DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14564#0148
ON. 131
CHAPTER IX.
ON.
A solitary obelisk of red granite, set up at least four
thousand years ago, alone marks the site of On, also
called the City of the Sun, in Hebrew Beth-shemesh, in
Greek Heliopolis (see p. 134). Nothing else can be seen
of the splendid shrine and the renowned university
which were the former glories of the place. Amid the
memories of the site, a fable told to the Greek and
Roman visitors makes the solitude vocal with a lesson of
instruction. Here was wont to come, once in five
hundred years or more, that mysterious Arabian bird, the
phoenix. The winged wonder had no sooner settled than
he made his nest, only to set it in flames and perish, when
lo ! from his ashes arose a new phcenix, which spread
his red and golden wings and flew away to the unknown
land whence his parent came. The priests, after their
k 2
CHAPTER IX.
ON.
A solitary obelisk of red granite, set up at least four
thousand years ago, alone marks the site of On, also
called the City of the Sun, in Hebrew Beth-shemesh, in
Greek Heliopolis (see p. 134). Nothing else can be seen
of the splendid shrine and the renowned university
which were the former glories of the place. Amid the
memories of the site, a fable told to the Greek and
Roman visitors makes the solitude vocal with a lesson of
instruction. Here was wont to come, once in five
hundred years or more, that mysterious Arabian bird, the
phoenix. The winged wonder had no sooner settled than
he made his nest, only to set it in flames and perish, when
lo ! from his ashes arose a new phcenix, which spread
his red and golden wings and flew away to the unknown
land whence his parent came. The priests, after their
k 2