DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0387
370 CHIUSI.—The Cemetery. [chap. li.
starting-post,5—two men playing at ascolia, or trying to
leap on to a greasy vase, over which one is tumbling
unsuccessfully6—and a pair of figures which I can only
explain as an athlete, playing at ball with a boy, i. e.,
making the boy his ball, d la Risley, for he has one knee
to the ground, with his hand raised as if to catch the boy,
whom he has tossed into the air. Hard by, are a couple
of stout sticks, propt against each other, which seem to
have something to do with his operations.7
The banquets in this tomb are painted in the pediments
over the side-doors. In each scene are three figures,
males, reclining on cushions. One plays the lyre; another
holds a flower; a third, a branch of olive; a fourth offers
a goblet to his neighbour. In one corner a slave is busy
at a mixing-vase, like that in the Tomba del Colle. In
each pediment is something which may be a dog, or a
saddle, or anything the imagination pleases; it seems
introduced merely to fill the angle. But what is more
remarkable—in each pediment one of the figures has the
5 The meaning of these figures has ing on it. Schol. Aristoph. Plut 1129.
been doubted by Inghirami (Mus. Chius. It was an amusement much akin to the
II. p. 132. tav. 131), because one of greasy pole and flitch of bacon of our
these youths has a stick in his hand; own rustic fairs and merry-makings,
but the subject is obvious. From the action of hopping in this
8 It was not generally vases, but game, the term came to be applied to
leathern bottles—huml—that were used hopping on any occasion. Aristoph. loc.
in this sport; or goat-skins filled with cit. Pollux, II. c. 4. Inghirami (Mus.
wind, and greased, as Virgil (Georg. II. Chius. tav. 124) fancied the man stam-
384) describes them— bling over the vase, was gathering dust!
—more than enough, no doubt—and
Mollibus in pratis unctos saluere per ^ ^ yase ^ contained dust lriA
which to strew the arena.
See also Pollux, IX. cap. 7. This was ^ Micali (Ant. Pop. Ital. III. p. 110)
an amusement also of the Athenians, designates this game, * il salto del caval-
and it was of Bacchic character, for the ktto," formed by two sticks balanced,
goat whose skin furnished the sport had These may represent the spring-board,
previously been sacrificed to the jolly by which the boy is thrown into the
god. The skin became the prize of air.
him who succeeded in keeping his foot-
starting-post,5—two men playing at ascolia, or trying to
leap on to a greasy vase, over which one is tumbling
unsuccessfully6—and a pair of figures which I can only
explain as an athlete, playing at ball with a boy, i. e.,
making the boy his ball, d la Risley, for he has one knee
to the ground, with his hand raised as if to catch the boy,
whom he has tossed into the air. Hard by, are a couple
of stout sticks, propt against each other, which seem to
have something to do with his operations.7
The banquets in this tomb are painted in the pediments
over the side-doors. In each scene are three figures,
males, reclining on cushions. One plays the lyre; another
holds a flower; a third, a branch of olive; a fourth offers
a goblet to his neighbour. In one corner a slave is busy
at a mixing-vase, like that in the Tomba del Colle. In
each pediment is something which may be a dog, or a
saddle, or anything the imagination pleases; it seems
introduced merely to fill the angle. But what is more
remarkable—in each pediment one of the figures has the
5 The meaning of these figures has ing on it. Schol. Aristoph. Plut 1129.
been doubted by Inghirami (Mus. Chius. It was an amusement much akin to the
II. p. 132. tav. 131), because one of greasy pole and flitch of bacon of our
these youths has a stick in his hand; own rustic fairs and merry-makings,
but the subject is obvious. From the action of hopping in this
8 It was not generally vases, but game, the term came to be applied to
leathern bottles—huml—that were used hopping on any occasion. Aristoph. loc.
in this sport; or goat-skins filled with cit. Pollux, II. c. 4. Inghirami (Mus.
wind, and greased, as Virgil (Georg. II. Chius. tav. 124) fancied the man stam-
384) describes them— bling over the vase, was gathering dust!
—more than enough, no doubt—and
Mollibus in pratis unctos saluere per ^ ^ yase ^ contained dust lriA
which to strew the arena.
See also Pollux, IX. cap. 7. This was ^ Micali (Ant. Pop. Ital. III. p. 110)
an amusement also of the Athenians, designates this game, * il salto del caval-
and it was of Bacchic character, for the ktto," formed by two sticks balanced,
goat whose skin furnished the sport had These may represent the spring-board,
previously been sacrificed to the jolly by which the boy is thrown into the
god. The skin became the prize of air.
him who succeeded in keeping his foot-