DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5386#0110
87
" Bacchus the vine's sweet bev'rage foremost found,
Its foaming juice his purple ringers crown'd;
Forth from the cup's writhed horn the drops he drew,
Bent o'er the brim, and lightly sipp'd the dew." *
The reason for wine being sacred to Bacchus, as corn
and tillage were favoured by Ceres, partly arose from the em-
blematical reference of it to resuscitation.
Music and musical instruments are frequently applied on
ancient monuments from a similar allusion. The trumpet used
in this sense, in a plate in D'Hancarville's collection, would be
worth the reader's notice; but he will turn from it with disgust,
when he finds it accompanied by an' indecent emblem that
is further illustrative of the meaning I assign to it. The lyre
and tibiae are more agreeably introduced on vases, and likewise on
gems ; and in the work of Caylus, especially, may be noticed
the three Cabirs on the deck of a boat, which may be supposed
to float on the great abyss, while Camillus excites them to dance
by blowing the tibia.
In subjects more intellectually conceived, rhetoric has furnish-
ed many elegant groups. Upon an ancient fresco among the Anti-
chita d'Ercolano, may be seen an elder seated, with a cista of vo-
lumes at his feet, and a female addressing him, with the hand ex-
tended in a persuasive attitude. I venture to deem the former phi-
losophy, in the latter I recognize eloquence; for it may be suggest-
ed, that philosophy when inert is little more than meditation, but
animated by eloquence it assumes a different nature, it benefits
and enlightens; and it is from this union of soul with body, that
we derive the noblest productions of literary composition.
In this class, therefore, I will place a vase already noticed,
where a youth in the act of pleading is entitled nEI0X2, and
* This version is from the elegant pen of W. Sotheby, Esq.
" Bacchus the vine's sweet bev'rage foremost found,
Its foaming juice his purple ringers crown'd;
Forth from the cup's writhed horn the drops he drew,
Bent o'er the brim, and lightly sipp'd the dew." *
The reason for wine being sacred to Bacchus, as corn
and tillage were favoured by Ceres, partly arose from the em-
blematical reference of it to resuscitation.
Music and musical instruments are frequently applied on
ancient monuments from a similar allusion. The trumpet used
in this sense, in a plate in D'Hancarville's collection, would be
worth the reader's notice; but he will turn from it with disgust,
when he finds it accompanied by an' indecent emblem that
is further illustrative of the meaning I assign to it. The lyre
and tibiae are more agreeably introduced on vases, and likewise on
gems ; and in the work of Caylus, especially, may be noticed
the three Cabirs on the deck of a boat, which may be supposed
to float on the great abyss, while Camillus excites them to dance
by blowing the tibia.
In subjects more intellectually conceived, rhetoric has furnish-
ed many elegant groups. Upon an ancient fresco among the Anti-
chita d'Ercolano, may be seen an elder seated, with a cista of vo-
lumes at his feet, and a female addressing him, with the hand ex-
tended in a persuasive attitude. I venture to deem the former phi-
losophy, in the latter I recognize eloquence; for it may be suggest-
ed, that philosophy when inert is little more than meditation, but
animated by eloquence it assumes a different nature, it benefits
and enlightens; and it is from this union of soul with body, that
we derive the noblest productions of literary composition.
In this class, therefore, I will place a vase already noticed,
where a youth in the act of pleading is entitled nEI0X2, and
* This version is from the elegant pen of W. Sotheby, Esq.