DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0042
32
represented under a globular or square form,1 was the same more
general personification worshipped with different rites, and exhibited
under different symbols, according to the different dispositions and
ideas of different nations. She was afterwards represented under
the form of a large handsome woman, with her head crowned with
turrets ; and very generally adopted as the local tutelar deity of
particular cities : but we have never seen any figure of this kind,
which was not proved, by the style of composition and workman-
ship, to be either posterior, or very little anterior, to the Macedonian
conquest.1
43. The characteristic attribute of the passive generative power
was expressed in symbolical writing, by different enigmatical repre-
sentations of the most distinctive characteristic of the sex ; such as
the shell, called the Concha Veneris,3 the Fig-leaf/ Barley Corn,5
or the letter Delta ;6 all which occur very frequently, upon coins,
and other ancient monuments, in this sense. The same attribute,
personified as the goddess of love or desire, is usually represented
under the voluptuous form of a beautiful woman, frequently dis-
tinguished by one of these symbols, and called Venus, Cypris, or
Aphrodite, names of rather uncertain etymology.7 She is said to
1 'H A7ifitrrrtp ttoXgojs effrt icarapKTiKri, olovei 7} yr\. 68ev Kai irupyoipopoy avrrjv ypa-
(poverty. Keyerai 8e Kai Kvfiekij ovko tov icv0ikov (T^uaTos KaT« yeiopierpiav r) yri. Lex.
Antiq. Frag, in Herm. Gramra.
z It is most frequent on the coins of the Asiatic colonies; but all that we
have seen with it are of late date.
3 August, de Civ. Dei lib. vi. c. 9.
Ktc(S yvvaiKcios' <5 etrrw, evipTj/xajs Kai /j.vo~tikws cnTerf, popiov ywaiKeiov. Clem.
Alexand. Cohort, p. 19.
+ Plutarch, de Is. et Osir. p. 3C5.
5 KpiSri, aiSoios ywameios Kara tow KoifuKovs. Eustath. in Homer, p. 134.
Tav oo-rpwv ytvos--2eAi)W) cvunaaxei. Clem. Alex. Cohort, s. iii.
Shell-fish in general were also thought to sympathise with the Moon.
6 Ae/Vra. to reraprov irroixziov' CTj/xaij/ei oe Kai to yvvaiKtiov aiooiov. Sllidas.
/ 7 The first may be from the vprb BEINEIN; Suidas explaining BEIN02 or
'BtNO^ to be the name of a goddess; and the name VENUS only differs
from it in a well-known variation of dialect,
represented under a globular or square form,1 was the same more
general personification worshipped with different rites, and exhibited
under different symbols, according to the different dispositions and
ideas of different nations. She was afterwards represented under
the form of a large handsome woman, with her head crowned with
turrets ; and very generally adopted as the local tutelar deity of
particular cities : but we have never seen any figure of this kind,
which was not proved, by the style of composition and workman-
ship, to be either posterior, or very little anterior, to the Macedonian
conquest.1
43. The characteristic attribute of the passive generative power
was expressed in symbolical writing, by different enigmatical repre-
sentations of the most distinctive characteristic of the sex ; such as
the shell, called the Concha Veneris,3 the Fig-leaf/ Barley Corn,5
or the letter Delta ;6 all which occur very frequently, upon coins,
and other ancient monuments, in this sense. The same attribute,
personified as the goddess of love or desire, is usually represented
under the voluptuous form of a beautiful woman, frequently dis-
tinguished by one of these symbols, and called Venus, Cypris, or
Aphrodite, names of rather uncertain etymology.7 She is said to
1 'H A7ifitrrrtp ttoXgojs effrt icarapKTiKri, olovei 7} yr\. 68ev Kai irupyoipopoy avrrjv ypa-
(poverty. Keyerai 8e Kai Kvfiekij ovko tov icv0ikov (T^uaTos KaT« yeiopierpiav r) yri. Lex.
Antiq. Frag, in Herm. Gramra.
z It is most frequent on the coins of the Asiatic colonies; but all that we
have seen with it are of late date.
3 August, de Civ. Dei lib. vi. c. 9.
Ktc(S yvvaiKcios' <5 etrrw, evipTj/xajs Kai /j.vo~tikws cnTerf, popiov ywaiKeiov. Clem.
Alexand. Cohort, p. 19.
+ Plutarch, de Is. et Osir. p. 3C5.
5 KpiSri, aiSoios ywameios Kara tow KoifuKovs. Eustath. in Homer, p. 134.
Tav oo-rpwv ytvos--2eAi)W) cvunaaxei. Clem. Alex. Cohort, s. iii.
Shell-fish in general were also thought to sympathise with the Moon.
6 Ae/Vra. to reraprov irroixziov' CTj/xaij/ei oe Kai to yvvaiKtiov aiooiov. Sllidas.
/ 7 The first may be from the vprb BEINEIN; Suidas explaining BEIN02 or
'BtNO^ to be the name of a goddess; and the name VENUS only differs
from it in a well-known variation of dialect,