Falkener, Edward: Ephesus and the temple of Diana (London, 1862)

CHRISTIAN TRADITIONS AND MODERN HISTORY. 163

hling an Alylg, or goat's-shm. Jupiter is said to
have been counselled by Themis to take the skin
of the goat1 Amalthea, by "which he had been
suckled, in his defence against the Titans ; and it
had such effect that they Avere terrified and over-
come at the mere display and shaking of the skin.
This action is expressed by the same word; Ai'£
signifying a goat, and "Ai'| a violent motion, or
tempestuous wind (Hesychius). The iEgida is
therefore a fit emblem of the terror caused in man
by the mere approach of storms and tempests. That
worn by Jupiter, as well as that which he gave
to Apollo, and that made for Minerva by the
Cyclops, were all elaborately formed of a network
of scales of gold Avoven together with a border
of serpents.2 As the ^Egida is a symbol of the
storms and tempests and lightnings of the god, so
the crown of oak denotes his power of resisting
them. Visconti is further of opinion that this
cameo has been copied from some celebrated statue
of antiquity, and that it may have been preserved
in one of the Dactyliothecas of the Temple of Diana,
or formed one of the precious jewels with which the
crowns of the priests Avere wont to be ornamented.
It is difficult to say whether the Aracancies at the
side Avere originally so formed from a caprice of the
artist, whether they AArere made regular in order to

1 Herod, ii. 42. " Id. iv. 189.