/. A chief of the tribe of Reuben, who was one of the accomplices of Korah in the revolt against the authority of Moses and Aaron. He is men tioned among the leaders of this conspiracy in the first instance (Num. xvi:t), but does not appear in any of tbe subsequent transactions, and is not by name included in the final punishment. The Rabbinical tradition is, that the wife of On tion relates that the holy family once rested (Robinson's Biblical Researches, i, 36). Heliopo lis wns the capital of a district or nemos bearing the same name (Plin. Hist. Nat. v, 9; Ptolem. iv, 5. The place is mentioned in Gen. xli:45, where it is said that Pharaoh gave to Joseph a wife, Asenath, the daughter of Poti-pherah, priest of On (verse 5o).
(2) Sun. 'Worship. From the passage in Jere miah (as above) it may be inferred that it was distinguished for idolatrous worship: 'He shall break also the images of Beth-shemesh that is in the land of Egypt, and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with fire.' The names. 'City of the Sun,"Temples of the Sun,' connected with the place, taken in con persuaded her husband to abandon the enterprise. It has been held by some critics that the mention of On is due to a textual corruption.
2. One of the o!clest cities in the world, situ ated in Lowcr Egypt, about two hours north northeast from Cairo. The Septuagint translates the name On by Heliopolis, which signifies 'city of the sun ;' and in Jer. xliii :13, it bears a name, Beth-shemesh (oppidum solis, Pliny, Hist. Nat. v, ii), of equivalent import. On is a Coptic and ancient Egyptian word, signifying light and the sun (Ritter, Erdk. i, 822).
(1) Location. The site is now marked by low mounds. enclosing a space about three quar ters of a mile in length by half a mile in breadth, which was once occupied by houses and by the celebrated Temple of the Sun. This area is at present a plowed field, a garden of herbs; t.nd the solitary obelisk which still rises in the midst of it is the sole remnant of the former splendors of the place. In the days of Edrisi and Abdal latif the place bore the name of Ain Shems; and in the neighboring village, Matariyeh, is still shown an ancient well bearing the same name. Near hy it is a very old sycamore. its trunk strag gling and gnarlcd, under which legendary tradi junction with the words just cited from the prophet, seem to refer the mind to the purer form of worship which prevailed at a very early period in Egypt, namely, the worship of the heavenly bodies, and thence to carry the thoughts to the deteriorations which it afterwards underwent in sinking to the adoration of images and animals.
"The Sun-god was worshiped at Heliopolis first in the form of Ra; secondly, as Tum, the setting sun; thirdly.as Harakhti,the hawk of the horizon, called by the Greeks Harmakhis; fourthly, as Khepera, figured by a scarabmus, and symbolizing the vivifying and reproductive force of the sun. Of sacred animals here the bull Mnevis was the most important ; and the heron, called bum was the original of the famous phcenix. From the earliest times obelisks were connected with the Sun worship (Jer. xliii : t3 [Beth-shemesh] ). There was also a sacred pool or spring, mentioned es pecially by Piankhi, 'in which Ra was wont to wash his face;' hence the Arabian name for this locality is 'Ain esh-shems,"spring of the sun.' In Christian story this is the spring in which the Virgin washed her son while resting in the shade of an acacia tree on her journey into Egypt. The latest successor to the tree is still shown in an enclosure at,lliztarlych." (Hastings'Bib. Dia.) (See EGYPTIANS, RF.LIGION OF ANCIEST.)
(3) Research. The traces of this city which are found in classic authors correspond with the little of it that we know from the brief intima tions of Holy Writ. According to Herodotus (ii. 59), Heliopolis was one of the four great cities that were rendered famous in Egypt by being the centers of solemn religious festivals, which were attended by splendid processions and hom age to the gods. In Heliopolis the observance was held in honor of the sun. The majesty of these sacred visits may be best learned now by a careful study of the temples (in their ruins) in which the rites were performed (Wilkinson's Anc. Egyptians). Heliopolis had its priesthood, a numerous and learned body, celebrated before other Egyptians for their historical and anti quarian lore; it long continued the university of the Egyptians, the chief seat of their science (kcnrick's Ilcrod. ii, 3; Wilkinson) ; the priests dwelt as a holy cominunity. in a spacious structure appropriated to their use. In Strabo's time the halls were to be seen in which Eudoxus and Plato had studied under the direction of the priests of Heliopolis. A detailed description of the temple, with its long alleys of sphinxes, obe lisks, etc., may be found in Strabo (xvii ; Jo seph. c. Apion. 2), who says that the mural sculpture in it was very similar to the old Etrus can and Grecian works. In the temple a bullock was fed—a symbol of the god of Mnevis. The city suffered heavily by the Persian invasion. From the time of Shaw and Pocock, the place has been described by many travelers. At an early period remains of the famous temple were found. Ab dallatif (A. D. r2oo) saw many colossal sphinxes, partly prostrate, partly standing. He also saw the gates or propylxa of the temple covered with inscriptions; he describes two immense obelisks whose summits were covered with massi-ve brass, around which were others one-half or one-third the size of the first, placed in so thick a tnass that they could scarcely be counted; most of them thrown down. An obelisk which the Emperor Augustus caused to be carried to Rome, and placed in the Campus Martins, is held by Zoega (De Orig. et tint Obelisci) to have been brought from Heliopolis, and to have owed its origin to Sesostris. This city furnished works of art to Augustus for adorning Rome, and to Constantine for adorning Constantinople. Ritter (Erdkunde, i, 823) says that the sole remaining obelisk is from sixty to seventy feet high, of a block of red granite, bearing hieroglyphics which remind the beholder of what Strabo tcrms the Etruscan style. 'The figure of the cross which it bears (crux ansata) has attracted the special notice of Chris tian antiquaries' (Ritter). J. R. B.
ONAM (o'nam), o-nawm', strong).
1. A Horite, son of Shobal (Gen. xxxvi:23; t Citron. i :4o). (B. C. about 1964.) 2. Son of Jerahmeel and Atarah of the house of Judah (t Chron. :26, 28). (B. C. before 1658.) ONAN (o'nan), Pleb. 1;*, o-nawn', strong, stout), second son of Judah by the daughter of Shualt the Canaanite (Gen. xxxviii:4; xlvi:12; Num. xxvi:19; Chron. ii:3), B. C. about 2000.
Being constrained by the obligations of the an cient Leviratc law to espouse Tamar, his elder brother's widow. he took means to frustrate the intention of this usage, which was to provide heirs for a brother who had died childless. This crime, rendered without excuse by the allowance of polygamy, and the seriousness of which can scarcely be appreciated but in respect to the usages of the times in which it was committed, was punished by premature death (Gen. xxxviii: 4. sq.)