Spenser, Faerie Queene, Book v. Introd. Stan. !i.
4 No doubt such may be found. Colonel Leake, Travels in the More'a,
I. p. 297. speaks of the church of Asdmatos, near Cape Matapan, which
" instead of facing to the East, as Greek churches usually do, faces south-
eastward, towards the head of the port, which is likely to have been the aspect
of the temple," (of the Taenarian Poseidon.)
6 Wordsworth.
6 Ezekiel, viii. 16—18. The ruins of a temple called Ghebri Bena,
the temple of the Ghebers, were visited by Mr Keppel, Journey from India
to England, Vol. i. Ch. x. He observes, " The gradual slope of the plain to
the west would indicate that on that side was the ascent to the temple."
7 psai.ms, v. 7. xxviii. 2.
C 2