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.
THIRD CAR, OF SATURN.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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