DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4324#0092
52 DIDYME.
PLATE VIII.
DETAILS OF THE INTERIOR.
The ornamental frize, in which griffins and lyres are introduced, filled the intervals between the
capitals of the antae within the cella. The griffin is usually composed of the head and wings of
an eagle; with the body, legs and tail, of a lion. In this frize it has the head of a lion, with the
horns and beard of a goat.
As the ancients adorned the statues and temples of their gods with symbols of their supposed
influence, the griffin, which was particularly sacred to Apollo, and in fabulous antiquity believed
to be ever watching the golden mines on the Scythian and Hyperborean mountains ; the griffin is
here introduced as guardian of the lyre, which belonged to Apollo, as the inventor of music.
It has a lion's head : because Apollo, or the sun, is most powerful when in that sign of the
zodiac. It may be added, the Persians had a statue of him, with the head of this animal. The
goat's horns and beard may have been adopted from the goat of metal offered by the Cleoneans at
Delphi, as a memorial of their deliverance from a plague, on sacrificing, as they were advised to
do, a goat to Apollo, or the sun, at his rising.
The Corinthian capital belongs to the columns engaged in the wall on entering the cella. The
volutes were destroyed, but they are supplied from conjecture in the figure which represents half
the capital upon a larger scale.
PLATE VIII.
DETAILS OF THE INTERIOR.
The ornamental frize, in which griffins and lyres are introduced, filled the intervals between the
capitals of the antae within the cella. The griffin is usually composed of the head and wings of
an eagle; with the body, legs and tail, of a lion. In this frize it has the head of a lion, with the
horns and beard of a goat.
As the ancients adorned the statues and temples of their gods with symbols of their supposed
influence, the griffin, which was particularly sacred to Apollo, and in fabulous antiquity believed
to be ever watching the golden mines on the Scythian and Hyperborean mountains ; the griffin is
here introduced as guardian of the lyre, which belonged to Apollo, as the inventor of music.
It has a lion's head : because Apollo, or the sun, is most powerful when in that sign of the
zodiac. It may be added, the Persians had a statue of him, with the head of this animal. The
goat's horns and beard may have been adopted from the goat of metal offered by the Cleoneans at
Delphi, as a memorial of their deliverance from a plague, on sacrificing, as they were advised to
do, a goat to Apollo, or the sun, at his rising.
The Corinthian capital belongs to the columns engaged in the wall on entering the cella. The
volutes were destroyed, but they are supplied from conjecture in the figure which represents half
the capital upon a larger scale.