DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0133
123
the /Egyptians covering the walls of the cells and the shafts of the
columns with them ; while the Greeks, always studious of elegance,
employed them to decorate their entablatures, pediments, doors,
and pavements. The extremities of the roofs were almost always
adorned with a sort of scroll of raised curves,' the meaning of which
would not be easily discovered, were it not employed on coins evi-
dently to represent water; not as a symbol, but as the rude effort of
infant art, feebly attempting to imitate waves. -
158. The most obvious, and consequently the most ancient sym-
bol of the productive power of the waters, was a fish; which we
accordingly find the universal symbol upon many of the earliest coins;
almost every symbol of the male or active power, both of generation
and destruction, being occasionally placed upon it; and Dirceto, the
goddess of the Phoenicians, being represented by the head and body
of a woman, terminating below in a fish:3 but on the Phoenician
as well as Greek coins now extant, the personage is of the other sex ;
and iu plate L. of vol. 1. of the Select Specimens, is engraved a beau-
tiful figure of the mystic Cupid, or first-begotten Love, terminating in
an aquatic plant; which, affording more elegance and variety of form,
was employed to signify the same meaning ; that is, the Spirit upon
the waters; which is otherwise expressed by a similar and more com-
mon mixed figure, called a Triton, terminating in a fish, instead of an
aquatic plant. The head of Proserpine appears, in numberless in-
stances, surrounded by dolphins ; * and upon the very ancient me-
dals of Side in Pamphylia, the pomegranate, the fruit peculiarly
consecrated to her, is borne upon the back of one.s By prevailing
upon her to eat of it, Pluto is said to have procured her stay during
half the year in the infernal regions ; and a part of the Greek cere-
mony of marriage still consists, in many places, in the bride's tread-
1 See Stuart's Athens, vol. l. c. iv. pi. iii.
" See coins of Tarentum, Camerina, &c.
3 AcpxtTovs 5c eiSos ev toivixri fBirnixannv, 6«tfia £tvov iifitatr) fitp ywyf to JV bxovev
6tt li-qpusv es anpovs votias ixBvo; ovpri awoTcweTaf rj 5c cv tj ipri ttcXu nana yvvn eo-n.
Lucian. de Syr. Dea. s. 14.
4 See coins of Syracuse, Motya, &c.
s Mus. Hunter, tab. 49. fig. iii. &c.
the /Egyptians covering the walls of the cells and the shafts of the
columns with them ; while the Greeks, always studious of elegance,
employed them to decorate their entablatures, pediments, doors,
and pavements. The extremities of the roofs were almost always
adorned with a sort of scroll of raised curves,' the meaning of which
would not be easily discovered, were it not employed on coins evi-
dently to represent water; not as a symbol, but as the rude effort of
infant art, feebly attempting to imitate waves. -
158. The most obvious, and consequently the most ancient sym-
bol of the productive power of the waters, was a fish; which we
accordingly find the universal symbol upon many of the earliest coins;
almost every symbol of the male or active power, both of generation
and destruction, being occasionally placed upon it; and Dirceto, the
goddess of the Phoenicians, being represented by the head and body
of a woman, terminating below in a fish:3 but on the Phoenician
as well as Greek coins now extant, the personage is of the other sex ;
and iu plate L. of vol. 1. of the Select Specimens, is engraved a beau-
tiful figure of the mystic Cupid, or first-begotten Love, terminating in
an aquatic plant; which, affording more elegance and variety of form,
was employed to signify the same meaning ; that is, the Spirit upon
the waters; which is otherwise expressed by a similar and more com-
mon mixed figure, called a Triton, terminating in a fish, instead of an
aquatic plant. The head of Proserpine appears, in numberless in-
stances, surrounded by dolphins ; * and upon the very ancient me-
dals of Side in Pamphylia, the pomegranate, the fruit peculiarly
consecrated to her, is borne upon the back of one.s By prevailing
upon her to eat of it, Pluto is said to have procured her stay during
half the year in the infernal regions ; and a part of the Greek cere-
mony of marriage still consists, in many places, in the bride's tread-
1 See Stuart's Athens, vol. l. c. iv. pi. iii.
" See coins of Tarentum, Camerina, &c.
3 AcpxtTovs 5c eiSos ev toivixri fBirnixannv, 6«tfia £tvov iifitatr) fitp ywyf to JV bxovev
6tt li-qpusv es anpovs votias ixBvo; ovpri awoTcweTaf rj 5c cv tj ipri ttcXu nana yvvn eo-n.
Lucian. de Syr. Dea. s. 14.
4 See coins of Syracuse, Motya, &c.
s Mus. Hunter, tab. 49. fig. iii. &c.