DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0124
114
suited riding upon a gryphon;' an emblematical monster composed
of the united forms of the lion and eagle, the symbols of destruc-
tion and dominion.1 As acting under the earth, she was the same
as Proserpine ; except that the latter has no reference to the Moon ;
but was a personification of the same attributes operating in the
terrestrial elements only.
145. In the simplicity of the primitive religion, Pluto and
Proserpine were considered merely as the deities of death pre-
siding over the infernal regions; and, being thought wholly inflexible
and inexorable, were neither honored with any rites of worship,
nor addressed in any forms of supplication :3 but in the mystic sys-
tem they acquired a more general character; and became personifi-
cations of the active and passive modifications of the pervading
Spirit concentrated in the earth. Pluto was represented with the
■koKo; or modius on his head, like Venus and Isis ; and, in the cha-
racter of Serapis, with the patera of libation, as distributor of the
waters, in one hand, and the cornucopia?, signifying its result, in the
other.4 His name Pluto or Plutus signifies the same as this latter
symbol; and appears to have arisen from the mystic worship ; his
ancient title having been AIAflS or AFIJHS, signifying the Invi-
sible, which the Attics corrupted to Hades. Whether the title
Serapis, which appears to be ^Egyptian, meant a more general
personification, or precisely the same, is difficult to ascertain ;
ancient authority rather favoring the latter supposition ;5 at the same
time that there appears to be some difference in the figures of them
now extant; those of Pluto having the hair hanging down in large
masses over the neck and forehead, and differing only in the front
1 Strabo. lib. viii. p. 343. Aprils avcupepopevri «" ypmos, a very celebrated
picture of Aregon of Corinth.
1 See coins of Tei'os, &c. in the Hunter collection.
3 Iliad 1.158. They are invoked indeed II. I. 565. and Od. K. 535.; but
only as the deities of Death.
* In a small silver figure belonging to Mr. P. Knight.
5 Ou yap aMov eirai Stpamv r) Toy UXovTuva ipaffi. Plutarchi d« Is. et Osir.
suited riding upon a gryphon;' an emblematical monster composed
of the united forms of the lion and eagle, the symbols of destruc-
tion and dominion.1 As acting under the earth, she was the same
as Proserpine ; except that the latter has no reference to the Moon ;
but was a personification of the same attributes operating in the
terrestrial elements only.
145. In the simplicity of the primitive religion, Pluto and
Proserpine were considered merely as the deities of death pre-
siding over the infernal regions; and, being thought wholly inflexible
and inexorable, were neither honored with any rites of worship,
nor addressed in any forms of supplication :3 but in the mystic sys-
tem they acquired a more general character; and became personifi-
cations of the active and passive modifications of the pervading
Spirit concentrated in the earth. Pluto was represented with the
■koKo; or modius on his head, like Venus and Isis ; and, in the cha-
racter of Serapis, with the patera of libation, as distributor of the
waters, in one hand, and the cornucopia?, signifying its result, in the
other.4 His name Pluto or Plutus signifies the same as this latter
symbol; and appears to have arisen from the mystic worship ; his
ancient title having been AIAflS or AFIJHS, signifying the Invi-
sible, which the Attics corrupted to Hades. Whether the title
Serapis, which appears to be ^Egyptian, meant a more general
personification, or precisely the same, is difficult to ascertain ;
ancient authority rather favoring the latter supposition ;5 at the same
time that there appears to be some difference in the figures of them
now extant; those of Pluto having the hair hanging down in large
masses over the neck and forehead, and differing only in the front
1 Strabo. lib. viii. p. 343. Aprils avcupepopevri «" ypmos, a very celebrated
picture of Aregon of Corinth.
1 See coins of Tei'os, &c. in the Hunter collection.
3 Iliad 1.158. They are invoked indeed II. I. 565. and Od. K. 535.; but
only as the deities of Death.
* In a small silver figure belonging to Mr. P. Knight.
5 Ou yap aMov eirai Stpamv r) Toy UXovTuva ipaffi. Plutarchi d« Is. et Osir.