A writer in the CLASSICAL JOURNAL, No. 1. p. 100. (who, however, understands this verse in a different sense) has appealedto the Germ. of Tac. c. 39. for an analogous instance, Est et alia luco reverentia: nemo, nisi vinculo ligatus, ingreditur, ut minor et potestatem numinis præ se ferens: si forte prolapsus est, attolli et insurgere haud licitum: per humum ecolvuntur, eoque omnis superstitio respicit, tanquam inde initia gentis, ibi regnator omnium deus, cetera subjecta atque parentia. In the 3d No. of the CLASS. JOURN. I made some remarks upon this mention of a rope as an emblem of submission, and cited the following passage, (relative to the Catti) from the 32d c. of the same treatise, Fortissimus quisque ferreum insuper anulum (ignominiosum id gent) velut vinculum gestat, donec se cæde hostis absolvat. As Lord Woodhouselee justly observed to me in a letter," it might have been remarked, from the proofs given of the ring being accounted a badge of slavery, that the custom of marrying with a ring originated among nations in that state of rude manners, where the wife was considered in the same light as a slave, the absolute property and bondswoman of the husband." Tooke's Court. E. H. BARKER. Sequel to Sir William Drummond's Essay on the Inscriptions found at Saguntum. NO. II. ODOS Mariana's Account of the Biscayan Tongue. Todos los Espanoles en este tiempo, y usan de una lengua comun, que llamamos Castellana, compuesta de avenida de muchas lenguas, en particular de la Latina corrupta: de que es argumento el nombre que tiene, porque tambien se llama Romance, y la afinidad con ella tan grande, que lo que no es dado aun a la lengua Italiana juntamente, y con las mismas palabras, y contexto se puede hablar Latin y Castellano, assi en prosa, como en verso. Los Portugueses tienen su particular lengua, mezclada de la Francesa y Castellana, gustoso para el oydo y elegante. Los Valencianos otrosi y Catalanes usan de su lengua, que es muy semejante a la de Lenguadoc en Francia, o lenguaje Narbonense, de donde aquella nation y gente tuvo su origen: y es assi, que ordinariamente de los lugares comarcanos, y de los con quien se tiene comercio, se pegan algunos vocablos y algunas costumbres. Solos los Viscaynos conservan hasta oy su lenguaje grosero y barbaro, y que no recibe elegancia, y es muy diferente de los demas, y es mas antiguo de Espana, y comun antiguamente de todo ella, segun algunos lo sienten: y se dize que toda Espana usò de la lengua Vizcayna, antes que en estas Provincias entrassen las armas de los Romanos, y con ellas se les pegasse su lengua, Anaden, que como era aquella gente de suo grosera, feroz y agreste, la qual trasplantada a manera de arboles, con la bondad de la tierra se ablanda y mejora, y por ser inaccessibles los montes donde mora, nunca recibiò del todo el yugo del imperio estrangero, ò le sacudiò muy presto. Ni carece de provabilidad, que con la antigua libertad se aya alli conservado la lengua Antigua, y comun de toda la Provincia de Espana. Otros sienten de otra manera, y al contrario dizen, que la lengua Vizcayna siempre fue particular de aquella parte, y no comun de todo Espana. Muevense a dezir esto por testimonio de autores antiguos que dizen los vocablos Vizcaynos, especialmente de los lugares y pueblos, eran mas duros y barbaros que los demas de Espana, y que no se podian reduzir a declinacion Latina. En particular Estrabon testifica, que no un genero de letras, ni una lengua era comun a toda Espana. Confirman esto mismo los nombres briga, pueblo ; cetra, escudo; falarica, lança; gurdus, gordo; cusculia, coscoja; lancia, lança; vepio, caida; buteo, cierta ave de rapina; necy por el dios Marte; con otras muchas dicciones, que fueron antiguamente proprias de la lengua de los Espanoles, segun que se prueva por la autoridad y testimonio de autores gravissimos, y aun algunas dellas passaron sin duda de la Espanola a la lengua Latina: de las quales dicciones todas no se halla rastro alguno en la lengua Vizcayna: lo qual muestra que la lengua Vizcayna no fue la que usava communmente Espana. No negamos empero aya sido una de las muchas lenguas que en Espana se usavan antiguamente, y tenian. Solo pretendemos, que no era comuna toda ella. La qual opinion no queremos ni confirmarla mas a la larga, ni seria a proposito del intento que llevamos, detenernos mas en esto. If the cautious reader contest the assertions of Bochart, a mere modern, as to the identity of the Punic, Hebrew, and the earliest Chaldee, he will, I hope, yield to the express and the authoritative testimony of a St. Jerome, and a St. Austin, the former a translator of the Hebrew Scriptures, and the latter a bishop of Hippo, near Carthage. Jerome asserts in the seventh chapter of Isaiah, in the 25th of Jeremiah, in the Galatians at the end, and in the 36th of Genesis: "Lingua Punica ab Hebræis fontibus manavit : Hebrææ magnâ ex parte confinis est: penè omnia Hebræa Punicæ linguæ consona : Punica Hebrææ contermina est." St. Austin repeats the assertion: "Istæ linguæ non multùm inter se differunt: permulta Hebræa, et penè omnia, Punicæ consonæ linguæ; cognatæ quippe sunt linguæ istæ et vicina: istæ enim linguæ sibi significationis quâdam vicinitate sociantur: in Punicâ multa invenimus Hebræis consonantia verbis." Priscian also in the fifth book confirms their similarity: "Lingua Ponorum Chaldææ vel Hebrææ similis." Adelung adds: "The first people known in Europe were the Iberians, or Cantabrians, who established themselves in the south of Gaul, in a portion of Italy, and particularly in a portion of the two Spains. The Basque, which is a mixture of Latin, Maso Goth, German, [and I add Celtic,] contains the remains of the Ibernian language." An excellent Spanish scholar, long a resident in Catalonia, concludes, in his letter to me, upon Llarramedi's Grammar, Lloyd's Basque words, and upon the above very imperfect Essay: "It will be expedient, first to discover the analogy between Welsh and Biscayan words, previous to examining their mutual conjugations and declensions, [which, obviously to a Hebrew scholar, and to a philologist, betray a similarity in the two grammars.] A few words, nouns, and verbs, may certainly be traced in Celtic and in the Basque. Yet I conceive the Basque to be as far asunder from the Celtic, as the modern Persian from the modern English: [and from a similar cause, the ancient juxta-position of the two tribes, and their distance for the past 3000 years.] The old Persian was the old Gothic." CONCERNING THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES. TO THE EDITOR OF THE CLASSICAL JOURNAL. SIR, IT has been remarked by Mr. Bryant, that the central part of the Shield of Achilles, as it is described by Homer in the Eighteenth Book of the Iliad, was a map of the earth and of the celestial appearances; and that the poet copied his description of it from models which he had seen in Egypt.' There can be no doubt, that representations of the celestial bodies, the earth, and the ocean, were frequently exhibited in Egypt and in Asia, not only on painted and sculptured walls, but on the dress and ornaments both of Deities and mortals. Besides the remarkable examples cited by Mr. Bryant, a few others may be mentioned. The image of Amon with the head and horns of a ram, and with the horns of a goat also, surmounted by a disk, and with a blue robe over the shoulders, was nothing else than an astronomical symbol. On the garment and dress of Isis the celestial bodies were represented; 3 and the twelve signs of the zodiac were 2 Anc. Mythol. Vol. ii. 3 Apul. Met. L. xi. 2 Panth. Ægypt. depicted on the robe of the Syrian Goddess.' Even the dress of the High Priest of the Jews seems to have been formed with a reference to the universal system; since the elements, the sun, the moon and the constellations, were typified by the materials of which it was composed, and by the ornaments with which it was adorned.2 The objects, which Vulcan engraved in the central part of the Shield of Achilles, are described by Homer-Il. E. v. 483. The learned reader will of course consult the original; and the English reader will, perhaps, excuse the following translation, since it is necessary for my purpose, that the sense be given as truly, if not as literally, as possible. In it he formed the earth, the heavens, the sea, It is evident, then, as Mr. Bryant says, that the central part of the shield represented a map of the earth, and of the celestial appearances; and I shall have occasion to show, that it was probably copied from an Egyptian model. From the time of Aristotle to the present, the critics have asked, how Homer could assert, that the Wain was the only constellation which never bathed itself in the ocean, or in other words, which never descended below the horizon? Aristotle says, that the poet put the Wain, by a figure of Speech, for all the constellations which never set, as being the most remarkable.3 Crates reads olos for oʼn ; but Strabo vindicates the text, and understands, that by the Bear Homer meant the whole Arctic circle. I confess, that these explanations do not appear to me to be very satisfactory. The constellations, which never set, even in part, in the latitude of Troy, are Cepheus, Draco, Ursa Minor, and the seven stars of Ursa Major, which properly form the Wain, and which alone the poet appears to have indicated in the passage cited above. These constellations likewise never set in Attica, or in the Peloponnesus, with the exception, perhaps, of the star in the Wain. How, then, could Homer tell the Greeks, that the Wain is the only constellation which never sinks below the horizon? One method of solving this difficulty is generally proposed and followed. It is pretended, that the Great Bear was the only Arctic constellation, with which the Greeks were acquainted in the days of Homer. But the Greeks were no strangers to the celestial signs in the time of the Argonauts. Some say that they were instructed in the knowledge of the sphere by Hercules; and others hold, that they 'Bellor. De Deæ Syr. imag. &c. 2 Clem. Alex. Strom. L. v. Joseph. Antiq. Jud. L. iii. 3 Poëtic. L. i. 4 L. i. 5 Diodor. Sicul. 4 were made acquainted with the stars by Chiron.' The invention of a machine, probably resembling an armillary sphere, has been attributed by some to Atlas, and by others to Musæus. During the time of the Trojan war Palamedes was celebrated for his knowledge ofastronomy." In Asia, and in Egypt, this science, to speak after the most moderate calculations, had been cultivated for many ages, before the time of Homer. The poet, therefore, either was not, or ought not to have been, unacquainted with those celestial signs, which never set. But it is further contended, that the Great Bear was the only Arctic constellation known to Homer, because the ancient Egyptians, who instructed the Greeks in astronomy, were unacquainted with Cepheus, Draco, and Ursa Minor. Achilles Tatius says, that there were no constellations known by these names in the Egyptian sphere. I shall have occasion to show presently, that this is true, as far as it regards Ursa Minor; but with respect to Cepheus and Draco, I conceive the case to be very different. Cepheus, or the King of Ethiopia, is the name of a constellation of considerable magnitude, which never entirely sets in Egypt. How then could it have escaped the notice of the Egyptian astronomers? The Indian astronomers call it by the name of Capya,' and this may have been the ancient Egyptian name, from which the Greeks had their Cepheus. This constellation had its place in the tables of the Arabians. The Jews, or rather their more learned neighbors the Chaldeans, denominated Cepheus by Dominus flammæ. From whom did the Greeks, obtain the astronomical fable of this Ethiopian King, if not from the Egyptians? I must likewise remark, that Cepheus is evidently a word of foreign origin. It was, perhaps, derived from caphaph, curvavit; nor, when we consider that this constellation continually revolves round the pole, without ever entirely setting even in Ethiopia, of which country Cepheus was fabled to be King, will this conjecture appear unfounded. The word caph, signifies any thing hollow. Hence our word cope; and it is possible, that Cepheus, never leaving the cope of heaven, to descend below the horizon, may have been named from caph. But leaving the etymology, on which it would be difficult to say any thing positive, I cannot imagine, that a constellation, in which Ptolemy, without the assistance of glasses, reckoned thirteen stars, was unknown to the more ancient Egyptian astronomers, in whose country, it must have been observed, (I should think,) that some, at least, of these stars never descended below the horizon. I find it equally difficult to believe, that the more ancient Egyptian astronomers were unacquainted with Draco-a constellation that must always have attracted attention on this side of the torrid zone, not |