DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4098#0449
406 A ROCK IN THE FORM OF A HUMAN FIGURE.
Near the road are some large masses of stone, which some
subterraneous concussion has probably detached from the rock. One
of these at a certain distance has the appearance of a female figure
in a sitting posture. The Athenians call it %ax.y\ ne9xpu, the Wicked
Old Hag: it recalled to my mind the rock into which, according to
Ovid,1 Aglauros was metamorphosed :
------" Saxum jam colla tenebat
Oraque duruerant, signumque exangue sedebat,
Nee lapis albus erat, sua mens infecerat illam."
It is not improbable that this poetical conceit first arose from this
rock, and from the striking resemblance which it bears to the female
form. This is indeed so obvious, that it is rather surprising that no
former traveller has made the same observation. Stories of the same
kind have no doubt been invented from a similar cause. Pausanias2
mentions a rock on Mount Sipylos, which at a certain distance had
the appearance of a woman. It was not unusual for ladies of ancient
times to be converted into stone.3 The stories of Nibbe, Anaxarete,
Iodamia, andLethasa, and the Propeptides of Cyprus, are well known.
It was also sometimes the fate of men; as of Daphnis, Olenos,
Prcetus, Lichas, Phineus, Polydectes, and many others.
Not far from kukt] nsQapa. there is a rock a few feet in height, on
which newly-married women sit and slip down, in order that they may
be blessed with a numerous progeny of males. This rock is so much in
fashion, that its surface has taken a beautiful polish. It is of a
different quality from the rocks of the Musaeum, the Areiopagos,
and the Acropolis, and seems an aggregate of marine substances.
1 Metam. b. 2. v. 830.
Till, hard'ning ev'ry where, and speechless grown,
She sits unmov'd, and freezes to a stone ;
Uut still her envious hue and sullen mien,
Are in the sedentary figure seen.
?B. I.e. 21. 3 See Ovid. Metam.
Near the road are some large masses of stone, which some
subterraneous concussion has probably detached from the rock. One
of these at a certain distance has the appearance of a female figure
in a sitting posture. The Athenians call it %ax.y\ ne9xpu, the Wicked
Old Hag: it recalled to my mind the rock into which, according to
Ovid,1 Aglauros was metamorphosed :
------" Saxum jam colla tenebat
Oraque duruerant, signumque exangue sedebat,
Nee lapis albus erat, sua mens infecerat illam."
It is not improbable that this poetical conceit first arose from this
rock, and from the striking resemblance which it bears to the female
form. This is indeed so obvious, that it is rather surprising that no
former traveller has made the same observation. Stories of the same
kind have no doubt been invented from a similar cause. Pausanias2
mentions a rock on Mount Sipylos, which at a certain distance had
the appearance of a woman. It was not unusual for ladies of ancient
times to be converted into stone.3 The stories of Nibbe, Anaxarete,
Iodamia, andLethasa, and the Propeptides of Cyprus, are well known.
It was also sometimes the fate of men; as of Daphnis, Olenos,
Prcetus, Lichas, Phineus, Polydectes, and many others.
Not far from kukt] nsQapa. there is a rock a few feet in height, on
which newly-married women sit and slip down, in order that they may
be blessed with a numerous progeny of males. This rock is so much in
fashion, that its surface has taken a beautiful polish. It is of a
different quality from the rocks of the Musaeum, the Areiopagos,
and the Acropolis, and seems an aggregate of marine substances.
1 Metam. b. 2. v. 830.
Till, hard'ning ev'ry where, and speechless grown,
She sits unmov'd, and freezes to a stone ;
Uut still her envious hue and sullen mien,
Are in the sedentary figure seen.
?B. I.e. 21. 3 See Ovid. Metam.