The Garden of Cyrus

The story that Vulcan the Roman god of fire and metalworking gave arrows to Apollo and Diana on the fourth day after their births—according to pagan theology original: "Gentile theology"—may be understood as a perceptive insight into the creation of the sun and moon on the fourth day of the world. This was when the diffused light of the universe was gathered into those spheres original: "orbs", which then began to shoot out their rays. There are even clearer descriptions from pagan writers regarding the creatures of the fourth day. Meanwhile, the divine philosopher likely referring to Moses, the traditional author of Genesis unfortunately omits the most noble part of the third day; and Ovid (whom many believe borrowed his descriptions from Moses) barely touches on the remarkable biblical account. In just three words, Ovid describes the work of the third day—the creation of plants original: "vegetable creation", which was the first decorative scene of nature, the original food of animals, and the first chapter in the history of physick medicine through the preservation of health by diet.

❧ For although physick medicine may claim a high origin from God's own medical act of casting a deep sleep upon our first parent Adam, and chirurgery surgery may find its entire art rooted in that single passage concerning the removal of Adam’s rib, neither can compete with the antiquity of garden design and herbary the study and cultivation of plants. If Paradise was planted on the third day of creation, as the most learned theologians conclude, its "birth" was too early for Horoscopie the practice of casting a birth chart or horoscope; gardens existed before gardeners, appearing only a few hours after the earth itself was formed.

❧ Its exact location and geography are matters of deeper doubt. Yet, since it was the original garden and was almost certainly located in the East, it is more than probable that the first scientific interest and cultivation of plants flourished in those regions. And since Noah’s Ark first came to rest on the mountains of Armenia, the art of planting rose again in the East. It found its renewal not far from the place of its birth, among the plains of those same regions. If Zoroaster the ancient Persian prophet was actually Ham, Cush, or Mizraim descendants of Noah, then they were early experts in this field, leaving behind a work on agriculture, as Pliny the Elder reports.

❧ However, the account of the pensil hanging or suspended or hanging gardens of Babylon—if they were indeed built by Queen Semiramis, the third or fourth ruler after Nimrod—is of significant antiquity. These gardens were not built on the ordinary level of the ground but were raised upon pillars with passages underneath. Therefore, we cannot view them as the first Babylonian gardens, but rather as a more impressive advancement in the art than anything that came before. This design somewhat hints at the old opinion regarding Paradise itself, which many imagined to be elevated high above the rest of the earth.