Page:Beckford - Vathek (1816).djvu/280

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Page 135.the carbuncle of Giamschid.

This mighty potentate was the fourth sovereign of the dynasty of the Pischadians, and brother or nephew to Tahamurath. His proper name was giam or gem, and sched, which in the language of the ancient Persians denominated the sun: an addition, ascribed by some to the majesty of his person, and by others to the splendour of his actions. One of the most magnificent monuments of his reign was the city of Istakhar, of which Tahamurath had laid the foundations. This city, at present called Gihil-, or Tchil-minar, from the forty columns reared in it by Homai, or (according to our author and others) by Soliman Ben Daoud, was known to the Greeks by the name of Persepolis: and there is still extant in the East a tradition, that, when Alexander burnt the edifices of the Persian kings, seven stupendous structures of Giamschid were consumed with his palace.


Page 135.the torches were extinguished.

To the union here prefigured, the following lines may be applied:

Non Hymenaeus adest illi, non gratia lecto;
Eumenides tenuere faces de funere raptas:
Eumenides stravere torum.