Note 646 — ETYMOLOGICAL TRUTHS

It may seem extraordinary, yet I cannot help thinking, that the Hercynian forest in Germany was no other than the Hurcanian, and that it was denominated from the God Urcan, who was worshipped here as well as in the east. It is mentioned by Eratosthenes and Ptolemy, under the name of δρυμος Ορκυνιος, or the forest of [646]Orcun; which is, undoubtedly, the same name as that above. I have taken notice, that the name of the mountain Pyrene signified a fountain of fire, and that the mountain had once flamed. There was a Pyrene among the Alpes [647]Tridentini, and at the foot of it a city of the same [648]name; which one would infer to have been so denominated from the like circumstance. I mention this, because here was the regio Hercynia, where the Hercynian forest[649] commenced, and from which it received its name. Beatus Rhenanus, in his account of these parts, says, that there was a tradition of this mountain Pyrene once[650] burning: and, conformably to this notion, it is still distinguished by the name of the great [651]Brenner. The country, therefore, and the forest may have been called Orcunian upon this account. For as the worship of the Sun, the Deity of fire, prevailed greatly at places of this nature, I make no doubt but Hercynia, which Ptolemy expresses Ορκυνια was so named from Or-cun, the God of that element.