DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0172
162
vital Spirit: whence they were consulted as oracles, the responses
of which could always be easily obtained by interpreting the different
oscillatory movements into nods of approbation and dissent. The
figures of the .Apollo Didymauis, on the Syrian coins above-men-
tioned, are placed sitting upon the point of the cone, where the
more rude and primitive symbol of the logging rock is found
poised ; and we are told, in a passage before cited, that the oracle
of this god near Miletus existed before the emigration of the
Ionian colonies; that is, more than eleven hundred years before
the Christian asra : wherefore we are persuaded that it was origi-
nally nothing more than one of these /3arruAia or symbolical
groups; which the luxury of wealth and refinement of art gra-
dually changed into a most magnificent temple and most elegant
statue.
l.QS. There were anciently other sacred piles of stones, equally
or perhaps more frequent all over the North, culled by the Greeks
AO<POI 'EPMAIOI or hi/locks of Mercury of whom they were
probably the original symbols. They were placed by the sides,
or in the points of intersection, of roads ; where every traveller
that passed, threw a stone upon them in honor of Mercury, the
guardian of all ways or general conductor ;1 and there can be no
doubt that many of the ancient crosses observable in such situa-
tions were erected upon them ; their pyramidal form affording a
commodious base, and the substituting a new object being the
most obvious and usual remedy for such kinds of superstition.
The figures of this god sitting upon fragments of rock or piles of
stone, one of which has been already cited, are probably more
elegant and refined modes of signifying the same ideas.
199. The old Pelasgian Mercury of the Athenians consisted, as
before observed, of a human head placed upon an inverted Obe-
lisk with a phallus; of "Inch several arc extant; as also of a
1--tnrep iro\ios, bSi'Zpfiaios \o(pos (oriv. OdysS. II. 471. This line, how-
ever, to. ether miIi those adjoining 4oU 75, though ancient, is proved to be
an interpolation of much later date H)«i the rest uf.the "poem, Iry the
word 'Eppaios toimed fronrihe contracted'Epjtas lor 'E/ytems, unknown to the
Homeric tongue.
1 Anthol. lib. iv. Epigr. 12. Phurnut; dc nat. Deor.
vital Spirit: whence they were consulted as oracles, the responses
of which could always be easily obtained by interpreting the different
oscillatory movements into nods of approbation and dissent. The
figures of the .Apollo Didymauis, on the Syrian coins above-men-
tioned, are placed sitting upon the point of the cone, where the
more rude and primitive symbol of the logging rock is found
poised ; and we are told, in a passage before cited, that the oracle
of this god near Miletus existed before the emigration of the
Ionian colonies; that is, more than eleven hundred years before
the Christian asra : wherefore we are persuaded that it was origi-
nally nothing more than one of these /3arruAia or symbolical
groups; which the luxury of wealth and refinement of art gra-
dually changed into a most magnificent temple and most elegant
statue.
l.QS. There were anciently other sacred piles of stones, equally
or perhaps more frequent all over the North, culled by the Greeks
AO<POI 'EPMAIOI or hi/locks of Mercury of whom they were
probably the original symbols. They were placed by the sides,
or in the points of intersection, of roads ; where every traveller
that passed, threw a stone upon them in honor of Mercury, the
guardian of all ways or general conductor ;1 and there can be no
doubt that many of the ancient crosses observable in such situa-
tions were erected upon them ; their pyramidal form affording a
commodious base, and the substituting a new object being the
most obvious and usual remedy for such kinds of superstition.
The figures of this god sitting upon fragments of rock or piles of
stone, one of which has been already cited, are probably more
elegant and refined modes of signifying the same ideas.
199. The old Pelasgian Mercury of the Athenians consisted, as
before observed, of a human head placed upon an inverted Obe-
lisk with a phallus; of "Inch several arc extant; as also of a
1--tnrep iro\ios, bSi'Zpfiaios \o(pos (oriv. OdysS. II. 471. This line, how-
ever, to. ether miIi those adjoining 4oU 75, though ancient, is proved to be
an interpolation of much later date H)«i the rest uf.the "poem, Iry the
word 'Eppaios toimed fronrihe contracted'Epjtas lor 'E/ytems, unknown to the
Homeric tongue.
1 Anthol. lib. iv. Epigr. 12. Phurnut; dc nat. Deor.