DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1082#0188
136 POMPEIANA.
as to leave the communication free from ram-
part to rampart. Three of the stone spouts,
to convey the water from the latter, are visible.
None of the battlements remain entire in any part
shown in these two views.
PLATE XVIII.
Is compiled from remains found in the street of the
Nolan Gate. The centre compartment (4) is an
altar, above which is a painting of a sacrifice.
These paintings of serpents, but generally in pairs,
are frequently seen at the angles and corners of
streets at Pompeii. They were the local genii1:
and their emblems rendered the spot sacred, and
guarded it from pollution:
......hie . . . veto quisquam faxit oletum
Pinge duos angues. Pueri, sacer est locus; extra
Meiite. Persius, 1—112.
It is remarkable that the serpent was in all histories
mysterious. The serpent of Eve need not be
cited: a serpent originally delivered the Delphic
responses: it was the emblem of eternity; as
1 See Antichita d'Ercolano, vol. ii. where the addition of Harpocrates
imposed even silence.—Lampridios, in Hdiogab.—Servius.
In modern Italy the same purpose is answered by a Madonna, or saint.
as to leave the communication free from ram-
part to rampart. Three of the stone spouts,
to convey the water from the latter, are visible.
None of the battlements remain entire in any part
shown in these two views.
PLATE XVIII.
Is compiled from remains found in the street of the
Nolan Gate. The centre compartment (4) is an
altar, above which is a painting of a sacrifice.
These paintings of serpents, but generally in pairs,
are frequently seen at the angles and corners of
streets at Pompeii. They were the local genii1:
and their emblems rendered the spot sacred, and
guarded it from pollution:
......hie . . . veto quisquam faxit oletum
Pinge duos angues. Pueri, sacer est locus; extra
Meiite. Persius, 1—112.
It is remarkable that the serpent was in all histories
mysterious. The serpent of Eve need not be
cited: a serpent originally delivered the Delphic
responses: it was the emblem of eternity; as
1 See Antichita d'Ercolano, vol. ii. where the addition of Harpocrates
imposed even silence.—Lampridios, in Hdiogab.—Servius.
In modern Italy the same purpose is answered by a Madonna, or saint.