DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0552
444 TOSCANELLA. [chap, xxjii.
In truth, this frozen banquet is not a little startling at
first; and he must be of stern stuff whose fancy is not
stirred by these " figures that gloomily glare,"
" As seen by the dying lamp's fitful light,
Lifeless, but life-like, and awful to sight,
They seem, through the dimness, about to come down
From the shadowy wall where their images frown."
The figures on Etruscan sarcophagi and urns are, with
very few exceptions, represented as at a banquet—gene-
rally with patera in hand,1 but the females have sometimes
an egg, or piece of fruit instead, as on the walls of the
painted tombs ; sometimes tablets; or a fan of leaf-like
form, like our own Indian fans; or it may be a mirror,
which with their rich attire and decorations shows the
ruling passion strong in death. In a few instances I
have seen a bird in the fair one's hand—passer, delicice
fuellce. The men are generahy but half-draped,2 and have
torques about their necks—
Flexilis obtorti per collum it circulus auri—
or the long breast-garlands worked round with wool, which
were worn by Greeks and Romans.3 The females have
sometimes torques, sometimes necklaces, long ear-rings of
singular form, and bracelets, and both sexes have often
many rings on their fingers—censu opime digitos onerando
—a custom which Rome, it is said, derived from Etruria.4
1 Inghirami always regarded this i Floras (I. 5), Livy (I. 11), and
■patera as for libations; and so also Dionysius (II. p. 105) ascribe the use
Micali (Mon. Ined. p. 311). It maybe of rings in very early times to the
so as far as libations were connected Sabines. Pliny, however, asserts that
with banquets, but the primary meaning the custom of wearing rings was derived
of it here is evidently festive. from the Greeks. He adds, that none of
2 Inghirami (Mon. Etrus. II. p. 628) the statues of the early kings, save those
thinks that this nudity is indicative of of Numa and S.Tullms, were represented
apotheosis. with them, not even those of the Tar-
3 See Chapter XVIII. page 36 5. quins (XXXIII. 4, 6), at which he
In truth, this frozen banquet is not a little startling at
first; and he must be of stern stuff whose fancy is not
stirred by these " figures that gloomily glare,"
" As seen by the dying lamp's fitful light,
Lifeless, but life-like, and awful to sight,
They seem, through the dimness, about to come down
From the shadowy wall where their images frown."
The figures on Etruscan sarcophagi and urns are, with
very few exceptions, represented as at a banquet—gene-
rally with patera in hand,1 but the females have sometimes
an egg, or piece of fruit instead, as on the walls of the
painted tombs ; sometimes tablets; or a fan of leaf-like
form, like our own Indian fans; or it may be a mirror,
which with their rich attire and decorations shows the
ruling passion strong in death. In a few instances I
have seen a bird in the fair one's hand—passer, delicice
fuellce. The men are generahy but half-draped,2 and have
torques about their necks—
Flexilis obtorti per collum it circulus auri—
or the long breast-garlands worked round with wool, which
were worn by Greeks and Romans.3 The females have
sometimes torques, sometimes necklaces, long ear-rings of
singular form, and bracelets, and both sexes have often
many rings on their fingers—censu opime digitos onerando
—a custom which Rome, it is said, derived from Etruria.4
1 Inghirami always regarded this i Floras (I. 5), Livy (I. 11), and
■patera as for libations; and so also Dionysius (II. p. 105) ascribe the use
Micali (Mon. Ined. p. 311). It maybe of rings in very early times to the
so as far as libations were connected Sabines. Pliny, however, asserts that
with banquets, but the primary meaning the custom of wearing rings was derived
of it here is evidently festive. from the Greeks. He adds, that none of
2 Inghirami (Mon. Etrus. II. p. 628) the statues of the early kings, save those
thinks that this nudity is indicative of of Numa and S.Tullms, were represented
apotheosis. with them, not even those of the Tar-
3 See Chapter XVIII. page 36 5. quins (XXXIII. 4, 6), at which he