χαῖρε, ἄναξ, πρόφρων δὲ βίον θυμήρε᾽ ὄπαζε;
ἐκ σέο δ᾽ ἀρξάμενος κλῄσω μερόπων γένος ἀνδρῶν
ἡμιθέων, ὦν ἔργα θεοὶ θνητοῖσιν ἔδειξαν.
This would seem to imply that the poet looked upon Helios as a half-god, almost as a hero, who had once lived on earth.
Reynard the Fox in South Africa, or Hottentot Fables and Tales, by W. H. I. Bleek, 1864, p. 69. Dr. Theophilus Hahn, Die Sprache der Nama, 1870, p. 59. As a curious coincidence, it may be mentioned that in Sanskrit, too, the Moon is called sasāanka, i. e. “having the marks of a hare,” the black marks in the moon being taken for the likeness of the hare. Another coincidence is that the Namaqua Hottentots will not touch hare's flesh (see Sir James E. Alexander's Expedition of Discovery into the Interior of Africa, vol. i. p. 269), because the hare deceived men, while the Jews abstain from it, because the hare is supposed to chew the cud (Lev. xi. 6).
A similar tradition on the meaning of death occurs among the Zulus, but as they do not know of the Moon as a deity, the message that men are not to die, or that they are to die, is sent there by Unkulunkulu, the ancestor of the human race, and thus the whole story loses its point. See Dr. Callaway, Unkulunkulu, p. 4; and Gray, Polynesian Mythology, pp. 16-58.
A writer in the Index objects to my representation of what Josephus said with regard to the observance of the seventh day in Greek and barbarian towns. He writes:—
Washington, Nov. 9, 1872.
“The article by Max Müller in the Index of this week contains, I think, one error, caused doubtless by his taking a false translation of a passage from Josephus instead of the original. ‘In fact,’ says Professor Müller, ‘Josephus (Contra Apion. ii. 39) was able to say that there was no town, Greek or not Greek, where the custom of observing the seventh day had not spread.’ Mr. Wm. B. Taylor, in a discussion of the Sabbath question with the Rev. Dr. Brown, of Philadelphia, in 1853 (Obligation of the Sabbath, p. 120), gives this rendering of the passage: ‘Nor is there anywhere any city of the Greeks, nor a single barbarian nation, whither the institution of the Hebdomade (which we mark by resting) has not travelled;’ then in a note Mr. Taylor gives the original Greek of part of the passage, and adds: ‘Josephus does not say that the Greek and barbarian rested, but that we [the Jews] observe it by rest.’
“The corrected translation only adds strength to Max Müller's position in regard to the very limited extent of Sabbath observance in ancient times; and Mr. Taylor brings very strong historical proof to maintain the assertion (p. 24) that ‘throughout all history we discover no trace of a Sabbath among the nations of antiquity.’ ”
It seems to me that if we read the whole of Josephus's work, On the Antiquity of the Jews, we cannot fail to perceive that what Josephus wished to show towards the end of the second book was that other nations had copied or were trying to copy the Jewish customs. He says: Ὑφ᾽ ἡμῶν τε διηνέχθησαν οἱ νόμοι καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἅπασιν ἀνθρώποις, ἀεὶ καὶ μᾶλλον αὐτῶν ζῆλον ἐμπεποιήκασι. He then says that the early Greek philosophers, though apparently original in their theoretic speculations, followed the Jewish laws with regard to practical and moral precepts. Then follows this sentence: Οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ πλήθεσιν ἤδη πολὺς ζῆλος γέγονεν ἐκ μακροῦ τῆς ἡμετέρας εὐσεβείας, οὐ δ᾽ ἔστιν οὐ πόλις Ἑλλήνων οὐδετισουν οὐδὲ βάρβαρος, οὐδὲ ἕν ἔθνος, ἔνθα μὴ τὸ τῆς ἑβδομάδος, ἥν ἀργοῦμεν ἡμεῖς, ἔθος οὐ διαπεφοιτηκε, καὶ αἱ νηστεῖαι καὶ λύχνων ἀνακαύσεις καὶ πολλὰ τῶν εἰς βρῶσιν ἡμῖν οὐ νενομισμένων παρατετήρηται. Μιμεῖσθαι δὲ πειρῶνται καὶ τὴν πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἡμῶν ὁμόνοιαν, κ.τ.λ. Standing where it stands, the sentence about the ἑβδομάς can only mean that “there is no town of Greeks nor of barbarians, nor one single people, where the custom of the seventh day, on which we rest, has not spread, and where fastings, and lighting of lamps, and much of what is forbidden to us with regard to food are not observed. They try to imitate our mutual concord also, etc.” Hebdomas, which originally meant the week, is here clearly used in the sense of the seventh day, and though Josephus may exaggerate, what he says is certainty “that there was no town, Greek or not Greek, where the custom of observing the seventh day had not spread.”
Indriyabalabodhyaṅgasabda. These are technical terms, but their meaning is not quite clear. Spence Hardy, in his Manual, p. 498, enumerates the five indrayas, viz. (1) sardhâwa, purity (probably sraddhâ, faith), (2) wiraya, persevering exertion (vîrya), (3) sati or smirti, the ascertainment of truth (smriti), (4) samâdhi, tranquillity, (5) pragnâwa, wisdom (pragñâ).