Second Car, of Heaven.
In a second car of more pleasing appearance, which was dedicated to the God Heaven, held by some to be the son of the above-named Æther and Day, was seen that jocund and youthful God clothed in bright-shining stars, with a crown of sapphires on the brow, and with a vase in the hand that contained a burning flame, and seated upon a ball of turquoise-blue all painted and adorned with the forty-eight celestial signs; and in that car, which was drawn by the Great and the Little Bear, the one known by the seven and the other by the twenty-one stars with which they were all dotted, there were seen painted, in order to render it ornate and rich in pomp, with a most beautiful manner and a graceful distribution, seven of the fables of that same Heaven. In the first was figured his birth—in order to demonstrate, not without reason, the other opinion that is held of it—which is said to have been from Earth; even as in the second was seen his union with the same Mother Earth, from which were born, besides many others, Cottus, Briareus, and Gyges, who, it is believed, had each a hundred hands and fifty heads; and there were born also the Cyclopes, so called from the single eye that they had on the brow. In the third was seen how he imprisoned their common children in the caverns of that same Earth, that they might never be able to see the light; even as in the fourth their Mother Earth, seeking to deliver them from such oppression, was seen exhorting them to take a rightful vengeance on their cruel father; wherefore in the fifth his genital members were cut off by Saturn, when from their blood on one side it appeared that the Furies and the Giants were born, and on the other, from the foam that was shown fallen into the sea, was seen a different birth, from which sprang the beautiful Venus. In the sixth was seen expressed the anger that he showed against the Titans, because, as has been told, they had allowed his genitals to be cut off; and in the seventh and last, likewise, was seen the same God adored by the Atlantides, with temples and altars devoutly raised to him. Now at the foot of the car (as with the other already described) was seen riding the black, old, and blindfolded Atlas, who has been reputed to have supported Heaven with his stout shoulders, on which account there had been placed in his hands a great globe of turquoise-blue, dotted with stars. After him was seen walking in the graceful habit of a huntsman the young and beautiful Hyas, his son, in whose company were his seven sisters, also called Hyades, five of whom, all resplendent in gold, were seen to have each on the head a bull's head, for the reason that they are said to form an ornament to the head of the Heavenly Bull; and the two others, as being less bright in the heavens, it was thought proper to clothe in grey cloth of silver. After these followed the seven Pleiades, daughters of the same Atlas, figured as seven other similar stars; one of whom, for the reason that she shines with little light in the heavens, it was thought right and proper to adorn only with the same grey cloth, whereas the six others, because they are resplendent and very bright, were seen in front glittering and flashing with an infinite abundance of gold, but at the back they were clothed only in vestments of pure white, that being intended to signify that even as at their first appearance the bright and luminous summer seems to have its beginning, so at their departure it is seen that they leave us dark and snowy winter; which was also expressed by the head-dress, which had the front part woven of various ears of corn, even as the back appeared to be composed of snow, ice, and hoar-frost. There followed after these the old and monstrous Titan, who had with him the proud and audacious Iapetus, his son. And Prometheus, who was born of Iapetus, was seen coming after them all grave and venerable, with a little statue of clay in one of his hands, and in the other a burning torch, denoting the fire that he is said to have stolen from Jove out of Heaven itself. And after him, as the last, to conclude the company of the second car, there were seen coming, with a Moorish habit and with a sacred elephant's head as a cap, likewise two of the Atlantides, who, as has been told, first adored Heaven; and, in addition, in token of the things that were used by them in their first sacrifices, there were in the hands of both, in a great bundle, the ladle, the napkin, the cleaver, and the casket of incense.