Apollo, who was revered under the form of a column at Delphi, can
also be connected with the verb polein or pelein=to turn, as well as the
name Polias _i. e._ the goddess protecting the city, a surname for Minerva
(Athene) at Athens, where she was worshipped at one time as the protecting
divinity of the Acropolis. The title Poliuchus, "protecting the city,"
occurs as a surname of several divinities and particularly of Minerva
Chalchioecus, "of the brazen house," at Sparta and Athens. It is
instructive likewise to compare the Greek words for axis=axon, and
polis=city, with Helice, the name for Ursa Major and for a town in
Arcadia, with the Egyptian Annu, An or On, the names of capitals, and the
Egyptian word an=that which turns around. It will be for Greek and
Egyptian scholars to enlighten us as to whether the Egyptian an and the
Greek polis are synonyms; in which connection I draw their attention to
the following suggestive passage of the Critias (VII).... "Yet before we
narrate this we must briefly warn you not to be surprised at hearing
Hellenic names given to barbarians ... and the cause of this you shall now
hear. Solon made an investigation into the power of names and found that
the early Egyptians, who committed these facts to writing, transferred
these names into their own language; and he again, receiving the meaning
of each name, introduced it by writing into our language." While, on one
hand, it is certain that the Egyptian astronomer-priests associated the
pole star with the words An, Anu, Anubis, on the other, the following
passages from Plato's works clearly demonstrate his views concerning axial
rotation.(119) A fresh interest is undoubtedly added to Plato's philosophy
when it is regarded as the possible result of the thirteen years spent by
him with the Egyptian priesthood, who may possibly have confided to him
the entire sum of their ancient philosophy and accumulated store of
knowledge, and who certainly seem to have imposed upon him the reticence
and obscurity noticeable in the Republic, the Critias and the Timaeus.

To those who have followed my investigation of the ancient state
organization and cosmical conceptions of the ancient Egyptians, and noted
the interpretation given to the pyramid and the fact that Amenophis
instituted the disk as the image of the Supreme Being, the following
detached extracts from Plato's Timaeus will appear familiar and full of
fresh significance. "To discover the Father