DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0099
89
the androgynous .Apollo near Miletus, of which there is an en-
graving from an ancient copy in the Select Specimens, pi. xii.
carried a deer in the i ight hand, and on a very early gold coin probably
of Ephesus a male beardless head is represented with the horns of
the same animal;1 whence we suspect that the metamorphose of
Actaeon, like many other similar fables, arose from some such
symbolical composition.
115. It is probable therefore that the lion devouring the horse,
represents the diurnal heat of the Sun exhaling the waters ; and
devouring the deer, the same heat withering and putrefying the
productions of the earth ; both of which, though immediately
destructive, are preparatory to reproduction : for the same fervent
rays which scorch and wither, clothe the earth with verdure, and
mature all its fruits. As they dry up the waters in one season, so
they return them in another, causing fermentation and putrefaction,
which make one generation of plants and animals the means of
producing another in regular and unceasing progression ; and thus
constitute that varied yet uniform harmony in the succession of
causes and effects, which is the principle of general order and
economy in the operations of nature. The same meaning was
signified by a composition more celebrated in poetry, though less
frequent in art, of Hercules destroying a Centaur; who is some-
times distinguished, as in the ancient coins above cited, by the
pointed goat's beard.
116. This universal harmony is represented, on the frieze of the
temple of Apollo Didumajus near Miletus, by the lyre supported
by two symbolical figures composed of the mixed forms and fea-
tures of the goat and the lion, each of which rests one of its
fore feet upon it.1 The poets expressed the same meaning in
their allegorical tales of the loves of Mars and Venus; from
in a shrine or coffin of solid gold; which having been melted down and carried
away during the troubles by which Ptolemy XI. was expelled, a glass one
was substituted and exhibited in its place in the time of Strabo. See
Geogr. 1. xvii.
1 In the cabinet of Mr. Payne Knight.
2 See Ionian Antiquities published by the Society of Dilettanti, vol. i.
c. iii. pi. ix.
the androgynous .Apollo near Miletus, of which there is an en-
graving from an ancient copy in the Select Specimens, pi. xii.
carried a deer in the i ight hand, and on a very early gold coin probably
of Ephesus a male beardless head is represented with the horns of
the same animal;1 whence we suspect that the metamorphose of
Actaeon, like many other similar fables, arose from some such
symbolical composition.
115. It is probable therefore that the lion devouring the horse,
represents the diurnal heat of the Sun exhaling the waters ; and
devouring the deer, the same heat withering and putrefying the
productions of the earth ; both of which, though immediately
destructive, are preparatory to reproduction : for the same fervent
rays which scorch and wither, clothe the earth with verdure, and
mature all its fruits. As they dry up the waters in one season, so
they return them in another, causing fermentation and putrefaction,
which make one generation of plants and animals the means of
producing another in regular and unceasing progression ; and thus
constitute that varied yet uniform harmony in the succession of
causes and effects, which is the principle of general order and
economy in the operations of nature. The same meaning was
signified by a composition more celebrated in poetry, though less
frequent in art, of Hercules destroying a Centaur; who is some-
times distinguished, as in the ancient coins above cited, by the
pointed goat's beard.
116. This universal harmony is represented, on the frieze of the
temple of Apollo Didumajus near Miletus, by the lyre supported
by two symbolical figures composed of the mixed forms and fea-
tures of the goat and the lion, each of which rests one of its
fore feet upon it.1 The poets expressed the same meaning in
their allegorical tales of the loves of Mars and Venus; from
in a shrine or coffin of solid gold; which having been melted down and carried
away during the troubles by which Ptolemy XI. was expelled, a glass one
was substituted and exhibited in its place in the time of Strabo. See
Geogr. 1. xvii.
1 In the cabinet of Mr. Payne Knight.
2 See Ionian Antiquities published by the Society of Dilettanti, vol. i.
c. iii. pi. ix.