DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0109
99
which are employed in receiving another cluster from the Bacchus.
This composition represents the vine between the creating and de-
stroying attributes of the Deity; the one giving it fruit, and the other
devouring it when given. The poets conveyed the same meaning in
the allegorical tales of the Loves of Bacchus and Ampelus ; who,
as the name indicates, was only the vine personified.
127. The Chimera, of which so many whimsical interpretations
have been given by the commentators on the Iliad, seems to have
been an emblematical composition of the same class, veiled, as
usual, under historical fable to conceal its' meaning from the vulgar.
It was composed of the forms of the goat, the lion, and the ser-
pent ; . the symbols of the generator, destroyer, and preserver
united and animated by fire, the essential principle of all the three.
The old poet had probably seen such a figure in Asia ; but knowing
nothing of mystic lore, which does not appear to have reached
Greece or her colonies in his time, received whatever was told him
concerning it. In later times, however, it must have been a well-
known sacred symbol; or it would not have been employed as a
device upon coins.
128. The fable of Apollo destroying the serpent Python, seems
equally to have originated from the symbolical language of imita-
tive art; the title Apollo signifying, according to the etymology
already given, the destroyer as well as the deliverer : for, as the
ancients supposed destruction to be merely dissolution, as creation
was merely formation, the power which delivered the particles of
matter from the bonds of attraction, and broke the tecrjuv Tregififify
spcoro;, was in fact the destroyer. Hence the verb ATfl or ATMT,
from which it is derived, means both to free and to destroy.1 Pliny
mentions a statue of Apollo by Praxiteles, much celebrated in his
time, called SATPOKTONOS,* the lizard-killer, of which several
copies are now extant.3 The lizard, being supposed to exist upon
the dews and moisture of the earth, was employed as the symbol
of humidity; so that the god destroying it, signifies the same as
1 See Iliad A. 'JO, & f. 45
Lib'. sjsMY. 2i till.
which are employed in receiving another cluster from the Bacchus.
This composition represents the vine between the creating and de-
stroying attributes of the Deity; the one giving it fruit, and the other
devouring it when given. The poets conveyed the same meaning in
the allegorical tales of the Loves of Bacchus and Ampelus ; who,
as the name indicates, was only the vine personified.
127. The Chimera, of which so many whimsical interpretations
have been given by the commentators on the Iliad, seems to have
been an emblematical composition of the same class, veiled, as
usual, under historical fable to conceal its' meaning from the vulgar.
It was composed of the forms of the goat, the lion, and the ser-
pent ; . the symbols of the generator, destroyer, and preserver
united and animated by fire, the essential principle of all the three.
The old poet had probably seen such a figure in Asia ; but knowing
nothing of mystic lore, which does not appear to have reached
Greece or her colonies in his time, received whatever was told him
concerning it. In later times, however, it must have been a well-
known sacred symbol; or it would not have been employed as a
device upon coins.
128. The fable of Apollo destroying the serpent Python, seems
equally to have originated from the symbolical language of imita-
tive art; the title Apollo signifying, according to the etymology
already given, the destroyer as well as the deliverer : for, as the
ancients supposed destruction to be merely dissolution, as creation
was merely formation, the power which delivered the particles of
matter from the bonds of attraction, and broke the tecrjuv Tregififify
spcoro;, was in fact the destroyer. Hence the verb ATfl or ATMT,
from which it is derived, means both to free and to destroy.1 Pliny
mentions a statue of Apollo by Praxiteles, much celebrated in his
time, called SATPOKTONOS,* the lizard-killer, of which several
copies are now extant.3 The lizard, being supposed to exist upon
the dews and moisture of the earth, was employed as the symbol
of humidity; so that the god destroying it, signifies the same as
1 See Iliad A. 'JO, & f. 45
Lib'. sjsMY. 2i till.