Cydonia: Chapter Twelve: The Golden Fruit of Ares

Hermes, who is of my ordinances ever the bearer… Then taking his staff, with which he the eyelids of mortals closes at will, and the sleeper, at will, reawakens. --Book V. Homer's Odyssey Giovanni Schiaparelli (1835-1910) first named the geographic features on Mars. Heavily influenced by classics of Greece and Rome, Schiaparelli allocated the names of the planet that are still in use today. At the time, Mars was closer to the earth than it had been in hundreds of years, nor would it be any closer to earth for another 200 years after. Despite the ease this phenomenon afforded astronomers while attempting to view the surface features of Mars, this was not the major factor in the names that were chosen by Schiaparelli. The surface features of Mars were named according to the theurgic principles of the mystery schools. On September 12, 1877, Giovanni Schiaparelli began a careful study for the purpose of drawing up a new map of the planet Mars. Schiaparelli was an Italian astronomer, director of the Brera Observatory in Milan (1862-1900) who studied at Turin, founded 2300 years ago by the Taurini Gauls, a cultural [959] home of many of the century's most enlightened reformers and intellectuals. Schiaparelli assigned classical names to features of Mars. These names, and his choice of placement for the zero meridian on Mars, became widely accepted. Schiaparelli wrote: I had to create a special nomenclature, which served my particular purpose. This nomenclature, which was devised while I was laboring at the telescope and is probably not without many shortcomings, was retained in my memoir only because it described perfectly what had been seen. [960] Rather than using the names assigned by previous observers of the planet, Schiaparelli created his [961] nomenclature from his intimate knowledge of illuminated classical literature. The ancient Greek mapmaker and founder of "physical geography," Dicaearchus, had drawn a line through the middle of his map of the Mediterranean world running from the pillars of Hercules in the west to the Taurus Mountains in the east. This map, so demarcated, he called the "great diaphragm." Schiaparelli drew a similar line on Mars running between the belt of dark markings to the south and the lighter regions to the north. In Greek philosophy the diaphragm or phrenos was the mind, often associated with soul, due to the fact that the breath of man was centered in the chest. The philosopher Empedocles said the soul had a seat in the heart, and the writing of Hippocrates, placed the origin of pneuma (breath) in the diaphragm--the source of intelligence and feeling and the faculty of perceiving and judging. The Pythagoreans categorized the diaphragm or phren as the mind which man shares in common with the animals. Using the examples of maps made by Dicaearchus and Ptolemy, Schiaparelli assigned a "heart and soul" to the planet he was mapping. The Greek Dicaearchus had created a map of the ancient world, the Great Diaphragm, that reflected the soul of the Mediterranean. More significant was Dicaearchus's delineation of sections, anchored with lines north and south, which emphasized the Island of Rhodes. This feature demonstrates the knowledge preserved by the mystery schools--in myth Rhode was the sister of the demi-gods the Telchines who populated the island that came to be called Rhodes. In Greek rhodos or rodon means "reddish," from an earlier word borrowed from the Phoenicians. Before the Greeks arrived on the island, the Phoenicians called the island Erodes, meaning, "snake." Rhodes was known in ancient times by the name Ophioussa, from the Greek root word Ophis, "snake." Legend described the island having once been overrun with snakes--related to the bringer of knowledge gnosis in the mystery schools of the Mediterranean. From the Phoenician word erode "snake" to the Greek rodon "rose" or simply "reddish," the allusion to redness in the ancient mysteries signifies the red planet. Constantine incorporated the first letter of Rhodon, the rose or serpent, Greek RHO with the Greek letter for a cross or tree, CHI . This symbol most efficiently represents worship of the sun god Apollo under the symbols established at Rhodes. Helen of Troy was worshipped in a sanctuary on Rhodes, under the epithet Helen Dendritis, Helen, meaning "light" and the Greek word for tree dendron--literally, the tree of light. The chi and rho symbol originated in myths from the distant past, when a serpent in a tree first whispered to a woman from an overhanging branch of a tree. Contrary to traditional belief, Emperor Constantine the Great (AD 274-337) did not embrace Christianity as the religion of Rome; but adapted Christianity into a new form which was implemented as [962] the religion of Rome. Constantine maintained the title Pontifus Maximus as the high priest of Sol invictus or Apollo, and minted coins during his reign with the inscription: "SOL INVICTO COMITI," "Committed to the Invincible Sun" or Apollo. It was this solar deity, the apple-god, who revealed to [963] Constantine, in a dream, that he would conquer "in this sign." The Roman Emperor Elagabalus (218-222 A.D.) was high priest of Baal (the sun god) in Syria and later became Roman Emperor. He established the cult of Sol Invictus Elagabal in Rome. Emperor Aurelian (270-275) made Sol Invictus the state religion of the Roman Empire and established a Latin college of high priests under the name Pontifices Dei Solis to which Constantine belonged which later [964] evolved into the Roman College of Cardinals of the Vatican which elects every pope to this day. In the tradition preserved by the mystery schools, the Quince, the fruit of the rose, was the metaphorical fruit of knowledge, silence, secrecy and the pentagram. The golden apples of Greek myth are said to have been Quinces, as they were the only "golden" fruit known in his time (oranges having only been introduced into Italy at the time of the Crusades and golden delicious and other similar colored apples were not available then). Greeks often referred to tree fruits generically as "apples." The golden apples grew on a tree in The Garden of the Hesperides. The flesh of the golden apples was thought to grant immortality. A wedding present to Hera at her marriage to Zeus on the Isle of Crete, the golden apple tree was planted by Hera at the foot of Mount Atlas. This location, along the Prime Meridian, was thought to be the end of the world. A serpent called Ladon (he who embraces) guarded the [965] apples. Heracles, the son of Zeus, was given as his 11 labor, the assignment to steal these apples from this th garden. Zeus fathered Hercules with the mortal woman Alceme, "mighty endeavor." This name Alceme shares the same root of Egyptian source, kemet , the same root as the mystery school of alchemy. Hercules, like all initiates, must pass through trials to prove himself worthy of knowledge, the golden fruit that is difficult to attain. Diodorus detailed the Samothracian mysteries, noting that heroes themselves were initiates: The claim is also made that men who have taken part in the mysteries become more pious and more just and better in every respect than they were before. And this is the reason, we are told, why the most famous both of the ancient heroes and of the demi-gods were eagerly desirous of taking part in the initiatory rite; and in fact Jason and the Dioskoroi, and Heracles and Orpheus as well, after their initiation attained success in all the campaigns they undertook, because these gods appeared to them. (Diodorus Siculus, Book 5, Ch 49, 6) Hercules specifically sought initiation to assist him with one of his Labors: He received a command from Eurystheus to bring Cerberus up from Hades to the light of day. And assuming it would be to his advantage for the accomplishment of this Labour, he went to Athens and took part in the Eleusinian mysteries. Diodorus Siculus, Book 4, Ch 25, 1. The name Hercules is derived from the phrase "Glory of Heru" or the glory of Horus, son of Isis. Men who seek knowledge by aligning themselves with illumined fraternities refer to themselves as sons [966] of Isis the free men of Free Masonry. In the Greek myth of the origin of the golden apples, Pherecydes declared that when Jupiter (Zeus light patre father), wed Juno "queen of heaven" or Isis, Terra [earth] came, bearing branches with golden apples, and Juno/Isis, in admiration, asked Terra/earth to plant them in her gardens near distant Mount Atlas, on the shores of Okeanos. Okeanos was the primordial Greek god of cosmic waters, the Milky Way, considered the source for all the oceans and rain. Okeanos played a prominent role in the location of the golden fruit of the Hesperides meaning "of the west." Hesperides were also called The African Sisters because they dwelt west of Greece in Africa at the mountains of Atlas where heaven is anchored to earth by the star Sirius. [967] Sirius in heaven lies along the banks of the Milky Way whose shores touch Orion and Sirius, the key stars symbolically connecting the 360-degree circle of the zodiac to the earth. There was an undefined amount of time in the story between when the tree of golden fruit was planted and when finally Juno, wife of Jupiter/Zeus is said to have placed the guardian "Ladon the serpent" to prevent golden fruit from being picked. A tree of knowledge is the origin of the barsoom, the magic wand, and the caduceus wielded by gods of wisdom, especially Hermes. The Caduceus was also [968] the symbol of Aesculapius, the Roman god of medicine and represented healing. The "serpent on the pole" in Exodus, literally a seraph "fiery serpent," is the prototype of all serpents in trees of golden fruit. An astronomical lesson is preserved in the symbols of the tree in the garden. The picture accurately depicts earth's orientation in space. Like the serpent Ladon guarding the tree of golden fruit, the constellation Draconus winds around an imaginary pole of the earth's axis of rotation every 24 hours. In the same way the guardian serpent was a later accommodation to the tree of golden fruit according to the Greek myth, the celestial configuration would not be accurate even a few thousand years past due to the precession of the equinoxes. The last star to share the pole star status was in fact in the constellation Draco, alpha Draconus, six thousand years ago and before it, the star Vega in Lyra, fourteen thousand years ago. By obtaining the golden fruit a seeker of illumination comprehends the location of the pillars of heaven and earth. Quince trees are still used as boundary markers especially in European countries that lie along the Prime Meridian. In England, Southwest and East Spain farmers through the centuries marked the corners where their lands ended with a Quince tree. The Domesday Book of 1086 mentions that old quince trees are planted as boundary markers on land, defining it as a symbolic tree of location. The [969] Quince was the tree of the Hesperides, planted where heaven and earth are connected. To the Greeks and Romans, the Quince was sacred to Venus who was often depicted with the golden fruit in her right hand. Greek myth describes the golden quince as the gift she received from Paris and the cause for the battle of Troy. A ripe quince is a fiery yellow orange color. The esoteric fruit of knowledge then became a word for illumination, light or fire. The word pur, "fiery," is at the root of Paris --bestower of the golden fruit, and Paris--the city of lights. In fact the name Paris is derived from an eminently more ancient source than the Greeks, it is a Hebrew word found in the book of Genesis meaning "a fruit" Pariy. This fruit, and the illuminating results of eating it, are the topics discussed by Eve and the serpent in the Garden of Eden: Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit, (Pariy) of the tree which [is] in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Gen 3:2-4 The Hebrew Mishna distinguishes the quince, which is called parish, from the tappuach apple (Kohler in Jewish Encyclopedia, II, 23). And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil And when the woman saw that the tree [was] good for food, and that it [was] pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make [one] wise, she took of the fruit, (Pariy) thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they [were] naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. Gen 3:4-7 A similar word pareias was also an ancient Greek name of a certain species of snake, sacred to [970] Asclepius because of its red color. In the Greek New Testament the word for "fiery" is puroeis , [971] which is the Greek word for the planet Mars and the root of "pyramid." The English word FIVE is in Greek, pente the root of the word pentagram. The Latin quinque (five) is the underlying meaning of the word Quince. In old English literature the Quince fruit was called a Coyne, the name adapted from the French coin, or Cain. In the old English vocabulary of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Middle English word coin, quin, which in plural is quins, became corrupted to the singular quince, connecting the concept of money. Mercury, the Roman god of commerce, was also associated with the power of bestowing knowledge. According to Pausanias there were five Hesperides, who surrounded the tree of [972] golden fruit. The Quince Rose tree symbolically bears the secret of the pentagonal based connection between heaven and earth. Illumined botanists scientifically classified it as Pyrus Cydonia. This is the same name as the region of Mars that introduced to the modern age the prospect of a lost civilization on that planet. Botanically the Pyrus Cydonia is from the Rosaceae (Rose) family and is also called a Chainomeles. In Greek chaina means "to gaze" and malon is "tree- fruit." Malum in Latin, means "an apple" and malus means "evil." On the wall paintings and mosaics of Pompeii, Italy, besides being held by Venus, Quinces were painted held in the paws of a bear. This representation played on the double meaning of the Greek words Arcas north, and arctos, bear. The constellation of the north, in Latin Ursa Major, would be associated with the fruit of the knowledge of the heavens, the fruit of the tree at the pillars of heaven and earth. The Greeks called the Quince Kudônios "fruit of Cydonia." The quince was also Hesperis "fruit of the west" [973] and Rhodomêlon, "fruit of the rose." The final esoteric meaning of the story of the golden fruit is the source from whence the knowledge came, the fruit itself is Cydonia Mars. At the end of the bough--its uttermost end, Missed by the harvesters, ripens the fruit, Nay, not overlooked, but far out of reach, So with all best things. (Sappho) In Greek myth, in addition to the Hesperian serpent Ladon, the only other serpents of note are distinctly Martian. The Cadmium serpent guarded the spring of Ares near the city Thebes founded by Cadmus. The Colchian serpent guarded the Grove of Ares, resting place of the famed Golden Fleece of Aries sought by Jason. In a strange twist of etymology, the word for "fleece" in Greek, melon means "tree fruit" in Latin. 1. The Greek, melon = sheepskin. [974] 2. Also an outer robe or mantle since most mantles were made of skins. The Quince, as a Chainomeles meaning "seeing or knowing fruit" can also mean "fleece of knowledge" in Greek, repeating the superimposition of heaven and earth. The epic of Jason written by Apollonius of Rhodes in the third century BC described the ram of the Golden Fleece as the offspring of Poseidon and Theophane. In the myth, the son of Nepele, Phrixus, was falsely accused of raping Biadice whose name means, justice by force. For this alleged crime, Phrixus was condemned to die as a sacrifice [975] to Hera. The god Mercury sent the flying golden ram to aid in Phrixus and his sister Helen's rescue. While the ram was in flight, Helen lost her hold of the fleece and fell into the Helespont; the body of water named for her and Poseidon supposedly rescued her. At the journeys end, at the ram's request, Phrixus sacrificed the animal to Zeus and hung its fleece in the Grove of Ares where it became the object of the [976] Argonauts's (Argo= many eyes) quest. For his courage, Zeus set the ram's likeness in the heavens. In Latin the word chainomeles means "knowing evil." In the book, "The Secret Teachings Of All Ages" written by Manly P. Hall, described the occult symbolism associated with Mars as having been lifted out of the story of Jason and the Argonauts. He explained that Apollonius was not the first to tell the story, but his version is the best known today: When the vernal equinox no longer occurred in the sign of Taurus, the Sun God incarnated in the constellation of Aries and the Ram then became the vehicle of the solar power. Thus the Sun rising in the sign of the Celestial Lamb triumphs over the symbolic serpent of darkness. The Golden Fleece sought by Jason and his Argonauts is the Celestial Lamb--the spiritual and intellectual Sun. The secret doctrine is also typified by the Golden Fleece-the wool of the Divine Life, the rays of the Sun of Truth. Suidas declares the Golden Fleece to have been in reality a book, written upon skin, which contained the formulae for the production of gold by means of chemistry. The Mysteries were institutions erected for the transmutation of base ignorance into precious illumination. The dragon of ignorance was the terrible creature set to guard the Golden Fleece, and represents the darkness of the [977] old year, which battles with the Sun at the time of its equinoctial passage. In the same way that Apollo killed the serpent Pythius at Delphi and the Medieval Gnostic symbol of St. George killing the dragon, Jason killed the Colchian serpent. The destruction of the dragon represents the transformation of man through the Gnostic understanding of the identity of the first serpent in the first garden, Eden. The chronicler of the labors of Hercules was the Greek poet Apollodorus, writer of more than 400 books. Apollodorus was a follower of the philosopher Epicurus, who coined the Pythagorian maxim, "all is number." Epicurus, who was born on Samos in c.341BC, had been educated in the mystery school of Pythagoras called "the Semicircle." Although Heracles is often viewed as a mindless muscleman, for the Pythagoreans and many other ancient Greeks he was the archetype of the spiritual hero, and the "Imitation [978] of Heracles" (Imitatio Herculi) was the basic path of spiritual development. According to Apollodorus, the first of the 12 labors Hercules completed was the slaying of two serpents. These serpents represent the same meaning implied by the snakes on the staff of Hermes. Killing the serpents of ignorance and tradition was according to Manly P. Hall the first step in the conversion of the initiate into the Mysteries. Aditionally the twelve labors of Heracles corresponded to the passage of the sun through each of the 12 zodiacal signs. Apollodorus assigned the gathering the golden fruit from Atlas to 11 labor of Hercules for a number of illuminated reasons. The number 11 visually resembles the th pillars of Atlas and is virtually identical to the astrologic symbol for Gemini, (II) the sign designated as the "anchor" of the heaven earth alignment. Heracles was immortal but had a twin mortal brother similar to the brothers of Romulus and Pollux. Hercules was divine by his father Zeus but his mortal brother, Iphicles was fathered by the human [979] Amphitryon. The message of the progenitors of mankind's civilization was left in the place names of Dicaearchus' map and ancient myth with elegant and metaphorical genius. Additionally the tradition of 'extension' of such information to the surface of Mars via the ancient 'illuminated' understanding of the Greeks necessarily would have to be accomplished by one who understood the significance of the myths and nomenclature. Eventually someone would transfer the symbolism of 'where and how civilization began' to the planet of origin. With Schiaparelli's Martian adaptation of Dicaearchus's ancient map anchored at Rhodes, "the rose," the eye of the bull off the coast of the Taurus Mountains, the symbolic fruit of the rose is found geographically at Cydonia Crete. It was by Schiaparelli that the name Cydonia was first applied to Mars, a name which is perhaps one of the most profound connections yet uncovered between the secret knowledge of the first builders of earth and the red planet. Cydonia is the place designated on Mars by Schiaparelli where the greatest remnants exist of the beings that designed and implemented the alignment of heaven to earth. A branch taken from a Cydonia tree is the magical barsoom with golden fruit representing the understanding of where knowledge of civilization came. There is an interesting and very ominous analogue between the areas of Cydonia Mars and Cydonia Crete. The two areas bear the scars of phenomenal natural disasters in their ancient past, or perhaps was it an episode of divine wrath. Crete was home to the Minoan civilization which was virtually erased by a cataclysmic eruption of the nearby volcano, Thera (or Santorini, "St. Taurus"), an island 75 miles north of Crete in 1,550 BC. Volcanic ash and stones are found there, as well as the evidence of fire. Huge portions of walls, and statues were found hurled over large distances. Thera's eruption generated tsunamis, as much as 328 feet [980] high, which reached northern Crete in 20 minutes without warning. Cydonia Mars shows evidence that the Martian city complex was located at the edge of an inland [981] sea. There is also abundant evidence that enormous waves washed across the surface of the Martian landscape. Dating from the slowed growth patterns of bristle cone pines places the Thera eruption at 1628/7 B.C.E. "Estimates of the volume of material displaced by the Thera eruption indicated an intensity five or [982] six times as great as that of Krakatoa" According to the oral tradition handed to Euripides [who lived on the west Aegean between 480 and 405 B.C.] a wall of water heaved up from the deep, into a sky as clear as glass. There came a sound, as if from within the Earth Zeus' hollow thunder boomed, awful to hear. The horses lifted heads towards the sky And pricked their ears; while strange fear fell on us, Whence came the voice. To the sea-beaten shore We looked, and saw a monstrous wave that soared Into the sky, so lofty that my eyes Were robbed of seeing the Scironian cliffs. It hid the isthmus and Asclepius' rock. Then seething up and bubbling all about. With foaming flood and breath from the deep sea, Shoreward it came to where the chariot stood. (Euripides, The Hippolytus) Five hundred years before Cadmus introduced the Semitic alphabet to the Greeks, their ancestors the Mycenaeans had written the Greek language in a script now known as Linear B. Before the Mycenaeans the Minoan civilization reigned in the Mediterranean. After the eruption of the volcano of Thera at about 1500 BC, and the destruction of the Minoan centers of Crete in the middle of the 15th century BC, Minoan supremacy was succeeded by the Mycenaeans, who established themselves at Knossos Crete. The Linear B script was used in Crete as well as in the Greek mainland at Mycenae, Tiryns and Pylos, for some 400 years until the Mycenaean civilization was mysteriously destroyed around the middle of the 11th century BC. At the same time 1050 BC virtually all signs of habitation in mainland Greece disappeared. There were virtually no sites where there was continuous occupation from Mycenaean times into the later period. Only Crete was continuously inhabited. All the major Mycenaean sites were abandoned, and knowledge of the Linear B writing system was lost. Then sometime in the 8 th [983] century BC the Greeks were influenced by a civilization from the East Coast of the Mediterranean. It is a generally accepted theory that the Philistines were the civilization remnants of the great Minoan culture that was decimated by earthquakes and tsunami at the eruption of mount Thera, now called [984] Santorini, and the Minoan civilization was founded by the Pelasgian migrants from Sidonia. The Hebrew prophet Amos wrote of the origin of the Philistines as well as the cataclysm that brought them to Canaan: The Lord, the LORD Almighty, he who touches the earth and it melts, and all who live in it mourn-- the whole land rises like the Nile, then sinks like the river of Egypt--he who builds his lofty palace in the heavens and sets its foundation on the earth, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land--the LORD is his name. 'Are not you Israelites the same to me as the Cushites [that is, people from the upper Nile region]?" declares the LORD. "Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt, the Philistines from Caphtor [that is, Crete] and the Arameans from Kir? Amos 9:5-7 The Minoans primarily worshiped the Mother Goddess as is described accurately by the name of the island seat of their civilization, Crete (Strong or Ruling goddess). This goddess was usually depicted in Minoan art at the root of the tree accompanied by snakes. Her association with the snake suggests the scene in Genesis 4, where the primordial woman is beguiled by the serpent in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Greek God Helios, was the patron deity of Rhodes and the Rhodians built one of the ancient wonders of the world, the colossus in their harbor. This famous giant Helios was the perfect 'east-west' counterpart to the 'north-south' giant Atlas. Like Atlas, the colossus stood on an ancient line running East to West as Atlas stood on the Prime Meridian North to South. The Colossus of Rhodes was associated with a serpent, Erodes, as Atlas myth described the serpent Ladon. Both serpents guarded the secret tree, or dendera--Atlas's golden fruit tree, and Colossus's tree of light. Atlas held the pillars of heaven and earth on the vertical, the Colossus of Rhodes strode the line of the horizontal which at the other end were the Pillars of Hercules. Gibraltar 36n08, 5w21 Rhodes 36n25, 28e13 The distance between the Pillars of Hercules, (straits of Gibraltar) and the Island of Rhodes is exactly 33.33 degrees; the distance between their respective latittudes is 0.33 degrees. The sum of the latitude of both points is 72, hallmark symbol of a pentagram. The myth and etymology of Rhodes fits a pattern, a picture of earth's first knowledge of civilization "leaping" to earth from Mars intact in the mind of the angel of light. Schiaparelli may very well have known part of this secret knowledge that influenced his choice in feature names. Amazingly, Schiaparelli designated the very appropriate Martian feature name Cydonia precisely where the most obvious and significant artificial structures would be found 200 years later. Telescopes of his day were not so powerful as to resolve artificial features like those found on Cydonia. Might knowledge of the surface features of Mars have been infused into the culture of ancient man to survive intact until discoveries on the Martian surface could be made? The body of human knowledge, after all, seems to have emanated from Mars. Silbury Hill and Avebury Circle demonstrate a correlation between Cydonia Mars and earthly monuments along the Prime Meridian. Such areas on earth holding meaning among initiates in the mysteries might have been superimposed on Mars by mapmakers, but the odds are against such an esoterically meaningful correspondence--between Cydonia Mars and the region inhabited by the Sidonians on earth--having occurred. It is more probable that Schiaparelli was influenced not only by the illuminated works of the Greeks, but also guided by those whom the Greeks called diamons, higher intelligences whose knowledge was preserved in the mystery schools from ancient Samothrace until now, the modern space age. Adam and Eve in Paradise 1525, Oak Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. Hans Holbein the Younger, 1517, Kunstmuseum Basle. Quinces study N.B. Johnson 1898. Adam & Eve Lucas Cranach 1531, Staatliche Museum. Lucas Cranach 1526, Staatliche Museum. Pyrus Cydonia, "Quince."