DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5675#0054
Pkte 25.) Many authors speak of the race of torches,
it made a part in the worship of feveral Divinities \ at
Corinth, and Athens it was employed in honour of Miner-
va , the last of these towns introduced it also in the feasts
of Vulcan, Prometheus, and of Pan .
The race of torches represented in this Plate , is
not fimilar to that which is spoken of by Herodotus (a),
Plato {b), Aristophanes ('}, and Lucretius w, but it agrees
perfectly with Paufanias's description of it {e>, and with
what we read on the same subje6fc in the Scholiast of
Pindar (/}. Pausanias says : „ At the Academy there is
„ an Altar of Prometheus which is the {pot from whence
„ they start in the race of torches. In these races three
„ men , carrying each a lighted torch, strive which shall
„ arrive fir ft at a certain station . He who reaches it ,
„ without his torch having been extinguished , has gain cl
„ the vistory.
In the race represented in our Plate , the one
arrived first at the Goal has not been able to preferve
his torch lighted , and in despair , has thrown it from
him % his a&ion expresses simply disappointment . The
second is declared conquerour . The Genius that re-
prefents vi&ory, binds a fillet on his arm. It wou d be
difficult to fix exa&ly the place where this race was held,
but I rather think it was at Corinth, and at the time of
the feast of Ellotia. The person cloathed in the robe of a
Magistrate, is an Athlothete or judge of the combat; the
crown he wears, seems to be composed of the marine plant
Alga tin&oria {§\ because Corinth was under the particular
prote6lion of Neptune, The crowns of the three young
men
(:,} Bsrodo:. lib. Vh C V. L. VU1. C. XCVIIL (e) L I. C. XXX.
(b) Repub. L. I (f) Olymp. Od. XIII.
(c) Arift. v. 1088. (g) Bauhin, hijl.vlanta.rumk
(d) L. II. r. 76*
it made a part in the worship of feveral Divinities \ at
Corinth, and Athens it was employed in honour of Miner-
va , the last of these towns introduced it also in the feasts
of Vulcan, Prometheus, and of Pan .
The race of torches represented in this Plate , is
not fimilar to that which is spoken of by Herodotus (a),
Plato {b), Aristophanes ('}, and Lucretius w, but it agrees
perfectly with Paufanias's description of it {e>, and with
what we read on the same subje6fc in the Scholiast of
Pindar (/}. Pausanias says : „ At the Academy there is
„ an Altar of Prometheus which is the {pot from whence
„ they start in the race of torches. In these races three
„ men , carrying each a lighted torch, strive which shall
„ arrive fir ft at a certain station . He who reaches it ,
„ without his torch having been extinguished , has gain cl
„ the vistory.
In the race represented in our Plate , the one
arrived first at the Goal has not been able to preferve
his torch lighted , and in despair , has thrown it from
him % his a&ion expresses simply disappointment . The
second is declared conquerour . The Genius that re-
prefents vi&ory, binds a fillet on his arm. It wou d be
difficult to fix exa&ly the place where this race was held,
but I rather think it was at Corinth, and at the time of
the feast of Ellotia. The person cloathed in the robe of a
Magistrate, is an Athlothete or judge of the combat; the
crown he wears, seems to be composed of the marine plant
Alga tin&oria {§\ because Corinth was under the particular
prote6lion of Neptune, The crowns of the three young
men
(:,} Bsrodo:. lib. Vh C V. L. VU1. C. XCVIIL (e) L I. C. XXX.
(b) Repub. L. I (f) Olymp. Od. XIII.
(c) Arift. v. 1088. (g) Bauhin, hijl.vlanta.rumk
(d) L. II. r. 76*