DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7897#0050
( 32 )
This game was considered not as an amusement only, but as an exercise
greatly conducive to health; on which account a place called Sphaeristerium
(14) was reserved for it in every gymnasium; and at Sparta the ephebi who
were near to the age of manhood, Avere called <r^&ipei$ or sphaeristse (15).
Hence on so many vases intended as presents to youths who distinguished
themselves in the various gymnastic exercises, and on which the ephebi are
usually represented with the gymnasiarch , a sphcera or ball is suspended as
the indication of a gymnasium.
Epwc, or the passion of love personified, was a divinity venerated at a very
early epoch atThespias, but whose worship became common in Greece at a
period of no very great antiquity (16), and it is difficult to say how he was re-
presented by artists before the celebrated statue of him Avas made by Praxi-
teles for the city of Thcspioe. This statue of which the beautiful Love in the
Vatican is probably a copy (17), represents him as a youth, and he appears
under the same form in the bas-relief published by Winckelmann (18), and
on the most ancient monuments , such as Yases. Love is also frequently
represented as an infant, but this manner is less ancient than the other just
mentioned.
Besides Epw; the divinity of Love , ancient artists Avhose imagination Avas
always highly poetical, graced their compositions Avith a number of little
winged figures to which they gave the name of EpwTs? or Loves. In the de-
scription of the picture of the marriage of Alexander and Roxana (19), in
that of one of the pictures given by Philostratus (20), as well as in numerous
Avorks of art which have reached us (21), Ave see a great number of these
figures with a variety of attributes, probably intended to express the
universality of the poAver of Love. It should be observed here, that the
modern name of genii given to these figures , is erroneous, and founded on
no authority whatever, as they are uniformly called Epwrs; or Loves, in all
ancient descriptions.
pie that animates the universe; which accord-
ing to Proclus, was figured by a cross placed
within a circle.
(14) Mercurialis de Gymn. lib. 11.
(15) Pausan. lib. m , cap.
(16) Pausan. lib. ix, cap. 27.
(17) MuseoPio. Clem. torn. i,pl. 1a.
(18) Monumenti Inediti, N°. 115.
(19) Lucian in Herodoto, torn, i, Edit. Reitz.
pag. 835.
(20) Icones. lib. 1, cap. 6.
(21) Pitture d'Ercolano, tom.i, tav. 3o—3o,.
Museo Pio Clem. torn, v, tav. 38-4i. Tassic.
Catalogue n° 6553 — 7241-
This game was considered not as an amusement only, but as an exercise
greatly conducive to health; on which account a place called Sphaeristerium
(14) was reserved for it in every gymnasium; and at Sparta the ephebi who
were near to the age of manhood, Avere called <r^&ipei$ or sphaeristse (15).
Hence on so many vases intended as presents to youths who distinguished
themselves in the various gymnastic exercises, and on which the ephebi are
usually represented with the gymnasiarch , a sphcera or ball is suspended as
the indication of a gymnasium.
Epwc, or the passion of love personified, was a divinity venerated at a very
early epoch atThespias, but whose worship became common in Greece at a
period of no very great antiquity (16), and it is difficult to say how he was re-
presented by artists before the celebrated statue of him Avas made by Praxi-
teles for the city of Thcspioe. This statue of which the beautiful Love in the
Vatican is probably a copy (17), represents him as a youth, and he appears
under the same form in the bas-relief published by Winckelmann (18), and
on the most ancient monuments , such as Yases. Love is also frequently
represented as an infant, but this manner is less ancient than the other just
mentioned.
Besides Epw; the divinity of Love , ancient artists Avhose imagination Avas
always highly poetical, graced their compositions Avith a number of little
winged figures to which they gave the name of EpwTs? or Loves. In the de-
scription of the picture of the marriage of Alexander and Roxana (19), in
that of one of the pictures given by Philostratus (20), as well as in numerous
Avorks of art which have reached us (21), Ave see a great number of these
figures with a variety of attributes, probably intended to express the
universality of the poAver of Love. It should be observed here, that the
modern name of genii given to these figures , is erroneous, and founded on
no authority whatever, as they are uniformly called Epwrs; or Loves, in all
ancient descriptions.
pie that animates the universe; which accord-
ing to Proclus, was figured by a cross placed
within a circle.
(14) Mercurialis de Gymn. lib. 11.
(15) Pausan. lib. m , cap.
(16) Pausan. lib. ix, cap. 27.
(17) MuseoPio. Clem. torn. i,pl. 1a.
(18) Monumenti Inediti, N°. 115.
(19) Lucian in Herodoto, torn, i, Edit. Reitz.
pag. 835.
(20) Icones. lib. 1, cap. 6.
(21) Pitture d'Ercolano, tom.i, tav. 3o—3o,.
Museo Pio Clem. torn, v, tav. 38-4i. Tassic.
Catalogue n° 6553 — 7241-