DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.808#0065
! THE RING OF NESTOR,' ETC.
63
uplifted torch, helps to raise the lid of the funeral urn.57 The skeleton,
evidently that of a warrior, who is here seen emerging, reaches out his bony
arm for his spear and armour placed beside the jar, while, above, a butterfly
flutters towards his head. It is the soul returning to its earthly tenement
(Fig. 53). But the nearest parallel to the scene on the ' Ring of Nestor,' in
which a Goddess appears as an intermediary, is curiously enough presented
by a quite late monument of Classical antiquity. On a Greco-Roman
sarcophagus in the Capitoline Museum, the central subject of which is
Prometheus moulding a human figure in clay, Athena, who stands in front
:im7,- x -f Mr
tffJ^Qn
>
.Wily
Fig. 54.—Athena infusing Life in Shape of Butterfly into Human Figure
MOULDED BY PROMETHEUS (On GRECO-ROMAN SARCOPHAGUS, CAPITOLINE MUSEUM).
of him, infuses life into the inert block by placing a butterfly, which she
holds by the tips of the wings, upon the top of its head (Fig. 54).58
The Goddess, for such we must regard her, on the ring, so clearly marked
by the emblems of resurgence after death with which- she is associated, was
evidently credited with some similar power in regard to departed human
beings. It is indeed impossible not to recognise the direct connexion of the
twin chrysalises and butterflies seen above her head with the male and
female figure that appear immediately behind her in what is, dramatically
37 On a banded agate intaglio of Roman
workmanship in my own Collection; be-
neath the design is the inscription PVBLI.
This scene of ' resurrection ' is much more
intelligible than the somewhat analogous
design on an onyx of good Roman work
figured by King, Handbook of Engraved
Gems, PI. opp. p. 361, No. 33, and p. 364,
where the skeleton is incomprehensibly
described as ' terrified by the hateful
glare ' of the torch of life. The butterfly
is wanting in the latter design as well as the
arms.
58 Reproduced from Righetti, Descrizione
del Campidoglio, i. 75. Cf. too Baumeister,
Denkmaler des klass. Altertums, iii. p. 1413,
Fig. 1568 (art. ' Prometheus), etc.
63
uplifted torch, helps to raise the lid of the funeral urn.57 The skeleton,
evidently that of a warrior, who is here seen emerging, reaches out his bony
arm for his spear and armour placed beside the jar, while, above, a butterfly
flutters towards his head. It is the soul returning to its earthly tenement
(Fig. 53). But the nearest parallel to the scene on the ' Ring of Nestor,' in
which a Goddess appears as an intermediary, is curiously enough presented
by a quite late monument of Classical antiquity. On a Greco-Roman
sarcophagus in the Capitoline Museum, the central subject of which is
Prometheus moulding a human figure in clay, Athena, who stands in front
:im7,- x -f Mr
tffJ^Qn
>
.Wily
Fig. 54.—Athena infusing Life in Shape of Butterfly into Human Figure
MOULDED BY PROMETHEUS (On GRECO-ROMAN SARCOPHAGUS, CAPITOLINE MUSEUM).
of him, infuses life into the inert block by placing a butterfly, which she
holds by the tips of the wings, upon the top of its head (Fig. 54).58
The Goddess, for such we must regard her, on the ring, so clearly marked
by the emblems of resurgence after death with which- she is associated, was
evidently credited with some similar power in regard to departed human
beings. It is indeed impossible not to recognise the direct connexion of the
twin chrysalises and butterflies seen above her head with the male and
female figure that appear immediately behind her in what is, dramatically
37 On a banded agate intaglio of Roman
workmanship in my own Collection; be-
neath the design is the inscription PVBLI.
This scene of ' resurrection ' is much more
intelligible than the somewhat analogous
design on an onyx of good Roman work
figured by King, Handbook of Engraved
Gems, PI. opp. p. 361, No. 33, and p. 364,
where the skeleton is incomprehensibly
described as ' terrified by the hateful
glare ' of the torch of life. The butterfly
is wanting in the latter design as well as the
arms.
58 Reproduced from Righetti, Descrizione
del Campidoglio, i. 75. Cf. too Baumeister,
Denkmaler des klass. Altertums, iii. p. 1413,
Fig. 1568 (art. ' Prometheus), etc.