The hypothesis of yet unknown members of the planetary series calls to mind the opinion of Hellenic antiquity that there were far more than five planets; these were, indeed, all that had been observed, but many others might remain unseen, on account of the feebleness of their light and their position. Such a doctrine was especially attributed to Artemidorus of Ephesus. Another old Hellenic, and perhaps even Egyptian, belief appears to have been that "the celestial bodies which we now see were not all visible in earlier times". Connected with such a physical or much rather historical myth is the remarkable form of the praise of a high antiquity which some races ascribed to themselves. Thus, the pre-Hellenic Pelasgian inhabitants of Arcadia called themselves Proselenes, because they boasted that they came into the country before the Moon accompanied the Earth. Pre-Hellenic and pre-lunarian were synonymous. The appearance of a star was represented as a celestial event, as the Deucalionic flood was a terrestrial event. Apuleius (Apologia, vol. ii, p. 494, ed. Oudendorp; Cosmos, vol. ii, p. 557, note) extends the flood as far as the Gatulean mountains of Northern Africa. Apollonius Rhodius, who according to Alexandrian custom was fond of imitating old models, speaks of the early colonization of the Egyptians in the valley of the Nile:
"The stars did not yet revolve in the Heavens; nor had the Danaides yet appeared, or the race of Deucalion." ... READ MORE...
