DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0085
fill the accessary and characteristic emblems. Some pious fieaffieir,
too, made a bungling alteration, and still more bungling interpola-
tion, in the passage of the Odyssey, to reconcile historical tradition
with religious mythology.1
100. In many instances, the two personifications are united in
one; and Bacchus, who on other occasions is represented as a
bearded venerable figure,1 appears with the limbs, features, and
character of a beautiful young woman ;3 sometimes distinguished
by the sprouting horns of the bull,4 and sometimes without any
other distinction than the crown or garland of vine or ivy.5 Such
were the Phrygian Attis, and Syrian Adonis ; whose history, like that
of Bacchus, is disguised by poetical and allegorical fable ; but who,
as usually represented in monuments of ancient art, are androgynous
personifications of the same attribute, 6 accompanied, in different
instances, by different accessary symbols. Considered as the per-
vading and fertilizing spirit of the waters, Bacchus differs from
Neptune in being a general emanation, instead of a local division,
of the productive power;7 and also in being a personification derived
from a more refined and philosophical system of religion, engrafted
upon the old elementary Worship, to which Neptune belonged.
101. It is observed by Dionysius the geographer, that Bacchus
was worshipped with peculiar zeal and devotion by the ancient
'Eirxefor ektcz (which is preserved in some Mss. and Scholia), and by add-
ing the following line, v. 324 ; a most manifest interpolation.
1 See silver coins of Naxus, and pi. xvi. and xxxix. of Vol. i. of the Select
Specimens.
3 See coins of Camarina, &c.
* See gold coins of Lampsacusin Mus. Hunter., and silver of Maronea.
5 See gold medals of Lampsacus, brass ditto of Rhodes, and pi. xxxix. of
Vol. i. of the Select Specimens.
6 A/j.<porepoi yap oi Oeoi (JloaeiSaiv xai Atoyviros) njs iypas Kai yovifiov Kvpwi Zokovc.v
itpXV' cwai. Plutarch. Syniposiac. lib. v. qu. 3.
riotreiSmv 5e eanv n atrep-ytHniKT) tv Ttj-yj; irai irepi ttji/ yijv vypov Svmfus. Phui'iint. de
Nat. Ucoi'. c. iv.
? 'Oti y ov \mvov tou oirau Aiovmov, a\\a Kat Traces iypas cpv&eas 'EWiJves Tiyowrat
iivpiov icai apxnyov, apxu UiSapos paprvs aval, k. t, A. Platarch. de Is. et Osir.
too, made a bungling alteration, and still more bungling interpola-
tion, in the passage of the Odyssey, to reconcile historical tradition
with religious mythology.1
100. In many instances, the two personifications are united in
one; and Bacchus, who on other occasions is represented as a
bearded venerable figure,1 appears with the limbs, features, and
character of a beautiful young woman ;3 sometimes distinguished
by the sprouting horns of the bull,4 and sometimes without any
other distinction than the crown or garland of vine or ivy.5 Such
were the Phrygian Attis, and Syrian Adonis ; whose history, like that
of Bacchus, is disguised by poetical and allegorical fable ; but who,
as usually represented in monuments of ancient art, are androgynous
personifications of the same attribute, 6 accompanied, in different
instances, by different accessary symbols. Considered as the per-
vading and fertilizing spirit of the waters, Bacchus differs from
Neptune in being a general emanation, instead of a local division,
of the productive power;7 and also in being a personification derived
from a more refined and philosophical system of religion, engrafted
upon the old elementary Worship, to which Neptune belonged.
101. It is observed by Dionysius the geographer, that Bacchus
was worshipped with peculiar zeal and devotion by the ancient
'Eirxefor ektcz (which is preserved in some Mss. and Scholia), and by add-
ing the following line, v. 324 ; a most manifest interpolation.
1 See silver coins of Naxus, and pi. xvi. and xxxix. of Vol. i. of the Select
Specimens.
3 See coins of Camarina, &c.
* See gold coins of Lampsacusin Mus. Hunter., and silver of Maronea.
5 See gold medals of Lampsacus, brass ditto of Rhodes, and pi. xxxix. of
Vol. i. of the Select Specimens.
6 A/j.<porepoi yap oi Oeoi (JloaeiSaiv xai Atoyviros) njs iypas Kai yovifiov Kvpwi Zokovc.v
itpXV' cwai. Plutarch. Syniposiac. lib. v. qu. 3.
riotreiSmv 5e eanv n atrep-ytHniKT) tv Ttj-yj; irai irepi ttji/ yijv vypov Svmfus. Phui'iint. de
Nat. Ucoi'. c. iv.
? 'Oti y ov \mvov tou oirau Aiovmov, a\\a Kat Traces iypas cpv&eas 'EWiJves Tiyowrat
iivpiov icai apxnyov, apxu UiSapos paprvs aval, k. t, A. Platarch. de Is. et Osir.