OF FOREST-TREES.

S21

who delight to play with words, (by antiphrasis) d minime Lucendo, be- book iv.cause of its density %

-nulli Jienetralilis astro.

whence Apuleius used Laco sublucido ; and the Poets ; Sublustri umbra:Others (on the contrary) have taken it for light in the masculine, umbra,,non quia minime, sed quia maxime luceat j by so many lamps suspended inthem before the shrine -, or because they kindled fires, by what accidentunknown:

-seu Coeli fulmine mifso ;Sive quod inter se bellum Silvestre gerentes,Hostibus intulerant ignem formidinis ergo.

-Whether it were

By lightning sent from Heaven, or else thereThe salvage men in mutual wars and fight,

Had set the trees on fire, their foes t’affright.

mjcret. lib.

a The learned Mr. Bryant, in his Analysis of Antient Mythology, has something ex-tremely curious upon the derivation of the word lucus He says that the Sun y t eAmonians was stiled El-Uc, which the Grecians changed rnto Lucos. He was-

lso stiled El-Uc-Or, which was changed to Atwpetj;: and El-Uc-Aon, rendered Lycaon,a.wv As this personage was the same as El-Uc, Auxo; ; it was fabled of him that hewaTturned into a wolf. The cause of this absurd notion arofe from hence: every sacredanimal in Egypt was distinguished by some title of the Deity . But the Greeks never, Mdered whether the term was to be taken in its primary, or in its secondary accepta-t ° ' hence they referred the history to an animal, when it related to the God from whomthe'an’imal was denominated. A»« t , Lucos, was, as I have shown, the name of the Sun;

I wherever this term occurs in composition, there will be commonly found some re-

fce'lfl that Deity, or to his substitute Apollo . We read, of A«i» A«roMu>. t of.

riTa supposed son of Apollo : of lycomedes, another.son; of Lycosvra, the first city which.(iTsun beheld. Tire people of Delphi were of old called lycorians ;: and the summit ofV nialsus Lscorea. Near it was a town of the same name ;: and both were sacred to theTod ofLUbt. From Lucos, in this sense, came lux, luceo, lucidus, and Jup.ter Lucetms,of the Latins: . and A^s, A»xr-» A,*™. of the Greeks: also and,.

though differently expreffed.. Hence it was-that many places, sacred Apollo , werestiled Lcuce,.Le.uca,.Avxia, Leucas , Lcucate :

Mox et Leucat® nimhosa cacumina montis,

E-t formidatus nautis aperitttr Apollo . virg..

Hence also inscriptions DEO LEUCANIiE : which term seems to denote sor.- FO? rsrthe Fountain of Day. The name Lycojthron , Avxo^wv which some would derive from •a Wolf signifies a person of an enlightened mind. Groves were held very sacred:,hence lucus^ which some would absurdly derive a »wz lucendo, svas so named from, the Deity ;there worshipped. Vil. •