Curiosities & wonders > History of the heathen gods and heroes of antiquity, very necessary for understanding the writings of the ancients, and the modern English poets

THE HEATHEN GODS.
21
C H A P. III.
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PHOEBUS or the SUN.
THE Sun, ivhich illnminates all things, is cal-
ed Sol, either beaofe he is the only ftar of
confiderable apparent magnitude ; or liecaufe, when
he rifes, having darkened all the ofltr, he alone
appears. The poets indeed fay, tint there were
five; yet the chief was the fon of Fyperion, and
nephew to iEther, but born of an vnknown mo-
iher. The Perfians reckon Sol the grrateft of their
gods, and they worlhip him in a cavt. His ftatue
refemblcd a lion in the head, fhinin; in a Perfian
habit and turbant, holding with beth haaids the
horns Of a mad and ftruggling bull Thofe who
defired to be initiated in the facret rites of this
god, had very many hardlhips to undergo; and ac-
cefs to the employment of the prelthnod, and
knowledge of his myfteries, was to ae found only
through difgraces, Itripes, colds, belts, and other
torments. They reprefented his power by a feep-
tre, on the top whereof (bines an eye, by which is
fignified, that the Sun fees, and tha: all things are
feen by him.
No other adb'ons of Sol ate nertioned, but bis
debaucheries and whorifh intriguis, whereby he
obfeuted the honour of his name The more re¬
markable are thefe which follow.
He debauched Venus in the iilaid of Rhodes, at
which time, they fay it rained goll, and the earth
clothed itfelf with rofes and lilies
Of Clymene he begat one fon Plaeton, and three
daughters, Phaethufa. Lampetia aid Phoebe, Phae¬
ton gave an opportunity to the prets, of feigning a
fable.