Of course there have been always fantastic fancies put forth about the solar system, but they are more amusing than instructive. Some have said that there is no sun, moon, or stars, but that they are reflections from an immense light under the earth. Some savage races say that the moon when decreasing breaks up into stars, and is renewed each month by a creative act. The Indians used to say that it was full of nectar which the gods ate up when it waned, and which grew again when it waxed. The Brahmins placed the earth in the centre, and said that the stars moved like fishes in a sea of liquid. They counted nine planets, of which two are invisible dragons which cause eclipses; which, since they happen in various parts of the zodiac, show that these dragons revolve like the rest. They said the sun was nearer than the moon, perhaps because it is hotter and brighter. Berosus the Chaldean gave a very original explanation of the phases and eclipses of the moon. He said it had one side bright, and the other side just the colour of the sky, and in turning it represented the different colours to us. Before concluding this chapter we may notice what information we possess as to the origin of the names by which the planets are known. These names have not always been given to them, and date only from the time when the poets began to associate the Grecian mythology with astronomy. The earlier names had reference rather to their several characters, although there appear to have been among every people two sets of names applied to them. The earliest Greek names referred to their various degrees of brilliancy: thus Saturn, which is not easily distinguished, was called Phenon, or _that which appears_; Jupiter was named Phaeton, _the brilliant_; Mars was Pysois, or _flame-coloured_; Mercury, Stilbon, _the sparkling_; Venus, Phosphorus; and Lucifer, _the light-bearer_. They called the latter also Calliste, _the most beautiful_. It was also known then as now under the appellations of the morning star and evening star, indicating its special position. With the ancient Accadians, the planets had similar names, among others. Thus, "Mars was sometimes called _the vanishing star_, in allusion to its recession from the earth, and Jupiter the _planet of the ecliptic_, from its neighbourhood to the latter" (Sayce). The name of Mars raises the interesting question as to whether they had noticed its phases as well as its movements--especially when, with reference to Venus, it is recorded in the "Observations of Bel," that "it rises, and in its orbit duly grows in size." They had also a rather confusing system of nomenclature by naming each planet after the star that it happened to be the nearest to at any point of its course round the ecliptic.