Do thou discern. I clothe me with the heaven,

And cast the sea around me, and for me

Earth is a footstool, and the air is poured

Around my body; and on every side

Around me runs the chorus of the stars.

175 Nine letters have I; of four syllables

I am; discern me. The first three have each

Two letters, the remaining one the rest,

And five are mates; and of the entire sum

The hundreds are twice eight and thrice three tens

180 Along with seven. Now, knowing who I am,

[175. Nine letters.--The connection shows that the name intended must be some title or designation of the Creator, but no word has been discovered that fully meets the conditions of the puzzle. The nearest solution is found in the word {Greek ?ane'kfwnows}. This word has nine letters, four syllables, and five mutes, or consonants. The first three syllables have two letters each, and the sum of all the letters taken at their numerical value is 1,696. But the number stated in the text is twice 800, plus three times thirty (= 90) and seven = 1,697. {Greek ?ane'kfwnows} must also be supposed to be a shortened form for {Greek ?anekfw'nhtos}, used in ecclesiastical Greek writers to denote the unutterable name, Jehovah. Another name proposed is {Greek Ðeo`s Swth'r}, but an obvious objection is that we have here two words, not, as the text suggests, one word of four syllables. Besides, these letters amount to only 1,692. There is, perhaps, an error in the text. If for the words with seven (line 180) we read with two, the numerical difficulty of the last-named solution would be met; or if we read with six, then the word {Greek ?ane'kfwnos} solves the problem. Comp. the similar puzzle in lines 395-399 of this same book, and the well-known {footnote p. 22} enigma of the number of the beast in Rev. xiii, 18. A like example is also found in Capella (book ii, 193), who thus addresses the sun: "Hail, thou veritable face and paternal countenance of God, eight and six hundred in number, whose first letter forms a sacred name, a surname, and a sign;" which Kopp explains by the letters {Greek frh} (= 608), representative of the Egyptian name of the sun. Comp. also the designation of the Roman emperors in book v, 16, and following.]