n PETRON,]
[Greek: Aeri potaitai, kai tinei tauten diken.]

The same Scholiast quotes a similar passage from the same writer, where the
Sun is called Petra.

[872][Greek: Moloimi tan ouranou mesan]
[Greek: Chthonos te tetamenan aioremasi petran,]
[Greek: Alusesi chruseais pheromenan.]

If then the name of the Sun, and of his temples, was among the antient
Grecians Petros, and Petra; we may easily account for that word so often
occurring in the accounts of his worship. The Scholia above will moreover
lead us to discover whence the strange notion arose about the famous
Anaxagoras of Clazomenae; who is said to have prophesied, that a stone would
fall from the Sun. All that he had averred, may be seen in the relation of
the Scholiast above: which amounts only to this, that Petros was a name of
the Sun. It was a word of Egyptian original, derived from Petor, the same
as Ham, the Iaemus of the antient Greeks. This Petros some of his countrymen
understood in a different sense; and gave out, that he had foretold a stone
would drop from the Sun. Some were idle enough to think that it was
accomplished: and in consequence of it pretended to shew at AEgospotamos the
very [873]stone, which was said to have fallen. The like story was told of
a stone at Abydus upon the Hellespont: and Anaxagoras was here too supposed
to have been the prophet[874]. In Abydi gymnasio ex ea causa colitur
hodieque modicus quidem (lapis), sed quem in medio terrarum casurum
Anaxagoras praedixisse narratur. The temples, or Petra here mentioned, were
Omphalian, or Oracular: hence they were by a common mistake supposed to
have been in the centre of the habitable globe. They were also [Greek:
Elibatoi Petrai]; which Elibatos the Greeks derived from [Greek: baino]
descendo; and on this account the Petra were thought to have fallen from
the [875]Sun. We may by this clue unravel the mysterious story of Tantalus;
and account for the punishment which he was doomed to undergo.

[876][Greek: Koroi d' helen]
[Greek: Atan huperoplon,]
[Greek: Tan hoi pater huperkremase,]
[Greek: Karteron autoi lithon]
[Greek: Ton aei menoinon kephalas balein]
[Greek: Euphrosunas alatai.]

The unhappy Tantalus
From a satiety of bliss
Underwent a cruel reverse.
He was doom'd to sit under a huge stone,
Which the father of the Gods
Kept over his head suspended.
Thus he sat
In continual dread of its downfal,
And lost to every comfort.

It is said of Tantalus by some,