The ordinary classical derivation of this name gives little
satisfaction; for, even though it could be derived from words
that signify "Bull-killers" (and the
derivation itself is but lame), such a meaning casts no light at
all on the history of the Centaurs. Take it as a Chaldee word,
and it will be seen at once that the whole history of the
primitive Kentaurus entirely agrees with the history of Nimrod,
with whom we have already identified him. Kentaurus is evidently
derived from Kehn, "a priest," and Tor, "to
go round." "Kehn-Tor," therefore, is "Priest
of the revolver," that is, of the sun, which, to
appearance, makes a daily revolution round the earth. The name
for a priest, as written, is just Khn, and the vowel is supplied
according to the different dialects of those who pronounce it, so
as to make it either Kohn, Kahn, or Kehn. Tor, "the
revolver," as applied to the sun, is evidently just
another name for the Greek Zen or Zan applied to Jupiter, as
identified with the sun, which signifies the "Encircler"
or "Encompasser,"--the very word from which
comes our own word "Sun," which, in
Anglo-Saxon, was Sunna (MALLET, Glossary, p. 565, London, 1847),
and of which we find distinct traces in Egypt in the term snnu (BUNSEN's Vocab., vol.
i. p. 546), as applied to the sun's orbit.
The Hebrew Zon or Zawon, to "encircle," from
which these words come, in Chaldee becomes Don or Dawon, and thus
we penetrate the meaning of the name given by the Boeotians to
the "Mighty hunter," Orion. That name was Kandaon, as appears from the following words of the Scholiast on
Lycophron, quoted in BRYANT, vol. iv. p. 154: "Orion,
whom the Boeotians call also Kandaon." Kahn-daon, then,
and Kehn-tor, were just different names for the same office--the
one meaning "Priest of the Encircler," the
other, "Priest of the revolver"--titles
evidently equivalent to that of Bol-kahn, or "Priest of
Baal, or the Sun," which, there can be no doubt, was
the distinguishing title of Nimrod. As the title of Centaurus
thus exactly agrees with the known position of Nimrod, so the
history of the father of the Centaurs does the same. We have seen
already that, though Ixion was, by the Greeks, made the father of
that mythical race, even they themselves admitted that the
Centaurs had a much higher origin, and consequently that Ixion,
which seems to be a Grecian name, had taken the place of an
earlier name, according to that propensity particularly noticed
by Salverte, which has often led mankind "to apply to
personages known in one time and one country, myths which they
have borrowed from another country and an earlier epoch"
(Des Sciences, Appendix, p. 483). Let this only be admitted to be
the case here--let only the name of Ixion be removed, and it will
be seen that all that is said of the father of the Centaurs, or
Horsemen-archers, applies exactly to Nimrod, as represented by
the different myths that refer to the first progenitor of these
Centaurs. First, then, Centaurus is represented as having been
taken up to heaven (DYMOCK, sub voce "Is\Ixion").
that is, as having been highly exalted through special favour of
heaven; then, in that state of exaltation, he is said to have
fallen in love with Nephele, who passed under the name of Juno,
the "Queen of Heaven." The story here is
intentionally confused, to mystify the vulgar, and the order of
events seems changed, which can easily be accounted for. As
Nephele in Greek signifies "a cloud," so the
offspring of Centaurus are said to have been produced by a "cloud."
But Nephele, in the language of the country where the fable was
originally framed, signified "A fallen woman * --and
fallen from the primitive faith in which she must have been
brought up; and it is well known that this "fallen
woman" was, under the name of Juno, or the Dove, after her
death, worshipped among the Babylonians. Centaurus, for his
presumption and pride, was smitten with lightning by the supreme
God, and cast down to hell (DYMOCK, sub voce "Ixion").
This, then, is just another version of the story of Phaethon,
AEsculapius, and Orpheus, who were all smitten in like manner and
for a similar cause. In the infernal world, the father of the
Centaurs is represented as tied by serpents to a wheel which
perpetually revolves, and thus makes his punishment eternal
(DYMOCK, Ibid.). In the serpents there is evidently reference to
one of the two emblems of the fire-worship of Nimrod. If he
introduced the worship of the serpent, as I have endeavoured to
show (p. 228), there was poetical justice in making the serpent
an instrument of his punishment. Then the revolving wheel very
clearly points to the name Centaurus itself, as denoting the
"Priest of the revolving sun." To the worship of
the sun in the character of the "Revolver,"
there was a very distinct allusion not only in the circle which,
among the Pagans, was the emblem of the sun-god, and the blazing
wheel with which he was so frequently represented (WILSON's Parsi
Religion, p. 31), but in the circular dances of the
Bacchanalians. Hence the phrase, "Bassaridum rotator
Evan"--"The wheeling Evan of the Bacchantes" (STATIUS, Sylv., lib. ii., s. 7, v. 7, p. 118). Hence, also, the circular
dances of the Druids as referred to in the following quotation
from a Druidic song:--"Ruddy was the sea beach whilst
the circular revolution was performed by the attendants and the
white bands in graceful extravagance" (DAVIE'S Druids,
p. 172). That this circular dance among the Pagan idolators
really had reference to the circuit of the sun, we find from the
distinct statement of Lucian in his treatise On Dancing, where,
speaking of the circular dance of the ancient Eastern nations, he
says, with express reference to the sun-god, "it
consisted in a dance imitating this god" (LUCIAN, vol.
ii. p. 278). We see then, here, a very specific reason for the
circular dance of the Bacchae, and for the ever-revolving wheel
of the great Centaurus in the infernal regions.
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