s, who, it is
believed, had each a hundred hands and fifty heads; and there were born
also the Cyclopes, so called from the single eye that they had on the
brow. In the third was seen how he imprisoned their common children in
the caverns of that same Earth, that they might never be able to see the
light; even as in the fourth their Mother Earth, seeking to deliver them
from such oppression, was seen exhorting them to take a rightful
vengeance on their cruel father; wherefore in the fifth his genital
members were cut off by Saturn, when from their blood on one side it
appeared that the Furies and the Giants were born, and on the other,
from the foam that was shown fallen into the sea, was seen a different
birth, from which sprang the beautiful Venus. In the sixth was seen
expressed the anger that he showed against the Titans, because, as has
been told, they had allowed his genitals to be cut off; and in the
seventh and last, likewise, was seen the same God adored by the
Atlantides, with temples and altars devoutly raised to him. Now at the
foot of the car (as with the other already described) was seen riding
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
snow