DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0048
38
an entertainment of this kind, that the host, by giving crowns of
flowers instead of laurel, not only introduced an innovation, but
made the wearing of them a matter of luxury instead of devotion.'
It was also customary, when any poems sacred to the deity, such
as those of a dramatic kind, were recited at private tables, for the
person reciting to hold a branch of laurel in his hand,1 to signify
that he was performing an act of devotion, as well as of amuse-
ment.
50. The Scandinavian goddess Freya had, like the Paphian
Venus, the characteristics of both sexes ; 3 and it seems probable
f that the fable of the Amazons arose from some symbolical com-
position ; upon which the Greek poets engrafted, as they usually
did, a variety of amusing fictions. The two passages in the Iliad,
in which they are slightly mentioned, appear to us to be interpola-
tions ; * and of the tales which have been circulated in later times
concerning them, there is no trace in either of the Homeric poems,
though so intimately connected with the subjects of both. There
were fire figures of Amazons in the temple of Diana at Ephesus,
the rival works of five of the most eminent Greek sculptors ;1
and notwithstanding the contradictory stories of their having
placed the ancient statue of the goddess, and been suppliants at
her altar,6 we suspect that they were among her symbolical at-
tendants ; or personifications of her subordinate attributes. In
the great sculptured caverns of the island of Elephanta near Bom-
bay, there is a figure, evidently symbolical, with a large prominent
female breast on the left side, and none on the right; a peculiarity,
■which is said to have distinguished the Amazons, and given them
their Greek name; the growth of the right breast having been
artificially prevented, that they might have the free use of that
' Toy attfyavav ri$ovr)s tcoiwv, ovk fvcrefSeias. Plutarch, Sympos..lib. viii..probU
XX.
1 Aristoph. Ncph. 1364, et Schol.
. 3 Mallet Hist, de Danemarc. Introd. c. vii. p. 110.
+ r. 188 and 0, and z. 18G.
5 Plin. lib. xxxiv. c. viii.
6 Patisan" lib. c. xxx. and lib. yii. n. i, .
an entertainment of this kind, that the host, by giving crowns of
flowers instead of laurel, not only introduced an innovation, but
made the wearing of them a matter of luxury instead of devotion.'
It was also customary, when any poems sacred to the deity, such
as those of a dramatic kind, were recited at private tables, for the
person reciting to hold a branch of laurel in his hand,1 to signify
that he was performing an act of devotion, as well as of amuse-
ment.
50. The Scandinavian goddess Freya had, like the Paphian
Venus, the characteristics of both sexes ; 3 and it seems probable
f that the fable of the Amazons arose from some symbolical com-
position ; upon which the Greek poets engrafted, as they usually
did, a variety of amusing fictions. The two passages in the Iliad,
in which they are slightly mentioned, appear to us to be interpola-
tions ; * and of the tales which have been circulated in later times
concerning them, there is no trace in either of the Homeric poems,
though so intimately connected with the subjects of both. There
were fire figures of Amazons in the temple of Diana at Ephesus,
the rival works of five of the most eminent Greek sculptors ;1
and notwithstanding the contradictory stories of their having
placed the ancient statue of the goddess, and been suppliants at
her altar,6 we suspect that they were among her symbolical at-
tendants ; or personifications of her subordinate attributes. In
the great sculptured caverns of the island of Elephanta near Bom-
bay, there is a figure, evidently symbolical, with a large prominent
female breast on the left side, and none on the right; a peculiarity,
■which is said to have distinguished the Amazons, and given them
their Greek name; the growth of the right breast having been
artificially prevented, that they might have the free use of that
' Toy attfyavav ri$ovr)s tcoiwv, ovk fvcrefSeias. Plutarch, Sympos..lib. viii..probU
XX.
1 Aristoph. Ncph. 1364, et Schol.
. 3 Mallet Hist, de Danemarc. Introd. c. vii. p. 110.
+ r. 188 and 0, and z. 18G.
5 Plin. lib. xxxiv. c. viii.
6 Patisan" lib. c. xxx. and lib. yii. n. i, .