The golden verses of Pythagoras · Antoine Fabre d'Olivet
FOOTNOTES:
_Olen_, in Greek ὤλεν, is derived from the Phœnician עולן (_whôlon_), and is applied in the greater part of the Oriental dialects to all that which is infinite, eternal, universal, whether in time or space. I ought to mention as an interesting thing and but little known by mythologists, that it is from the word אפ (_ab_ or _ap_) joined to that of _whôlon_, that one formed _ap-whôlon_, Apollon; namely, the Father universal, infinite, eternal. This is why the invention of Poetry is attributed to Olen or to Apollo. It is the same mythological personage represented by the sun. According to an ancient tradition, Olen was native of Lycia, that is to say, of the light; for this is the meaning of the Greek word λύκη. [23] Strabo has judiciously observed that in Greece all the technical words were foreign. (_Voyez_ Bailly, _Essai sur les Fables_, ch. 14, p. 136.) [24] The Getæ, in Greek Γέται, were, according to Ælius Spartianus, and according to the author of _le Monde primitif_ (t. ix., p. 49), the same peoples as the Goths. Their country called Getæ, which should be pronounced _Ghœtie_, comes from the word _Goth_, which signifies God in most of the idioms of the north of Europe. The name of the Dacians is only a softening of that of the Thracians in a different dialect.
Mœsia, in Greek Μοίσια, is, in Phœnician, the interpretation of the name given to Thrace. The latter means, as we have seen, _ethereal space_, and the former signifies _divine abode_, being composed from the word א׳ש (_aïsh_), whose rendering I have already given, before which is found placed the letter מ (M), one of the _hémantiques_, which according to the best grammarians serves to express the proper place, the means, the local manifestation of a thing. [25] _Voyez_ Court de Gébelin, _Monde primitif_, t. ix., p. 49. [26] This mountain was called Kô-Kajôn, according to d’Anville. This learned geographer has clearly seen that this name was the same as that of Caucasus, a generic name given to all the sacred mountains. It is known that _Caucasus_ was for the Persians, what Mount Merou had been for the Indians and what Mount Parnassus became afterwards for the Greeks, the central place of their cult. The Tibetans have also their sacred mountain distinct from that of the Indians, upon which still resides the God-Priest, or immortal Man, similar to that of the Getæ. (_Mém. de l’Acad. des Inscript._, t. xxv., p. 45.) [27] Bailly, _Essai sur les Fables_, ch. 14. Conférez avec Hérodote, l. iv.; et Pausanias, l. ix., p. 302, l. x., p. 320. [28] _Dionysus_, in Greek Διονύσος, comes from the word Διός, irregular genitive of Ζεύς, the living God, and of Νόος, mind or understanding. The Phœnician roots of these words are ש, יש, or איש (_ash_, _ish_, or _aïsh_), Unique Being, and נו (_nô_) the motive principle, the movement. These two roots, contracted, form the word _Nôos_, which signifies literally the principle of being, and figuratively, the understanding.
_Demeter_, in Greek Δημήτερ, comes from the ancient Greek Δημ, _the earth_, united to the word μήτερ, _mother_. The Phœnician roots are דמ (_dam_) and מט (_môt_), the former expressing all that which is formed by aggregation of similar parts; and the latter, all that which varies the form and gives it generative movement. [29] Bailly, _Essai sur les Fables_, ch. 15. Court de Gébelin expressly says, that the sacred mountain of Thrace was consecrated to Bacchus. _Monde prim._, t. ix., p. 49. Now, it is generally known that Parnassus of the Greeks was consecrated to Apollo. [30] _Theog._, v. 500. [31] The Greek word Θρᾴκη, Thrace, in passing into the Ionian dialect Θρῄξ, has furnished the following expressions: θρῆσκος, a devotee, θρησκεία, devotion, θρησκηύω, I adore with devotion. These words, diverted from their real sense and used ironically after the cult of Thrace had yielded to that of Delphi, were applied to ideas of superstition and even of fanaticism. The point of considering the Thracians as schismatics was even reached, and the word ἐθελοθρησκεία composed to express a heresy, a cult particular to those who practised it, and separated from orthodoxy. [32] Œtolinos is composed, by contraction, of two words which appear to belong to one of the Thracian dialects. _Œto-Kyros_ signifies the ruling sun, among the Scythians, according to Herodotus (l. iv., 59). _Helena_ signified the moon, among the Dorians. It is from this last word, deprived of its article _he_, that the Latins have made _Luna_.
However, the tradition which I have followed, in considering Homer as born not far from Smyrna, upon the borders of the river Meles, is not only the most probable but the most generally followed; it has in its favour Pindar; the first anonymous Life of Homer; the Life of this poet by Proclus; Cicero, in his oration for Archias; Eustathius in his _Prolégoménes sur l’Iliade_; Aristotle, _Poétique_, l. iii.; Aulus Gellius, Martial, and Suidas. It is known that Smyrna, jealous of consecrating the glory that it attributed to itself, of having given birth to Homer, erected to this great genius a temple with quadrangular portico, and showed for a long time, near the source of the Meles, a grotto, where a contemporaneous tradition supposes that he had composed his first works. Voyez _La Vie d’Homère_, par Delille-de-Sales, p. 49, et les ouvrages qu’il cite: _Voyage de Chandeler_, t. i., p. 162, et _Voyages pittoresques de Choiseul-Gouffier_, p. 200. [90] Hérod., l. v., 42; Thucyd., l. i., 12. [91] _Marbres de Paros_, _Epoq._ 28; Hérod., l. i., 142, 145, 149; Plat., _De Leg._, l. v.; Strab., l. xiv.; Pausan., l. vii., 2; Ælian., _Var. Histor._, l. viii., c. 5; Sainte-Croix, _De l’état des Colon, des anc. Peuples_, p. 65; Bourgainville, _Dissert. sur les Métrop. et les Colon._, p. 18; Spanheim, _Præst._, num. p. 580.
The name of _Menelaus_, in Greek Μενέλαος, comes from the Phœnician words מן (_men_), all that which determines, regulates, or defines a thing, properly, the _rational faculty_, the reason, the measure, in Latin _mens_, _mensura_; and אוש (_aôsh_), the Being-principle acting, before which is placed the prefix ל (_l_), to express the genitive case, in this manner, מנה־ל־אוש (_meneh-l-aôsh_), the rational faculty or regulator of the being in general, and man in particular: for אש‏, ‏אוש‏, ‏אש‏, ‏איש (_ash_, _aôsh_, _ish_, _aîsh_), signifies equally _fire_, _principle_, _being_, and _man_. The etymology of these three words can, as one sees, throw great light upon the fable of the _Iliad_. Here is another remarkable point on this subject. Homer has never used, to designate the Greeks, the name of _Hellenes_, that is to say, the respondents, or the lunars: it was in his time quite a new name, which the confederated Greeks had taken to resist foreign attack; it is only in the _Odyssey_, and when he is already old, that he employs the name _Hellas_ to designate Greece. The name which he gives constantly to this country, is that of Achaia (Ἀχαΐα), and he opposes it to that of Troy (Τρωία): now, Achaia signifies the strong, the igneous, the spiritual; and _Troy_, the terrestrial, the gross. The Phœnician roots are הוי (_ehôi_), the exhaling force of fire, and טרו (_trô_) the balancing power of the earth. Refer, in this regard, to Court de Gébelin (_Mond. prim._, t. vi., p. 64). Pomponius Sabinus, in his _Commentaires sur l’Enéïde_, said that the name of the city of Troy signified a sow, and he adds that the Trojans had for an ensign a sow embroidered in gold.
As to the word _Ilion_, which was the sacred name of Troy, it is very easy to recognize the name of the material principle, called ὕλη (_ulè_) by the Greeks and _ylis_ by the Egyptians. Iamblichus speaks of it at great length in his _Book on the Mysteries_ (§ 7), as the principle from which all has birth: this was also the opinion of Porphyry (Euseb., _Præp. Evang._, l. ix., c. 9 and 11). [102] Metrodorus of Lampsacus cited by Tatian (_Adver. Gent._, § 37). Plato, _In Alcibiad._, ii., Cronius, Porphyry, Phurnutus, Iamblichus, cited by Court de Gébelin, _Génie allég._, p. 36, 43; Plato, _In Ion._; Cicero, _De Natur. Deor._, l. ii.; Strabo, l. i.; Origen, _Contr. Cels._ Among the moderns can be counted Bacon, Blackwell, Basnage, Bergier, and Court de Gébelin himself, who has given a list of eighty writers who have this opinion. [103] Dionys. Halic., _De Comp. verb._, t. v., c. 16, 26; Quintil., l. x., c. 1; Longin., _De Sublim._, c. 13; Ælian., _Var. Hist._, l. viii., c. 2; Plat., _Alcibiad._, i. [104] Plat., _In Vitâ Lycurg._ [105] Allat., _De Patr. Homer._, c. 5; Meurs., _In Pisist._, c. 9 et 12; Plat., _In Hipparc._ [106] Senec., _Epist._, 117. [107] _Ibidem_, 88. [108] Dionys. Halic., _In Vitâ Homer._; Eustath., _In Iliad_, l. i. [109] Strabo, l. xiv., p. 646.
The madrigals are of Spanish origin as their name sufficiently proves. The word _gala_ signifies in Spanish a kind of favour, an honour rendered, a gallantry, a present. Thus _Madrid-gala_ arises from a gallantry in the Madrid fashion. The sylves, called _sirves_ or _sirventes_ by the troubadours, were kinds of serious poems, ordinarily satirical. These words come from the Latin _sylva_ which, according to Quintilius, is said of a piece of verse recited _ex-tempore_ (l. x., c. 3). [189] _Voyez_ Laborde, _Essai sur la Musique_, t. i., p. 112, et t. ii., p. 168. On trouve, de la page 149 à la page 232 de ce même volume, un catalogue de tous les anciens romanciers français. On peut voir, pour les Italiens, Crescembini, _Della Volgar Poësia_. [190] See Laborde. It is believed that this Guilhaume, bishop of Paris, is the author of the hieroglyphic figures which adorn the portal of Notre-Dame, and that they have some connection with the hermetic science. (_Biblioth. des Phil. Chim._, t. iv. Saint-Foix, Essai _sur Paris_.) [191] Perhaps one is astonished to see that I give the name of _sirventes_, or sylves, to that which is commonly called the poems of Dante; but in order to understand me, it is necessary to consider that these poems, composed of stanzas of three verses joined in couplets, are properly only long songs on a serious subject, which agrees with the _sirvente_. The poems of Bojardo, of Ariosto, of Tasso, are, as to form, only long ballads. They are poems because of the unity which, notwithstanding the innumerable episodes with which they are filled, constitutes the principal subject.
“Now scarce the Trojan fleet with sails and oars Had left behind the fair Sicilian shores.…” _Æneid_, b. i., v. 50. It is the same in these of Addison: “Tune ev’ry string and ev’ry tongue, Be thou the Muse and subject of our song.…” _St. Cecilia’s Day_, i., 10. or these from Goldsmith: “How often have I loiter’d o’er thy green, Where humble happiness endeared each scene.” _The Deserted Village_, i., 7. [226] There remains to us of this poetry the very precious fragments contained in the _Edda_ and in _Voluspa_. The _Edda_, whose name signifies great-grandmother, is a collection, fairly ample, of Scandinavian traditions. _Voluspa_ is a sort of Sibylline book, or cosmogonic oracle, as its name indicates. I am convinced that if the poets of the north, the Danes, Swedes, and Germans, had oftener drawn their subjects from these indigenous sources, they would have succeeded better than by going to Greece to seek them upon the summits of Parnassus. The mythology of Odin, descended from the Rhipæan mountains, suits them better than that of the Greeks, whose tongue furthermore is not conformable here. When one makes the moon and the wife (_der Mond_, _das Weib_) of masculine and neuter gender; when one makes the sun, the air, time, love (_die Sonne_, _die Luft_, _die Zeit_, _die Liebe_) of feminine gender, one ought wisely to renounce the allegories of Parnassus. It was on account of the sex given to the sun and the moon that the schism arose, of which I have spoken, in explaining the origin of the temple of Delphi.
The Scandinavian allegories, however, that I consider a _débris_ of Thracian allegories, furnishing subjects of a very different character from those of the Greeks and Latins, might have varied the poetry of Europe and prevented the Arabesque fiction from holding there so much ascendancy. The Scandinavian verses, being without rhyme, hold moreover, to eumolpœia. The following is a strophe from _Voluspa_: “Avant que le temps fût, Ymir avait été; Ni la mer, ni nes vents n’existaient pas encore; Il n’était de terre, il n’était point de ciel: Tout n’était qu’un abîme immense, sans verdure.” “In the beginning, when naught was, there Was neither sand nor sea nor the cold waves, Nor was earth to be seen nor heaven above. There was a Yawning Chasm [chaos] but grass nowhere.…” _Ár vas aida pat-es ekki vas; vasa sandr né sær né svalar unnir, iœr[x]o fansk æva né upp-himinn; Gap vas Ginnunga, enn gras ekki,_ … Voyez Mallet, _Monuments celtiques_, p. 135; et pour le texte, le poëme même de la Voluspa, _in Edda islandorum_, Mallet paraît avoir suivi un texte erroné.
As to the Gallic poetry of the Scotch bards, that Macpherson has made known to us under the name of _Ossian_, much is needed that they may have a sufficient degree of authenticity for them to be cited as models, and placed parallel with those of Homer, as has been done without reflection. These poems, although resting for the greater part upon a true basis, are very far from being veritable as to form. The Scotch bards, like the Oscan troubadours, must be restored and often entirely remade, if they are to be read. Macpherson, in composing his _Ossian_, has followed certain ancient traditions, has put together certain scattered fragments; but has taken great liberties with all the rest. He was, besides, a man endowed with creative genius and he might have been able to attain to epopœia if he had been better informed. His lack of knowledge has left a void in his work which demonstrates its falsity. There is no mythology, no allegory, no cult in _Ossian_. There are some historic or romanesque facts joined to long descriptions; it is a style more emphatic than figurative, more bizarre than original. Macpherson, in neglecting all kinds of mythological and religious ideas, in even mocking here and there the _stone of power_ of the Scandinavians, has shown that he was ignorant of two important things: the one, that the allegorical or religious genius constitutes the essence of poetry; the other, that Scotland was at a very ancient period the hearth of this same genius whose interpreters were the druids, bards, and scalds. He should have known that, far from being without religion, the Caledonians possessed in the heart of their mountains, the Gallic Parnassus, the sacred mountain of the Occidental isles; and that when the antique cult began to decline in Gaul, it was in Albion, reckoned among the holy isles by even the Indians, that the druids went to study. Voyez _Les Commentaires de César_, iv., 20; _L’Introduction de l’histoire de Danemark_, par Mallet; _L’Histoire des Celtes_, par Pelloutier; et enfin les _Recherches asiatiques_ (_Asiat. Research._), t. vi., p. 490 et 502.
In order to seize the occasion of applying eumolpique lines to a greater number of subjects, I am going to quote a sort of exposition of Ossian, the only one I believe, which is found in his poems; because Macpherson, for more originality, neglected nearly always to announce the subject of his songs. I will not give the text, because the English translation whence I obtained it does not give it. It concerns the battle of Lora. After a kind of exordium addressed to the son of the stranger, dweller of the silent cavern, Ossian said to him: Le chant plaît-il à ton oreille? Ecoute le récit du combat de Lora. Il est bien ancien, ce combat! Le tumulte Des armes, et les cris furieux des guerriers, Sont couverts par un long silence; Ils sont éteints depuis longtemps: Ainsi sur des rochers retentissants, la foudre Roule, gronde, éclate et n’est plus; Le soleil reparaît, et la cime brillante Des coteaux verdoyants, sourit à ses rayons. Son of the secret cell! dost thou delight in songs? Hear the battle of Lora. The sound of its steel is long since past. So thunder on the darkened hill roars, and is no more. The sun returns with his silent beams, The glittering rocks, and green heads of the mountains smile. This example serves to prove that eumolpique lines might easily adapt themselves to the dithyramb.
It would be necessary to overstep considerably the ordinary limits of a footnote, if I should explain how it happens that Spain has lost this supremacy acquired by her, and why her tongue, the only one capable of rivalling and perhaps effacing the French, has yielded to it in all ways, and by which it was eclipsed. This explanation would demand for itself alone a very lengthy work. Among the writers who have sought for the cause of the decadence of the Spanish monarchy, some have believed to discover it in the increase of its wealth, others, in the too great extent of its colonies, and the greater part, in the spirit of its government and its superstitious cult. They have all thought that the tribunal of the Inquisition alone was capable of arresting the impulse of genius and of stifling the development of learning. In this they have taken effects for causes, and consequences for principles. They have not seen that the spirit of the government and the cult is always not the motive, but the result of the national spirit, and that the wealth and the colonies, indifferent in themselves, are only instruments that this spirit employs for good or evil, according to its character. I can only indicate the first cause which has prevented Spain from reaching the culminating point which France is very near to attaining. This cause is pride. Whilst Europe, enveloped in darkness, was, so to speak, in the fermentation of ignorance, Spain, conquered by the Arabs, received a germ of science which, developing with rapidity, produced a precocious fruit, brilliant, but like hot-house fruit lacking internal force and generative vigour. This premature production having raised Spain abruptly above the other European nations, inspired in her that pride, that excessive _amour propre_, which, making her treat with contempt all that did not belong to her, hindered her from making any change in her usual customs, carried her with complacency in her mistakes, and when other peoples came to bring forth fruits in their season, corrupted hers and stamped her with a stationary movement, which becoming necessarily retrogressive, must ruin her, and did ruin her. [228] In comparing the first lines of Homer with those of Klopstock, it is seen that the Greek contains 29 letters, 18 of which are vowels; and the German 48 letters, 31 of which are consonants. It is difficult with such disparity in the elements to make the harmony the same. Render to the Immortal Gods the consecrated cult; Guard then thy faith (2): Revere the memory Of the Illustrious Heroes, of Spirits demi-Gods (3).
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.