Proclus interprets the word to mean sepulchres, which it was unlawful to move: but on the same grounds it may be interpreted land-marks. One should rather understand by it any sort of stones; Hesiod preferring that a boy should be placed on wooden slabs that might be moved about. But the being placed on a stone could not be more hurtful to him on the twelfth day or month than at any other period of his childhood. This was a mere superstition; and we may as well seek to interpret the dreams of a man who is light-headed. LE CLERC. [139] _The thirtieth of the moon._] That is, the last day of each month; for the most ancient Greeks, as well as the Orientals, employed lunar months of thirty days. LE CLERC. The Greek month was divided into τρια δεκημερα, three decades of days. The first was called μηνος αρχομενου or ισταμενου; the second, μηνος μησουντος; and the third, μηνος φθινοντος, παυομενου, or ληγοντος: the beginning month, the middle month, the declining or ending month. The words were put in the genitive case because some day was placed before them. Thus the middle-first or first of the second decade was the eleventh of the whole month; and the first of the end, or of the last decade, was the twenty-first: the twenty-ninth was called εικας μεγαλη, the great twentieth. The French Republican calendar was formed on the Greek model. [140] _What time the people to the courts repair._] The forenoon was distinguished by the time of the court of judicature sitting, as in this passage of Hesiod; the afternoon by the time of its breaking up, as in the following of Homer: At what hour the judge, After decision made of numerous strifes Between young candidates for honour, leaves The forum, for refreshment’s sake at home. COWPER, _Odyss._ xii. [141] _Beware the fifth._] Virgil copies this, as well as some other of these superstitions, Georg. i. 275: For various works behold the moon declare Some days more fortunate: the fifth beware: Pale Orcus and the Furies then sprang forth— ... Next to the tenth the seventh to luck inclines For taming oxen and for planting vines: Then best her woof the prudent housewife weaves: Better for flight the ninth; averse to thieves. WARTON. The Theogony. THE THEOGONY. The Argument.