Note 613 — ETYMOLOGICAL TRUTHS

I should take the town of Egnatia in Italy to have been of the same purport as Hanes above mentioned: for Hanes was sometimes expressed with a guttural, Hagnes; from whence came the ignis of the Romans. In Arcadia near mount Lyceus was a sacred fountain; into which one of the nymphs, which nursed Jupiter, was supposed to have been changed. It was called Hagnon, the same as Ain-On, the fount of the Sun. From Ain of the Amonians, expressed Agn, came the ἁγνος of the Greeks, which signified any thing pure and clean; purus sive castus. Hence was derived ἁγνειον, πηγαιον· ἁγναιον, καθαρον· ἁγνη, καθαρα: as we may learn from Hesychius. Pausanias styles the fountain [613]Hagno: but it was originally Hagnon, the fountain of the Sun: hence we learn in another place of Hesychius, ἁγνοπολεισθαι, το ὑπο ἡλιου θερεσθαι. The town Egnatia, which I mentioned above, stood in campis Salentinii, and at this day is called Anazo, and Anazzo. It was so named from the rites of fire: and that those customs were here practised, we may learn from some remains of them among the natives in the times of Horace and Pliny. The former calls the place by contraction [614]Gnatia: