DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13851#0523
OF THE MILITARY AFFAIRS Of GREECE.
495
now and then we find it taken for the tfapatfrjfxov (1), and perhaps some
few times the images of gods might be represented upon the flags : by
some it is placed also in the prow (2), but by most autlvors of credit as-
signed to the stern. Thus, Ovid (to omit more instances), in his epistle
of Paris :
■Accipit etpictos jmppis adunca deos.
The stern with painted deities richly shines.
Farther, the tutela and *a^atf>)fjwv are frequently distinguished in express
words, that being always signified by the image of a god : this usually of
some creature, or feigned representation : hence, the same author (3) ;
Est mihi, sitque, precor,ficvai tutela Minervce,
JVavis et dpictd casside nomen habet.
Minerva is the goddess I adore,
And may she grant the blessings I implore ;
The ship its name a painted helmet gives.
Where the tutelar deity was Minerva, the •na^otd^m the helmet. In like
manner the ship wherein Europa was conveyed from Phoenicia into Crete,
had a bull for its flag, and Jupiter for its tutelar deity ; which gave occa-
sion to the fable of her being ravished by that god in the shape of a bull.
It was customary for the ancients to commit their ships to the protection
of those deities, whom they thought most concerned for their safety, or
to whom they bore any sort of relation or affection. Thus, we learn
from Euripides (4), that Theseus's whole fleet consisting of sixty sail,
was under the care of Minerva the protectress of Athens ; Achilles's
navy was committed to the Nereids, or sea-nymphs, because of the rela-
tion he had to them on account of his mother Thetis, who was one of their
number ; and (to mention no more) the Boeotian ships had for their tutelar
god Cadmus, represented with a dragon io bis hand, because he was the
founder of Thebes, the principal city in Boeotia. Nor were whole fleets
only, but single ships recommended to certain deities, which the ancients
usually chose out of the number of those who were reputed the protec-
tors of their country or family, or presided over the business they were
going about; thus merchants committed themselves and their ships to
the care of Mercury, soldiers to Mars, and lovers to Venus and Cupid ;
so Paris tells his mistress in Ovid:
Qua tamen ipse vehor, comilata Cupidine parvo
Sponsor conjugii siat Dea picta sui.
But on my ship does only Venus stand,
With little Cupid smiling in her hand,
Guide of the way she did herself command. garth.
On the prow of the ship, about the iiXog, was placed a round piece of
wood called rfwxjg, and sometimes o<p/)aX{xos, the eye of the ship, because
fixed in its fore-deck (5 ; ; on this was inscribed the name of the ship,
which was usually taken from the flag, as appears in the fore-mentioned
passage of Ovid, where he tells us his ship received its name from the
helmet painted upon it : hence comes the frequent mention of ships call-
ed Pegasi, Scyllae, Bulls, Rams, Tygers, &c. which the poets took liber-
ty to represent as living creatures that transported their riders from one
(1) Lactantius, lib. i. cap. 1. Servius. iEneid. (3) De Tristibus.
v. Glossse. veteres. (4) Iphigenia.
(2) Procopius in Esaiae cap. 12. Cyrillus in ca- (5) Pollux, Eustathius, Apollonii Seholiasles
"ena ad eundem Phrophetam. Argon, lib. i. v. 1089
495
now and then we find it taken for the tfapatfrjfxov (1), and perhaps some
few times the images of gods might be represented upon the flags : by
some it is placed also in the prow (2), but by most autlvors of credit as-
signed to the stern. Thus, Ovid (to omit more instances), in his epistle
of Paris :
■Accipit etpictos jmppis adunca deos.
The stern with painted deities richly shines.
Farther, the tutela and *a^atf>)fjwv are frequently distinguished in express
words, that being always signified by the image of a god : this usually of
some creature, or feigned representation : hence, the same author (3) ;
Est mihi, sitque, precor,ficvai tutela Minervce,
JVavis et dpictd casside nomen habet.
Minerva is the goddess I adore,
And may she grant the blessings I implore ;
The ship its name a painted helmet gives.
Where the tutelar deity was Minerva, the •na^otd^m the helmet. In like
manner the ship wherein Europa was conveyed from Phoenicia into Crete,
had a bull for its flag, and Jupiter for its tutelar deity ; which gave occa-
sion to the fable of her being ravished by that god in the shape of a bull.
It was customary for the ancients to commit their ships to the protection
of those deities, whom they thought most concerned for their safety, or
to whom they bore any sort of relation or affection. Thus, we learn
from Euripides (4), that Theseus's whole fleet consisting of sixty sail,
was under the care of Minerva the protectress of Athens ; Achilles's
navy was committed to the Nereids, or sea-nymphs, because of the rela-
tion he had to them on account of his mother Thetis, who was one of their
number ; and (to mention no more) the Boeotian ships had for their tutelar
god Cadmus, represented with a dragon io bis hand, because he was the
founder of Thebes, the principal city in Boeotia. Nor were whole fleets
only, but single ships recommended to certain deities, which the ancients
usually chose out of the number of those who were reputed the protec-
tors of their country or family, or presided over the business they were
going about; thus merchants committed themselves and their ships to
the care of Mercury, soldiers to Mars, and lovers to Venus and Cupid ;
so Paris tells his mistress in Ovid:
Qua tamen ipse vehor, comilata Cupidine parvo
Sponsor conjugii siat Dea picta sui.
But on my ship does only Venus stand,
With little Cupid smiling in her hand,
Guide of the way she did herself command. garth.
On the prow of the ship, about the iiXog, was placed a round piece of
wood called rfwxjg, and sometimes o<p/)aX{xos, the eye of the ship, because
fixed in its fore-deck (5 ; ; on this was inscribed the name of the ship,
which was usually taken from the flag, as appears in the fore-mentioned
passage of Ovid, where he tells us his ship received its name from the
helmet painted upon it : hence comes the frequent mention of ships call-
ed Pegasi, Scyllae, Bulls, Rams, Tygers, &c. which the poets took liber-
ty to represent as living creatures that transported their riders from one
(1) Lactantius, lib. i. cap. 1. Servius. iEneid. (3) De Tristibus.
v. Glossse. veteres. (4) Iphigenia.
(2) Procopius in Esaiae cap. 12. Cyrillus in ca- (5) Pollux, Eustathius, Apollonii Seholiasles
"ena ad eundem Phrophetam. Argon, lib. i. v. 1089