I have shewn that people of old made use of caverns for places of worship: hence this at Athens had the name of Petra, or temple. [869]It is said of Ceres, that after she had wandered over the whole earth, she at last reposed herself upon a stone at Eleusis. They in like manner at Delphi shewed the petra, upon which the Sibyl Herophile at her first arrival sat [870]down. In short, there is in history of every oracular temple some legend about a stone; some reference to the word Petra. To clear this up, it is necessary to observe, that when the worship of the Sun was almost universal, this was one name of that Deity even among the Greeks. They called him Petor, and Petros; and his temple was styled Petra. This they oftentimes changed to λιθος; so little did they understand their own mythology. There were however some writers, who mentioned it as the name of the Sun, and were not totally ignorant of its meaning. This we may learn from the Scholiast upon Pindar. [871]Περι δε του Ἡλιου ὁι φυσικοι φασιν, ὡς λιθος καλειται ὁ Ἡλιος. Και Αναξαγορου γενομενον Ευριπιδην μαθητην, Πετρον ειρηκεναι τον Ἡλιον δια των προκειμενων. Ὁ γαρ Μακαριος, κ' ουκ ονειδιζω τυχας, Διος πεφυκως, ὡς λεγουσι, Τανταλος, Κορυφης ὑπερτελλοντα δειμαινων ΠΕΤΡΟΝ, Αερι ποτᾳται, και τινει ταυτην δικην. The same Scholiast quotes a similar passage from the same writer, where the Sun is called Petra. [872]Μολοιμι ταν ουρανου μεσαν Χθονος τε τεταμεναν αιωρημασι πετραν, Αλυσεσι χρυσεαις φερομεναν. If then the name of the Sun, and of his temples, was among the antient Grecians Petros, and Petra; we may easily account for that word so often occurring in the accounts of his worship. The Scholia above will moreover lead us to discover whence the strange notion arose about the famous Anaxagoras of Clazomenæ; who is said to have prophesied, that a stone would fall from the Sun. All that he had averred, may be seen in the relation of the Scholiast above: which amounts only to this, that Petros was a name of the Sun. It was a word of Egyptian original, derived from Petor, the same as Ham, the Iämus of the antient Greeks. This Petros some of his countrymen understood in a different sense; and gave out, that he had foretold a stone would drop from the Sun. Some were idle enough to think that it was accomplished: and in consequence of it pretended to shew at Ægospotamos the very [873]stone, which was said to have fallen. The like story was told of a stone at Abydus upon the Hellespont: and Anaxagoras was here too supposed to have been the prophet[874]. In Abydi gymnasio ex eâ causâ colitur hodieque modicus quidem (lapis), sed quem in medio terrarum casurum Anaxagoras prædixisse narratur. The temples, or Petra here mentioned, were Omphalian, or Oracular: hence they were by a common mistake supposed to have been in the centre of the habitable globe. They were also Ηλιβατοι Πετραι; which Elibatos the Greeks derived from βαινω descendo; and on this