These were all places of general rendezvous for people of the same community. Here were kept up perpetual fires: and places of this sort were made use of for courts of judicature, where the laws of the country, θεμισται, were explained, and enforced. Hence Homer speaking of a person not worthy of the rights of society, calls him [232]Αφρητωρ, αθεμιστος, ανεστιος. The names of these buildings were given to them from the rites there practised; all which related to fire. The term Asta was in aftertimes by the Greeks expressed, Αστυ, Astu; and appropriated to a city. The name of Athens was at first [233]Astu; and then Athenæ of the same purport: for Athenæ is a compound of Ath-En, Ignis fons; in which name there is a reference both to the guardian Goddess of the city; and also to the perpetual fire preserved within its precincts. The God of fire, Hephaistus, was an Egyptian compound of Apha-Astus, rendered by the Ionian Greeks Hephæstus. The [234]Camœnæ of Latium, who were supposed to have shewn the sacred fountain to the Vestals, were probably the original priestesses, whose business it was to fetch water for lustrations from that stream. For Cam-Ain is the fountain of the Sun: and the Camœnæ were named from their attendance upon that Deity. The Hymns in the temples of this God were sung by these women: hence the Camœnæ were made presidents of music. Many regions, where the rites of fire were kept up, will be found to have been named Asta, Hestia, Hestiæa, Hephæstia; or to have had cities so [235]called. This will appear from the histories of Thessaly, Lycia, Egypt, Lemnos; as well as from other countries. From Asta and Esta come the terms Æstas, Æstus, Æstuo, Αστυ, Ἑστια, Ἑστιαζειν. SHEM, SHAMEN, SHEMESH.