DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0213
196 VOLTBRRA.—The Museum. [chap. xu.
on the side of the living holds his torch erect; he on the
side of the dead has it inverted. The spirit, therefore,
who leads the fatal horse, has it always turned down-
wards.7 When two demons with torches, thus differently
arranged, are in the same scene, they seem to indicate the
very moment of the soul's departure—now here, now
there—•
" Like snow that falls upon the river—
A moment white—then melts for ever !"
It may be observed, that the good spirits are almost
always females, or Junones, an Etruscan compliment to
man's ministering angel; but the fearful attendants of
Charun are, in most cases, males.
There are funeral processions of a different character.
A covered car or waggon, open in front, and drawn by
two horses or mules—what the Eomans called a carpentum,
and the modern Spaniards would term a galera—is accom-
panied by figures on foot. In one instance it is preceded
by a litter, out of which a female is looking ; and in several
it is encountered by a man on horseback. In this car is
seen reclining, now a mother with her child, now an
elderly couple, but generally a single figure, the counter-
part in miniature of the recumbent effigy on the lid of the
urn. I would interpret it as representing the transport
of the actual ash-chest or sarcophagus to the sepulchre,
which seems confirmed by the drowsy air and drooping
heads of the horses. Nor is this view opposed by the
figures with musical instruments, nor by an armed man,
who in one case follows the car.8 On one urn the funeral
This might be supposed to mark an true, but not a malignant spirit who
evil demon, but I think it has more revels in destruction, like the hammer-
probably reference to the surrounding bearing Charun, who also attends the
figures than to the genius himself. He soul.
is here a minister of Death, it is » In general it is essentially distin-
on the side of the living holds his torch erect; he on the
side of the dead has it inverted. The spirit, therefore,
who leads the fatal horse, has it always turned down-
wards.7 When two demons with torches, thus differently
arranged, are in the same scene, they seem to indicate the
very moment of the soul's departure—now here, now
there—•
" Like snow that falls upon the river—
A moment white—then melts for ever !"
It may be observed, that the good spirits are almost
always females, or Junones, an Etruscan compliment to
man's ministering angel; but the fearful attendants of
Charun are, in most cases, males.
There are funeral processions of a different character.
A covered car or waggon, open in front, and drawn by
two horses or mules—what the Eomans called a carpentum,
and the modern Spaniards would term a galera—is accom-
panied by figures on foot. In one instance it is preceded
by a litter, out of which a female is looking ; and in several
it is encountered by a man on horseback. In this car is
seen reclining, now a mother with her child, now an
elderly couple, but generally a single figure, the counter-
part in miniature of the recumbent effigy on the lid of the
urn. I would interpret it as representing the transport
of the actual ash-chest or sarcophagus to the sepulchre,
which seems confirmed by the drowsy air and drooping
heads of the horses. Nor is this view opposed by the
figures with musical instruments, nor by an armed man,
who in one case follows the car.8 On one urn the funeral
This might be supposed to mark an true, but not a malignant spirit who
evil demon, but I think it has more revels in destruction, like the hammer-
probably reference to the surrounding bearing Charun, who also attends the
figures than to the genius himself. He soul.
is here a minister of Death, it is » In general it is essentially distin-