DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.804#0085
78 THE BRITISH MUSEUM.
maining of the Corinthian order, and perhaps the
best, though it stands partly immured in the south-
east angle of a building occupied by a convent of
capuchin missionaries, in what was antieutly the Street
of the Tripods, now denominated Candela. The upper
part of this monument forms a small room, not quite
six feet in diameter. The roof, which is in the form
of a low cupola, consists of a single mass35.
The figures which decorate the frieze of this monu-
ment are sculptured in half-relief, 9^ inches in height.
The subject is the story of Bacchus and the Tyrrhenian
pirates; which is told nearly as follows by Apollo-
dorus : Bacchus hired a ship belonging to some Tyr-
rhenian corsairs, intending to be conveyed from Icaria
to Naxos, but the pirates directed their course towards
the coast of Asia, where they intended to sell him for
a slave. Bacchus, aware of their meditated treachery,
transformed the mast and oars into snakes, and filled
the ship with ivy and the music of pipes ; whilst the
corsairs, seized with frenzy, threw themselves into the
sea and were changed into dolphins. It is the subject
of the Homeric Hymn to Bacchus.
There is a difference, however, it* the story of the
transformation as told upon the present bas-reliefs.
The corsairs are not on ship-board, but on land.
where they are punished.
In the nine compartments of which the Museum
casts consistf, Bacchus occupies the centre of the
* Dodwell, in bis Classical and Topographical Tour through
Greece, 4to. Loud. 1819, vol. i.' p. 291, speaking of the CKoragic
Monument of Lysicrates, says, " I was assured by the superior that
during the dilapidating mania in 1801, proposals had been made
to him and to theVaivodefor the purchase of the entire monument,
which was to have been conveyed to a northern country ; and tM
it owes its present existence to the protection which it derived
from its position within the precincts of the monastery."
f One compartment between Nos. Si'i and 353 is wanting
maining of the Corinthian order, and perhaps the
best, though it stands partly immured in the south-
east angle of a building occupied by a convent of
capuchin missionaries, in what was antieutly the Street
of the Tripods, now denominated Candela. The upper
part of this monument forms a small room, not quite
six feet in diameter. The roof, which is in the form
of a low cupola, consists of a single mass35.
The figures which decorate the frieze of this monu-
ment are sculptured in half-relief, 9^ inches in height.
The subject is the story of Bacchus and the Tyrrhenian
pirates; which is told nearly as follows by Apollo-
dorus : Bacchus hired a ship belonging to some Tyr-
rhenian corsairs, intending to be conveyed from Icaria
to Naxos, but the pirates directed their course towards
the coast of Asia, where they intended to sell him for
a slave. Bacchus, aware of their meditated treachery,
transformed the mast and oars into snakes, and filled
the ship with ivy and the music of pipes ; whilst the
corsairs, seized with frenzy, threw themselves into the
sea and were changed into dolphins. It is the subject
of the Homeric Hymn to Bacchus.
There is a difference, however, it* the story of the
transformation as told upon the present bas-reliefs.
The corsairs are not on ship-board, but on land.
where they are punished.
In the nine compartments of which the Museum
casts consistf, Bacchus occupies the centre of the
* Dodwell, in bis Classical and Topographical Tour through
Greece, 4to. Loud. 1819, vol. i.' p. 291, speaking of the CKoragic
Monument of Lysicrates, says, " I was assured by the superior that
during the dilapidating mania in 1801, proposals had been made
to him and to theVaivodefor the purchase of the entire monument,
which was to have been conveyed to a northern country ; and tM
it owes its present existence to the protection which it derived
from its position within the precincts of the monastery."
f One compartment between Nos. Si'i and 353 is wanting