DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0142
132
tasting the blood of a lamb offered in sacrifice ;» and it seems pro-
bable that the sanctity anciently attributed to red or purple color,
arose from its similitude to that of blood ; it having been cus-
tomary, in early times, not only to paint the faces of the statues of
the deities with vermilion; but also the bodies of the Roman Con-
suls and Dictators,2' during the sacred ceremony of the triumph;
from which ancient custom the imperial purple of later ages is
derived.
l6o. It was, perhaps, in allusion to the emancipation and puri-
fication of the soul, that Bacchus is called AIKNITHS ;3 a meta-
phorical title taken from the winnow, which purified the corn
from the dust and chaff, as fire was supposed to purify the astherial
soul from all gross and terrestrial matter. Hence this instrument
is called by Virgil the mystic winnow of Bacchus ;4 and hence we
find the symbols both of the destroying and generative attributes
upon tombs, signifying the separation and regeneration of the soul
performed by the same power. Those of the latter are, in many
instances, represented by very obscene and licentious actions, even
upon sepulchral monuments ; as appears from many now extant,
1 Pausan. lib. ii. c. iii. and iv.
* Tlci^v yo.p t^&vQiL to [uXdtvov, tp ra TraKaia raiv aya\fictr<av *XP1%0V' Plutarch.
tv Vai/iatK. See also Plin. Hist Nat. lib. xxxiii. c. vii.; and Winkelman. Hist, des
Arts, Liv. i. c. ii.
Enumerat auctores Verrius, quibus credere sit necesse, Jovis ipsius si-
mulachri faciem diebus festis minio ill'mi solitam, triumphantumque cor-
pora: sic Camillum triumphasse. Plin. ibid..
3 Orph. Hymn. xlv. The \mvov, however, was the mystic sieve in which
Bacchus was cradled ; from which the title may have been derived, though
the form of it implies an active rather than a passive sense. See Hesych.
in voc.
4 Mystica yannus Iacchi. Georg. 1. 106. Osiris has the winnow in one
hand, and the hook of attraction in the other ; which are more distinctly ex-
pressed in the large bronze figure of him engraved in pi. 11. ol yob i. of the
Select Specimens, than in any other that we know. Even in the common
small figures it is strange that it should ever have been taken for a whip;
though it might reasonably have been, taken for a flail, had the ancients
iiicd such an instrument in thrashing corn.
tasting the blood of a lamb offered in sacrifice ;» and it seems pro-
bable that the sanctity anciently attributed to red or purple color,
arose from its similitude to that of blood ; it having been cus-
tomary, in early times, not only to paint the faces of the statues of
the deities with vermilion; but also the bodies of the Roman Con-
suls and Dictators,2' during the sacred ceremony of the triumph;
from which ancient custom the imperial purple of later ages is
derived.
l6o. It was, perhaps, in allusion to the emancipation and puri-
fication of the soul, that Bacchus is called AIKNITHS ;3 a meta-
phorical title taken from the winnow, which purified the corn
from the dust and chaff, as fire was supposed to purify the astherial
soul from all gross and terrestrial matter. Hence this instrument
is called by Virgil the mystic winnow of Bacchus ;4 and hence we
find the symbols both of the destroying and generative attributes
upon tombs, signifying the separation and regeneration of the soul
performed by the same power. Those of the latter are, in many
instances, represented by very obscene and licentious actions, even
upon sepulchral monuments ; as appears from many now extant,
1 Pausan. lib. ii. c. iii. and iv.
* Tlci^v yo.p t^&vQiL to [uXdtvov, tp ra TraKaia raiv aya\fictr<av *XP1%0V' Plutarch.
tv Vai/iatK. See also Plin. Hist Nat. lib. xxxiii. c. vii.; and Winkelman. Hist, des
Arts, Liv. i. c. ii.
Enumerat auctores Verrius, quibus credere sit necesse, Jovis ipsius si-
mulachri faciem diebus festis minio ill'mi solitam, triumphantumque cor-
pora: sic Camillum triumphasse. Plin. ibid..
3 Orph. Hymn. xlv. The \mvov, however, was the mystic sieve in which
Bacchus was cradled ; from which the title may have been derived, though
the form of it implies an active rather than a passive sense. See Hesych.
in voc.
4 Mystica yannus Iacchi. Georg. 1. 106. Osiris has the winnow in one
hand, and the hook of attraction in the other ; which are more distinctly ex-
pressed in the large bronze figure of him engraved in pi. 11. ol yob i. of the
Select Specimens, than in any other that we know. Even in the common
small figures it is strange that it should ever have been taken for a whip;
though it might reasonably have been, taken for a flail, had the ancients
iiicd such an instrument in thrashing corn.