DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0168
J 58
while the whole of the face and breast is covered with foliage that
seems to grow from the flesh; signifying the result of this combina-
tion of attributes in fertilising and organising matter. The Bac-
chus A EN A PITHS, and Neptune <PTTAAMI02, ' the one the
principle of vegetation in trees, and the other in plants, were pro-
bably represented by composite symbolical images of this kind.
193. A female Pantheic figure in silver, with the borders of the
drapery plated with gold, and the whole finished in a manner
surpassing almost any thing extant, was among the things found at
Macon on the Saone, in the year 17G4, and published by Count
Caylus.1 Tt represents Cybele, the universal mother, with the mural
crown 011 her head, and the wings of pervasion growing from her
shoulders, mixing the productive elements of heat and moisture, by
making a libation upon the flames of an altar from a golden patera,
with the usual knob in the centre of it, representing, probably, the
lingam. On each side of her head is one of the Dioscuri, signifying
the alternate influence of the diurnal and nocturnal sun ; and, upon
a crescent supported by the tips of her wings, are the seven planets,
each signified by a bust of its presiding deity resting upon a globe,
and placed in the order of the days of the week named after them.
In her left hand she holds two cornucopia;, to signify the result of
her operation on the two hemispheres of the Earth ; and upon them
are the busts of Apollo and Diana, the presiding deities of those
hemispheres, with a golden disk, intersected by two transverse lines,
such as is observable on other pieces of ancient art, and such as the
barbarians of the North employed to represent the solar year, di-
vided into four parts,3 at the back of each.
1 ApipoTepoi yap o't 0eoi ttjs vypas Kai yovipov Kvpioi $okov?iv apxys eivaf Kai Tlovei-
Suvi ye 4>UTa\/»!&> Aiopvtrip 8e Aevtipirri, iravris, &>s enos enreiv, 'EWtjyes Qvovaiv. Plu-
tarch. Sympos. lib. v. qu. 111.
1 T. vii. pi. Ixxi.
He says that the figure had been gilt all over: but he is mistaken; no part
of it having been gilt, but several plated, all which remain entire, with the
gold upon them. It is now, with most of the other small figures in silver,
found with it, in the cabinet of Mr. Knight.
1 Ob Rudbeck. Atlant. vol. i. p. 90., and vol. ii. p. 212. fig. -1., and p. 161
and 3.
while the whole of the face and breast is covered with foliage that
seems to grow from the flesh; signifying the result of this combina-
tion of attributes in fertilising and organising matter. The Bac-
chus A EN A PITHS, and Neptune <PTTAAMI02, ' the one the
principle of vegetation in trees, and the other in plants, were pro-
bably represented by composite symbolical images of this kind.
193. A female Pantheic figure in silver, with the borders of the
drapery plated with gold, and the whole finished in a manner
surpassing almost any thing extant, was among the things found at
Macon on the Saone, in the year 17G4, and published by Count
Caylus.1 Tt represents Cybele, the universal mother, with the mural
crown 011 her head, and the wings of pervasion growing from her
shoulders, mixing the productive elements of heat and moisture, by
making a libation upon the flames of an altar from a golden patera,
with the usual knob in the centre of it, representing, probably, the
lingam. On each side of her head is one of the Dioscuri, signifying
the alternate influence of the diurnal and nocturnal sun ; and, upon
a crescent supported by the tips of her wings, are the seven planets,
each signified by a bust of its presiding deity resting upon a globe,
and placed in the order of the days of the week named after them.
In her left hand she holds two cornucopia;, to signify the result of
her operation on the two hemispheres of the Earth ; and upon them
are the busts of Apollo and Diana, the presiding deities of those
hemispheres, with a golden disk, intersected by two transverse lines,
such as is observable on other pieces of ancient art, and such as the
barbarians of the North employed to represent the solar year, di-
vided into four parts,3 at the back of each.
1 ApipoTepoi yap o't 0eoi ttjs vypas Kai yovipov Kvpioi $okov?iv apxys eivaf Kai Tlovei-
Suvi ye 4>UTa\/»!&> Aiopvtrip 8e Aevtipirri, iravris, &>s enos enreiv, 'EWtjyes Qvovaiv. Plu-
tarch. Sympos. lib. v. qu. 111.
1 T. vii. pi. Ixxi.
He says that the figure had been gilt all over: but he is mistaken; no part
of it having been gilt, but several plated, all which remain entire, with the
gold upon them. It is now, with most of the other small figures in silver,
found with it, in the cabinet of Mr. Knight.
1 Ob Rudbeck. Atlant. vol. i. p. 90., and vol. ii. p. 212. fig. -1., and p. 161
and 3.