The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville - Pot-pourri

xxvii. Circus games (De ludis circensibus) 1. Thecircus
games were established for the sake of sacred rites
and celebrations of the pagan gods; hence, those who
watch them are seen to be devoted to demons’ cults.
Formerly, simple equestrian events were performed, and
the common custom was not at all deserving of censure,
but when this natural practice developed into public
games it was converted into the worship of demons. 2.
And sothiskindofcompetitionwas dedicated to Castor
and Pollux, to whom, the stories teach us, horses were
granted by Mercury. Neptune also is a god of the equestrian
game, and the Greeks call him (cf. ,
“horse”); horses in the games are also consecrated to
both Mars and Jupiter, and it is they who preside over
the four-horse chariots.
3. Thecircus (circensis) games are so called either
from ‘going in a circle’ (circumire), or because, where
the turning-posts are now, formerly swords were set up
which the chariots would go around – and hence they
were called circenses games after the ‘swords around’
(ensis + circa)which they would run. And indeed, those
driving chariots on the shore along the banks of rivers
would set up swords in a row at the riverbank, and part
of the art of horsemanship was to wheel around these
dangerous obstacles. From this the circenses games are
thought to have been named, as if the term were ‘around
swords’ (circum enses).
xxviii. The circus (De circo) 1. Thecircus was chiefly
dedicated by the pagans to the sun god, whose shrine was
in the middle of the racetrack and whose effigy shone out
from the gable of the shrine, because they did not think
that he, whom they believed was in the open, ought to
be worshipped under a roof. A circus is the whole space
that horses would race around. 2. TheRomans think
that it was called circus from the ‘circuit’ (circuitus) of
horses, because there the horses race around (circum)
the turning-posts. But the Greeks say it was named after
Circe, daughter of the sun god, who founded this kind of
competition in honor of her father, and from her name
they argue that the term circus derived. Moreover, she
was a sorceress and a witch and a priestess of demons; in
her conduct we may recognize both the working of the
magical arts and the cult of idolatry.
xxix. The apparatus (De ornamentis) 1. Theapparatus
of the circus comprises the ‘eggs,’ the turning posts,
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the obelisk, and the starting-gate. Some people say the
‘eggs’ (i.e. objects used to mark the number of circuits
of the chariots) are in honor of Pollux and Castor; these
same people do not blush to believe that these two were
begotten from an egg sired by Jupiter as a swan. 2. The
Romans claim that the circus games represent the first
principles of the world, so that under this pretext they
may excuse the superstitions of their own empty beliefs.
xxx. The turning-posts (De metis) Properly by the
term ‘turning-posts’ (meta) people mean to designate
the end-point and boundary of the world, from the fact
that the end is ‘measured out’ (emetiri)insomeway,or
as a token of the rising and setting of the sun.
xxxi. The obelisk (De obelisco) 1. Mesfres, king of
Egypt, is said to have been the first to make an obelisk,
for the following reason. Because the Nile once had damaged
Egypt with a violent flood, the indignant king, as if
to exact a penalty from the river, shot an arrow into the
water. Not long afterwards, seized by a serious illness,
he lost his sight, and once his vision was restored after
this blindness he consecrated two obelisks to the sun god.
‘Obelisk’ (obeliscus)isthe name of the arrow that is set up
in the middle of the circus because the sun runs through
the middle of the world. 2. Moreover, the obelisk, set
up in the midpoint of the space of the racetrack equidistant
from the two turning-posts, represents the peak and
summit of heaven, since the sun moves across it at the
midpoint of the hours, equidistant from either end of its
course. Set on top of the obelisk is a gilded object shaped
like a flame, for the sun has an abundance of heat and
fire within it.
xxxii. The starting-gates (De carceribus) In the circus
the places from which the horses are loosed are called
starting-gates (carcer), for the same reason that prisons
(carcer)inacity are so named – because, just as humans
are condemned and imprisoned there, so horses are ‘confined’
(coercere)here so that they may not start off before
the signal is given.
xxxiii. Charioteers (De aurigis) 1.Theartofthe circus
comprises the charioteer and the race, people on horseback
or on foot. The charioteer (auriga) isproperlyso
called because he ‘drives and guides’ (agere etregere), or
because he ‘beats’ (ferire)theyokedhorses,foronewho