The Golden Verses of Pythagoras — with commentary (1917)
The text is shown on its own: no facing layer is held for this issue.
called Olen.* Now these are again two symbolic names perfectly adapted to the idea that one had of this divine science : it was descended from Thrace, that is to say, from the Ethereal Space; it was Olen who had invented it, that is to say, the Universal Being.* To understand these three etymologies which can be regarded as the fundamental points of the history of poetry, it is necessary to remember, first, that the Phoenicians, at the epoch when they covered not only Greece but the coasts of the rest of Europe with their colonies, brought there their language, and gave their names to the countries of which they had taken possession ; secondly, that these names drawn almost always from objects symbolic of their cult, constituted for these countries a sort of sacred geography, which Greece above all others, was faithful in preserving, f It was thus (for there is nothing
' Bailly, Essai sur les Fables, ch. 14. Pausanias, 1. ix., p. 302.
* Poetry, in Greek iroiijo-is, derived from the Phoenician riNB {phohe), mouth, voice, language, discourse; and from B» {ish), a superior being, a principle being, figuratively God. This last word, spread throughout Europe, is f oimd with certain change of vowels and of aspirates, very common in the Oriental dialects ; in the Etruscan .^s, Msar, in the Gallic iEs, in the Basque As, and in the Scandinavian A se; the Copts still say Os, the lord, and the Greeks have preserved it in AJffo, the immutable Being, Destiny, and in Sfw, I adore, and dfiAu, I revere.
Thrace, in Greek BpfKV, derived from the Phoenician J?'pT (rakiwha), which signifies the ethereal space, or, as one translates the Hebrew word which corresponds to it, the firmament. This word is preceded in the Dorian SpaKi.^, by the letter 9, th, a kind of article which the Oriental grammarians range among the hemantigue letters placed at the beginning of words to modify the sense, or to render it more emphatic.
Olen, in Greek lUKev, is derived from the Phoenician "fny (whdlon), 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 BK {ab or ap) joined to that of whdlon, that one formed ap-wholon, ApoUon: 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 sim. 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 Xiix)).
t Strabo has judiciously observed that in Greece all the technical words were foreign. (Voyez Bailly, Essai sur les Fables, ch. 14, p. 136.)
The Essence and Form of Poetry 15 under the sun which cannot find either its model or its copy) when the Europeans took possession of America and colonized it, and carried to those regions their diverse dialects and covered it with names drawn from the mysteries of Christianity. One ought therefore, when one wishes to understand the ancient names of the countries of Greece, those of their heroic personages, those of the mysterious subjects of their cult, to have recourse to the Phoenician dialect which although lost to us can easily be restored with the aid of Hebrew, Aramaic, Chaldean, Syriac, Arabic, and Coptic.
I do not intend. Messieurs, to fatigue you with proofs of these etymologies which are not in reality the subject of my discourse. I am content to place them on the margin for the satisfaction of the curious. Thus I shall make use of them later, when occasion demands. But to return to Thrace, this country was always considered by the Greeks as the place peculiar to their gods and the centre of their cult; the divine country, par excellence. All the names that it has borne in different dialects and which in the course of time have become concentrated in particular regions, have been synonyms of theirs. Thus, Getas, Moesia, Dacia, all signify the country of the gods.* Strabo, in speaking of the Getae, said that these peoples recognized a sovereign pontiff to whom they gave the title of God, the dignity of which existed stiU in his time.' This sovereign pontiff
No commentary for this page under the selected tracks.
There is commentary on page 1.