[182] ὁ ἐν γόνασιν. Aratus calls this constellation ὁ ἐν γόνασι καθήμενος, Cicero Engonasis, Ovid Genunixus, Vitruvius, Manilius and J. Firmicus Maternus, Ingeniculus.
[183] A perversion of the “it shall bruise thy head and thou shall bruise his heel,” of Genesis iii. 15.
[184] From his attitude the Kneeler resembles the figure of Atlas supporting the world, who as Omophorus plays a great part in Manichæan mythology. Cumont derives this from a Babylonian original, for which and his connection with Mithraic cosmogony see his Recherches sur le Manichéisme, Brussels, 1908, I, p. 70, figs. 1 and 2. The constellation is now known as Hercules.
[185] Hippolytus here evidently quotes not from Aratus, but from some unnamed Gnostic or heretic writer, whom Cruice thinks must have been a Jew. Yet he was plainly a Christian, as appears from his remarks about the “Second Creation.” An Ebionite writer might have preserved many Essene superstitions.
[186] Cruice, following Roeper, says these words have slipped in from an earlier page.
[187] ὀφιοῦχος. The “Ophiuchus huge” of Milton or Anguitenens.
[188] Ἑλίκη. So Aratus and Apollonius Rhodius. Said to be so called from its perpetually revolving. Cruice remarks on this sentence that it does not seem to have been written by a Greek, and quotes Epiphanius as to the addiction of the Pharisees to astrology. But see last note but one.
[189] ἑλίκη. A pun quite in Hippolytus’ manner.
[190] πρὸς ἣν ... ναυτίλλονται. Cruice and Macmahon alike translate this “towards which,” but Aratus clearly means “steer by” both here and earlier.
[191] Herodotus I, 1. He does not say, however, that the Greeks were Phœnicians.