DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4326#0018
CNIDUS.
13
situations naturally or artificially humid : some of the dry and rocky parts of the peninsular
which form indeed a large portion of it, were planted with the white poplar. The bark of this
tree was employed by the ancients as a medicine, but the Cnidian white poplar was chiefly
esteemed for its flower, which when dry was used as a perfume, and entered into the composition
of an ointment.*
Like some other cities of Greece, which encouraged, and excelled in the imitative arts, Cnidus
was renowned for its pottery, particularly its figures allusive to the worship of Venus, t and a par-
ticular kind of amphora. X
Few Hellenic cities were more distinguished than Cnidus for a love of the fine arts, and for
giving encouragement to the production of those works, which adding lustre to the most brilliant
periods of history, have placed their authors on a level with the great warriors, philosophers
and legislators of antiquity. Nor was the liberality of the Cnidians confined to their own
city. As possessors of one of the most celebrated temples of Apollo, they gloried in giving
evidence of their veneration for that of Delphi. Like some other opulent states in Greece and
Italy, they built a treasury there for the reception of their dedications;} and the building was still
in existence in the time of Pausanias, though as he says nothing of its contents, these had pro-
bably been carried off before his time. At Delphi also near the treasury of the Sicyonians
were some statues presented by the Cnidians, particularly of their founder Triopas standing by
a horse, with Latona, Apollo and Diana hurling darts at Tityus. Here likewise were some dedi-
cations of the Liparaei, colonists of Cnidus. But the most remarkable offering of the Cnidians at
Delphi consisted of two pictures painted by the celebrated Polygnotus in the middle of the fifth
century b. c. on the walls of the LescheJ and described at great length by Pausanias.f One of
Nee jam fissipedis per calami vias
Grassetur Cnidiae succus (al. sulcus) arundinis
Pingens aridulae subdita paginae,
Cadmi filiolis atricoloribus. Auson. Epist. 7, v. 50.
Aut adsit interpres tuus,
yEnigmatum qui cognitor
Fuit meorum : quum tibi
Cadmi nigellas filias
Melonis albam filiam
Notasque furvae sepiae
Cnidiosque nodos prodidit. Auson. Epist. 4, 69.
It is hardly necessary to remark that the cloven footed reeds
and the Cnidian knots are the pen of the enigmatical poet,
that the juice of the Cnidian reed, or the marks of the cuttle
fish are his ink, that the dark daughters of Cadmus are letters,
and that the white daughter of Melo or the Nile is the pa-
pyrus.
* Plin. H. N. XII, 28 (61), XXIV, 8 (32).—The other
flowers most esteemed for a similar purpose, were those of the
cedar of Lycia, and of the white wild grape.
f Lucian. Amor. p. 11.
X KviBia Kipdfiia, Si/ceXiko taravia,
MtyapiKa wiOaKvia. Eubulus ap. Ath. I, 22 (50).
The second of these seem to have been plates for the use
of the table, the third jars for preserving wine and other
liquors. It was the first kind, serving for water jars, and for
various household and ornamental purposes, that the potters
and painters of antiquity have rendered some of the most in-
teresting and instructive monuments of ancient art. It was
upon these, probably, that the elegant taste of the Cnidians
was exercised.
§ Those cities were Athens, Thebes, Corinth, Siphnus,
Potidaea, Clazomenae, and in Italy those of Spina and Agylla:—•
Herodot. I, 14, 50, 51. Ill, 57.— Xenoph. Anab. V, 3.—
Strabo, p. 214, 220.—Pausan. Phoc. 11.1.
Pausanias (Eliac. Post. 19) has enumerated ten treasuries of
the same kind at Olympia, and by remarking that in one of them,
that of the Megareans, the pediment contained a representa-
tion in relief of the contest of the Gods and Giants, he gives
us a clear idea of the construction of these edifices, sometimes
aptly described by the Greeks as oiW or vaol They differed
widely, therefore, as the progress of Greek architecture might
lead us to presume, from the subterranean Treasuries of early
times, of which a perfect specimen still remains at Mycenae.
|| 'YTrep Se tvv Ka«wri8a SOTlV oiVryia yPa<)>aQ fyov twv Uo\v-
yvwrov, ava%fiara fxlv KwS/wv- KaXeirai Se vtto AeX^wv \koyj), on
lovrtQ to ap-^aiov to. te oirovSaioTtpa SuXtyovro, Kai oiroaa
tvTavaa avvioi
juvSw&j.—Pausan. Phoc, 25, 1.
f Phoc. 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31.
13
situations naturally or artificially humid : some of the dry and rocky parts of the peninsular
which form indeed a large portion of it, were planted with the white poplar. The bark of this
tree was employed by the ancients as a medicine, but the Cnidian white poplar was chiefly
esteemed for its flower, which when dry was used as a perfume, and entered into the composition
of an ointment.*
Like some other cities of Greece, which encouraged, and excelled in the imitative arts, Cnidus
was renowned for its pottery, particularly its figures allusive to the worship of Venus, t and a par-
ticular kind of amphora. X
Few Hellenic cities were more distinguished than Cnidus for a love of the fine arts, and for
giving encouragement to the production of those works, which adding lustre to the most brilliant
periods of history, have placed their authors on a level with the great warriors, philosophers
and legislators of antiquity. Nor was the liberality of the Cnidians confined to their own
city. As possessors of one of the most celebrated temples of Apollo, they gloried in giving
evidence of their veneration for that of Delphi. Like some other opulent states in Greece and
Italy, they built a treasury there for the reception of their dedications;} and the building was still
in existence in the time of Pausanias, though as he says nothing of its contents, these had pro-
bably been carried off before his time. At Delphi also near the treasury of the Sicyonians
were some statues presented by the Cnidians, particularly of their founder Triopas standing by
a horse, with Latona, Apollo and Diana hurling darts at Tityus. Here likewise were some dedi-
cations of the Liparaei, colonists of Cnidus. But the most remarkable offering of the Cnidians at
Delphi consisted of two pictures painted by the celebrated Polygnotus in the middle of the fifth
century b. c. on the walls of the LescheJ and described at great length by Pausanias.f One of
Nee jam fissipedis per calami vias
Grassetur Cnidiae succus (al. sulcus) arundinis
Pingens aridulae subdita paginae,
Cadmi filiolis atricoloribus. Auson. Epist. 7, v. 50.
Aut adsit interpres tuus,
yEnigmatum qui cognitor
Fuit meorum : quum tibi
Cadmi nigellas filias
Melonis albam filiam
Notasque furvae sepiae
Cnidiosque nodos prodidit. Auson. Epist. 4, 69.
It is hardly necessary to remark that the cloven footed reeds
and the Cnidian knots are the pen of the enigmatical poet,
that the juice of the Cnidian reed, or the marks of the cuttle
fish are his ink, that the dark daughters of Cadmus are letters,
and that the white daughter of Melo or the Nile is the pa-
pyrus.
* Plin. H. N. XII, 28 (61), XXIV, 8 (32).—The other
flowers most esteemed for a similar purpose, were those of the
cedar of Lycia, and of the white wild grape.
f Lucian. Amor. p. 11.
X KviBia Kipdfiia, Si/ceXiko taravia,
MtyapiKa wiOaKvia. Eubulus ap. Ath. I, 22 (50).
The second of these seem to have been plates for the use
of the table, the third jars for preserving wine and other
liquors. It was the first kind, serving for water jars, and for
various household and ornamental purposes, that the potters
and painters of antiquity have rendered some of the most in-
teresting and instructive monuments of ancient art. It was
upon these, probably, that the elegant taste of the Cnidians
was exercised.
§ Those cities were Athens, Thebes, Corinth, Siphnus,
Potidaea, Clazomenae, and in Italy those of Spina and Agylla:—•
Herodot. I, 14, 50, 51. Ill, 57.— Xenoph. Anab. V, 3.—
Strabo, p. 214, 220.—Pausan. Phoc. 11.1.
Pausanias (Eliac. Post. 19) has enumerated ten treasuries of
the same kind at Olympia, and by remarking that in one of them,
that of the Megareans, the pediment contained a representa-
tion in relief of the contest of the Gods and Giants, he gives
us a clear idea of the construction of these edifices, sometimes
aptly described by the Greeks as oiW or vaol They differed
widely, therefore, as the progress of Greek architecture might
lead us to presume, from the subterranean Treasuries of early
times, of which a perfect specimen still remains at Mycenae.
|| 'YTrep Se tvv Ka«wri8a SOTlV oiVryia yPa<)>aQ fyov twv Uo\v-
yvwrov, ava%fiara fxlv KwS/wv- KaXeirai Se vtto AeX^wv \koyj), on
lovrtQ to ap-^aiov to. te oirovSaioTtpa SuXtyovro, Kai oiroaa
tvTavaa avvioi
juvSw&j.—Pausan. Phoc, 25, 1.
f Phoc. 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31.