Note 563 — OB, OUB, PYTHO,

How could the front of a Cyclopian, one of the most hideous monsters that ever poetic fancy framed, be styled graceful? The whole is a mistake of terms: and what this writer had misapplied, related to Charis, a tower; and the eye was the casement in the top of the edifice, where a light, and fire were kept up. What confirmed the mistake was the representation of an eye, which, as I have mentioned, was often engraved over the entrance of these temples. The chief Deity of Egypt was frequently represented under the symbol of an eye, [563]and a sceptre. I have observed, that Orion was supposed to have had three fathers, merely because a tower, sacred to him in Sicily, and called Tor-Pator, was altered to Τριπατωρ; which change seemed to countenance such an opinion. The Cyclopians were of the same region in that island; and their towers had undoubtedly the same name: for the Cyclopians were styled [564]Τριτοπατερες, and were supposed to have been three in number. Some such mistake was made about the towers styled Charis: whence the Grecians formed their notion of the Graces. As Charis was a tower sacred to fire; some of the Poets have supposed a nymph of that name, who was beloved by Vulcan. Homer speaks of her as his wife: [565]Χαρις—Καλη, ἡν ωπυιε περικλυτος Αμφιγυνεις. But Nonnus makes her his mistress; and says, that he turned her out of doors for her jealousy.