Note 673 — THE ADORATION OF FIRE

It has been observed, that the Greek term κοιλος, hollow, was often substituted for Coëlus, heaven: and, I think, it will appear to have been thus used from the subsequent history, wherein the worship of the Atlantians is described. The mythologists gave out, that Atlas supported heaven: one reason for this notion was, that upon mount Atlas stood a temple to Coëlus. It is mentioned by Maximus Tyrius in one of his dissertations, and is here, as in many other instances, changed to κοιλος, hollow. The temple was undoubtedly a cavern: but the name is to be understood in its original acceptation, as Coël, the house of God; to which the natives paid their adoration. This mode of worship among the Atlantian betrays a great antiquity; as the temple seems to have been merely a vast hollow in the side of the mountain; and to have had in it neither image, nor pillar, nor stone, nor any material object of adoration: [673]Εστι δε Ατλας ορος κοιλον, επιεικως ὑψηλον.—Τουτο Λιβυων και ἱερον, και θεος, και ὁρκος, και αγαλμα. This Atlas (of which I have been speaking) is a mountain with a cavity, and of a tolerable height, which the natives esteem both as a temple and a Deity: and it is the great object by which they swear; and to which they pay their devotions. The cave in the mountain was certainly named Co-el, the house of God; equivalent to Cœlus of the Romans. To this the people made their offerings: and this was the heaven which Atlas was supposed to support. It seems to have been no uncommon term among the Africans. There was a city in Libya named Coël, which the Romans rendered Coëlu. They would have expressed it Coelus, or Cœlus; but the name was copied in the time of the Punic wars, before the s final was admitted into their writings. Vaillant has given several specimens of coins struck in this city to the honour of some of the Roman [674]emperors, but especially of Verus, Commodus, and Antoninus Pius.