the signs or constellations the images which distinguished and gave a name to their celebrated ships? The learned Bochart has clearly shewn that the word Pegasus is of Phenician origin: פג Pag or פגא Pega, “a bridle,” and סוס Sus, “a horse,” forming the word פגסוס “Pegasus,” “the bridled horse,” no doubt the figure at the head, and the name of a ship. The body of this animal and of several others on the globe are cut in half, exactly representing the figure as it would appear on the head of a ship. Cetus, a whale, or great fish: a Dolphin: a Hydra, or sea-snake: a Swan: a Ram: a Bull, are all such signs as ships would bear[1].
The next question is: How and where did the amalgamation of the Babylonian and Phenician spheres take place? This, I imagine, was the work of the Egyptians. By the traffic, which they carried on to the south through the red sea, and along the coast of the Arabian gulf, they would become acquainted with and adopt the former; and at the same time the northern inhabitants of the country by their commercial intercourse with the nations on the coasts of the Mediterranean, especially
- ↑ It is far from improbable, that the whole of these Phenician signs were taken from the interior of one of their temples. It was customary to make an offering in token of any special deliverance, or successful voyage, by suspending the emblem of the ship in gold or some less costly material along the walls of their temples. Homer mentions among the contents of a temple,
“The yellow [golden] heads of horses.”
Κτητοὶ δὲ τρίποδές τɛ, καὶ ἵππων ξανθὰ κάρηνα, (Il. ix. 406.)
