Costard, in his History of Astronomy, makes some critical remarks on the name of this greater light. He says, The sun is, by the Greeks, called Ἡλιος: which is nothing more than the Hebrew word אל _El_, modelled after the Greek manner of pronunciation, and signifies _Lord_; the first idolatrous worship being paid to this planet. In the Hebrew language it is called שמש _Shemesh_, and in the Chaldee שמשא _Shimsha_, from שמש _Shamesh_, to _minister_, on account of its administering light and heat to this world. From this property of communicating heat, it is also called המה _Hammah_. By the Phœnician idolaters it seems to have been called בעל _Baal_, or בעל שמים _Baal-Shamim_, the _Lord of Heaven_. And on account of the supposed swiftness of its diurnal motion from east to west, it had a chariot dedicated to it at Sidon, an ancient town of Phœnicia. Such a chariot is still seen on the coins of that place. This superstition was likewise imitated by the idolatrous Jews: for we read of _the horses which the kings of_ Judah _had given_, or dedicated, _to the sun_. By the Chaldeans it seems to have been called בל _Bel_, and by the Assyrians פל _Pul_; and, with the addition, sometimes of אב _ab_, or אף _ap_, i.e. _father_, אף-פל _Ap-Pul_, or _Father-Lord_; from whence the Greeks formed their Απολλων, another name given by them to the sun. The name of this luminary, among the Romans, was _sol_; given more probably, on account of his scorching heat in the summer, or from his determining the length of the year by his course, than because he appeared _solus, alone_, according to the derivation given by Macrobius.