DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0049
39
arm in war. This figure has four arms; and, of those on the
right side, one holds up a serpent, and the other rests upon the
head of a bull ; while, of those on the left, one holds up a small
buckler, and the other, something which cannot be ascertained.1
It is probable that, by giving the full promiuent form of the female
breast on one side, and the flat form of the male on the other, the
artist meant to express the union of the two sexes in this emble-
matical composition; which seems to have represented some great
deity of the people, who wrought these stupendous caverns; and
which, probably, furnished the Greeks with their first notion of an
Amazon. Hippocrates however states that the right breast of the
Sannatian women was destroyed in their infancy, to qualify them
for war, in which they served on horseback; and none was quali-
fied to be a wife, till she had slain three enemies.1 This might
have been the foundation of some of the fables concerning a nation
of female warriors. The fine figure, nevertheless, of an Amazon
in Lansdowne House, probably an ancient copy of one of those
above mentioned, shows that the deformity of the one breast was
avoided by their great artists, though the androgynous character is
strongly marked throughout, in the countenance, limbs, and body.
On gems, figures of Amazons, overcome by Hercules, Theseus, or
Achilles, are frequent; but we have never observed any such com-
positiojas upon coins.
.51. This character of the double sex, or active and passive
powers combined, seems to have been sometimes signified by the
large aquatic snail or buccinum ; an androgynous insect, which we
often find on the mystic monuments of the Greeks,3 aud of which
the shell is represented radiated in the hands of several Hindoo idols,*
to signify fire and water, the principles from which this double
power in nature sprang. The tortoise is, however, a more frequent
symbol of this attribute; though it might also have signified
1 Niebuhr Voyages, T. ii. tab. vi.
1 Tlept aep. K. T. \. s. xlii.
3 See silver coins of Panormus and Segesta, and brass of Agrigcntum in
Sicily.
See Sonnerat's, and other collections of Hindoo Idols.
arm in war. This figure has four arms; and, of those on the
right side, one holds up a serpent, and the other rests upon the
head of a bull ; while, of those on the left, one holds up a small
buckler, and the other, something which cannot be ascertained.1
It is probable that, by giving the full promiuent form of the female
breast on one side, and the flat form of the male on the other, the
artist meant to express the union of the two sexes in this emble-
matical composition; which seems to have represented some great
deity of the people, who wrought these stupendous caverns; and
which, probably, furnished the Greeks with their first notion of an
Amazon. Hippocrates however states that the right breast of the
Sannatian women was destroyed in their infancy, to qualify them
for war, in which they served on horseback; and none was quali-
fied to be a wife, till she had slain three enemies.1 This might
have been the foundation of some of the fables concerning a nation
of female warriors. The fine figure, nevertheless, of an Amazon
in Lansdowne House, probably an ancient copy of one of those
above mentioned, shows that the deformity of the one breast was
avoided by their great artists, though the androgynous character is
strongly marked throughout, in the countenance, limbs, and body.
On gems, figures of Amazons, overcome by Hercules, Theseus, or
Achilles, are frequent; but we have never observed any such com-
positiojas upon coins.
.51. This character of the double sex, or active and passive
powers combined, seems to have been sometimes signified by the
large aquatic snail or buccinum ; an androgynous insect, which we
often find on the mystic monuments of the Greeks,3 aud of which
the shell is represented radiated in the hands of several Hindoo idols,*
to signify fire and water, the principles from which this double
power in nature sprang. The tortoise is, however, a more frequent
symbol of this attribute; though it might also have signified
1 Niebuhr Voyages, T. ii. tab. vi.
1 Tlept aep. K. T. \. s. xlii.
3 See silver coins of Panormus and Segesta, and brass of Agrigcntum in
Sicily.
See Sonnerat's, and other collections of Hindoo Idols.