DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0137
127
face of Anubis was gilded, and to signify the latter,' black.' In the
Greek and Roman statues of him, the wings and petasus, or cap,
which he occasionally wears upon his head, seem to indicate the
same difference of character;1 similar caps being frequently upon
the heads of figures of Vulcan, who was the personification of ter-
restrial fire:3 whence he was fabled to have been thrown from hea-
ven into the volcanic island of Lemnos, and to have been saved by
the sea;4 volcanos being supported by water. These caps, the
form of which is derived from the egg, * and which are worn by
the Dioscuri, as before observed, surmounted with asterisks, signify
the hemispheres of the earth ; 6 and it is possible that the asterisks
may, in this case, mean the morning and evening stars; but whence
the cap became a distinction of rank, as it was among the Scythians,7
or a symbol of freedom and emancipation, as it was among the
Greeks and Romans, is not easily ascertained.3
162. The dog was the emblem of destruction as well as vigi-
lance, and sacred to Mars as well as Mercury: 9 whence the ancient
northern deity, Gamr, the devourer or engulpher, was represented
under the form of this animal; which sometimes appears in the same
character on monuments of Grecian art.10 Both destruction and
creation were, according to the religious philosophy of the an-
cients, merely dissolution and renovation ; to which all sublunary
bodies, even that of the Earth itself, were supposed to be periodi-
1 Hie horrendum attollens canis cervices arduas, ille superum commeator
et inferum nunc atra nunc aurea. facie sublimis. Apul. Metam. lib. xi.
* See small brass coins of Metapontum, silver telradrachms of iEnos,&c.
3 See coins of Lipari, JEsernia, &c: also plate xlvii. of Vol. 11
+ Iliad A. 593. and 2. 395.
5 Touawu to ijfxnovov jcoi aoTTjp imepavu. Lucian. Dial. Deor. xxvi.
6 Tli\ovs t rmTidtacFtv aurois, Km ctti rovrois atrrepas, aiyiffffo^voi rr)v ripuff(paipe<tv
naru<rKevr)v. Sext. Empiric, xi. 37.; see also Achill. Tat. Isagog. p. 127 b. and
130 c.
This cap was first given to Ulysses by Nicomachus, a painter of the age
of Alexander the Great. Plin. xxxv. c. x.
7 Ui\o(popiKoi. Scythians of rank. Lucian. Scyth.
s See Tib. Hemsterhbis. Not. in Lucian. Dialog. Deor. xxvi.
Phuruut. dc Nat. Deor. c. xxi. 10 See coins of Phocaea, &c.
face of Anubis was gilded, and to signify the latter,' black.' In the
Greek and Roman statues of him, the wings and petasus, or cap,
which he occasionally wears upon his head, seem to indicate the
same difference of character;1 similar caps being frequently upon
the heads of figures of Vulcan, who was the personification of ter-
restrial fire:3 whence he was fabled to have been thrown from hea-
ven into the volcanic island of Lemnos, and to have been saved by
the sea;4 volcanos being supported by water. These caps, the
form of which is derived from the egg, * and which are worn by
the Dioscuri, as before observed, surmounted with asterisks, signify
the hemispheres of the earth ; 6 and it is possible that the asterisks
may, in this case, mean the morning and evening stars; but whence
the cap became a distinction of rank, as it was among the Scythians,7
or a symbol of freedom and emancipation, as it was among the
Greeks and Romans, is not easily ascertained.3
162. The dog was the emblem of destruction as well as vigi-
lance, and sacred to Mars as well as Mercury: 9 whence the ancient
northern deity, Gamr, the devourer or engulpher, was represented
under the form of this animal; which sometimes appears in the same
character on monuments of Grecian art.10 Both destruction and
creation were, according to the religious philosophy of the an-
cients, merely dissolution and renovation ; to which all sublunary
bodies, even that of the Earth itself, were supposed to be periodi-
1 Hie horrendum attollens canis cervices arduas, ille superum commeator
et inferum nunc atra nunc aurea. facie sublimis. Apul. Metam. lib. xi.
* See small brass coins of Metapontum, silver telradrachms of iEnos,&c.
3 See coins of Lipari, JEsernia, &c: also plate xlvii. of Vol. 11
+ Iliad A. 593. and 2. 395.
5 Touawu to ijfxnovov jcoi aoTTjp imepavu. Lucian. Dial. Deor. xxvi.
6 Tli\ovs t rmTidtacFtv aurois, Km ctti rovrois atrrepas, aiyiffffo^voi rr)v ripuff(paipe<tv
naru<rKevr)v. Sext. Empiric, xi. 37.; see also Achill. Tat. Isagog. p. 127 b. and
130 c.
This cap was first given to Ulysses by Nicomachus, a painter of the age
of Alexander the Great. Plin. xxxv. c. x.
7 Ui\o(popiKoi. Scythians of rank. Lucian. Scyth.
s See Tib. Hemsterhbis. Not. in Lucian. Dialog. Deor. xxvi.
Phuruut. dc Nat. Deor. c. xxi. 10 See coins of Phocaea, &c.