Note 706 — THE ADORATION OF FIRE

There was a city of the same name in Eubœa, expressed Carystus, where the stone [706]Asbestus was found. Of this they made a kind of cloth, which was supposed to be proof against fire, and to be cleansed by that element. The purport of the name is plain; and the natural history of the place affords us a reason why it was imposed. For this we are obliged to Solinus, who calls the city with the Grecian termination, Carystos; and says, that it was noted for its hot streams: [707]Carystos aquas calentes habet, quas Ελλοπιας vocant. We may therefore be assured, that it was called Car-ystus from the Deity of fire, to whom all hot fountains were sacred. Ellopia is a compound of El Ope, Sol Python, another name of the same Deity. Carystus, Cerastis, Cerasta, are all of the same purport: they betoken a place, or temple of Astus, or Asta, the God of fire. Cerasta in the feminine is expressly the same, only reversed, as Astachar in Chusistan. Some places had the same term in the composition of their names, which was joined with Kur; and they were named in honour of the Sun, styled Κυρος, Curos. He was worshipped all over Syria; and one large province was hence named Curesta, and Curestica, from Κυρ Ἑστος, Sol Hestius.