The golden verses of Pythagoras

[36]Plut., De Music.

[37]Diod. Sicul., l. iii., 35. Pausan., In Bœot., p. 585.

[38]Bibliotheca Græca, p. 4.

[39] Duhalde, t. iv., in-fol., p. 65. These Tartars had no idea of poetry before their conquest of China; also they imagined that it was only in China where the rules of this science had been formulated, and that the rest of the world resembled them.

[40] Kien-long, one of the descendants of Kang-hi, has made good verse in Chinese. This prince has composed an historical poem on the conquest of the Eleuth, or Oloth people, who, after having been a long time tributary to China, revolted. (Mém. concernant les Chin., t. i., p. 329.)

[41] The commencement of the Indian Kali-youg is placed 3101 or 3102 years before our era. Fréret has fixed it, in his chronological researches, at January 16, 3102, a half hour before the winter solstice, in the colure of which was then found the first star of Aries. The Brahmans say that this age of darkness and uncleanness must endure 432,000 years. Kali signifies in Sanskrit, all that which is black, shadowy, material, bad. From there, the Latin word caligo; and the French word (galimatias); the last part of this word comes from the Greek word μῦθος, a discourse, which is itself derived from the Phœnician מוט (mot or myt), which expresses all that moves, stirs up; a motion, a word, etc.

[42]Asiat. Research., t. ii., p. 140. The Brahmans say that their imperial dynasties, pontifical as well as laic, or solar and lunar, became extinguished a thousand years after the beginning of the Kali-youg, about 2000 B.C. It was at this epoch that India was divided into many independent sovereignties and that a powerful reformer of the cult appeared in Magadha, who took the surname of Buddha.

[43]Herod., l. ii. This historian said that in the early times all Egypt was a morass, with the exception of the country of Thebes; that nothing was seen of the land, which one saw there at the epoch in which he was writing, beyond Lake Mœris; and that going up the river, during a seven days’ journey, all seemed a vast sea. This same writer said in the beginning of book i., and this is very remarkable, that the Phœnicians had entered from the Red Sea into the Mediterranean, to establish themselves upon its shores, which they would have been unable to do if the Isthmus of Suez had existed. See what Aristotle says on this subject, Meteorolog., l. i., c. 14.

[44]Asiat. Research., t. iii., p. 321. The excerpts that Wilford has made from the Pourana, entitled Scanda, the God of War, prove that the Palis, called Philistines, on account of their same country, Palis-sthan, going out from India, established themselves upon the Persian Gulf and, under the name of Phœnicians, came afterwards along the coast of Yemen, on the borders of the Red Sea, whence they passed into the Mediterranean Sea, as Herodotus said, according to the Persian traditions. This coincidence is of great historical interest.

[45] Niebuhr, Descript. de l’Arab., p. 164. Two powerful tribes became divided in Arabia at this epoch: that of the Himyarites, who possessed the meridional part, or Yemen, and that of the Koreishites, who occupied the septentrional part, or Hejaz. The capital of the Himyarites was called Dhofar; their kings took the title of Tobba and enjoyed an hereditary power. The Koreishites possessed the sacred city of Arabia, Mecca, where was found the ancient temple still venerated today by the Mussulmans.

[46]Asiat. Research., t. iii., p. ii.

[47] Diodorus Siculus, l. ii., 12. Strabo, l. xvi. Suidas, art. Semiramis.

[48]Phot., Cod., 44. Ex. Diodor., l. xl. Syncell., p. 61. Joseph., Contr. Apion.

[49]Hérod., l. ii. Diod. Siculus, l. i., § 2.

[50]Diodor. Sicul., l. i., § 2. Delille-de-Salles, Hist. des Homm., Egypte, t. iii., p. 178.

[51]Plat., in Tim. Dial.Theopomp.apudEuseb., Præp. Evan., l. x., c. 10.Diod. Sicul., l. i., initio.

[52]Diodor. Sicul., l. i., initio.

[53]Pausan., Bœot., p. 768.

[54] This word is Egyptian and Phœnician alike. It is composed of the words אור (aur), light, and רפא (rophœ), cure, salvation.

[55] Eurydice, in Greek Εὐρυδίκη, comes from the Phœnician words ראה (rohe), vision, clearness, evidence, and דך (dich), that which demonstrates or teaches: these two words are preceded by the Greek adverb εὖ, which expresses all that is good, happy, and perfect in its kind.

[56]Plat., In Phædon.Ibid., In Panegyr.Aristot., Rhet., l. ii., c. 24. Isocr., Paneg. Cicero, De Leg., l. ii. Plutar., De Isid. Paus., In Phoc., etc.

[57] Théodoret, Therapeut.

[58] Philo, De Vitâ Mosis, l. i.

[59]Jamblic., De Vitâ Pythag., c. 2. Apul., Florid., ii. Diog. Laërt., l. viii.

[60]Voyage du jeune Anacharsis, t. i., Introd., p. 7.

[61] Meurs., De Relig. Athen., l. i., c. 9.

[62]Apollon., l. iii., p. 237.

[63]Hygin., Fabl., 143.

[64]Pausan., Arcad., p. 266, 268, etc.

[65] Strabo, l. x; Meurs., Eleus., c. 21 et seq.; Paus., Ath., c. 28; Fulgent., Myth., l. i.; Philostr., In Apollon., l. ii.; Athen., l. xi.; Procl., In Tim. Comment., l. v.

[66]Euseb., Præp. Evang., l. xiii., c. 12.

[67] The unity of God is taught in an Orphic hymn of which Justin, Tatian, Clement of Alexandria, Cyril, and Theodore have preserved fragments. (Orphei Hymn. Edente Eschenbach., p. 242.)

[68]Clem. Alex., Admon. ad Gent., p. 48; ibid., Strom., l. v., p. 607.

[69] Apoll., Arg., l. i., v. 496; Clem. Alex., Strom., l. iv., p. 475.

[70] Thimothée, cité par Bannier, Mythol., i., p. 104.

[71] Macrobius, Somm. Scip., l. i., c. 12.

[72]Eurip., Hippol., v. 948.

[73]Plat., De Leg., l. vi.; Jambl., De Vitâ Pythag.

[74]Acad. des Insc., t. v., p. 117.

[75]Procl., In Tim., l. v., p. 330; Cicero, Somm. Scip., c. 2, 3, 4, 6.