DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1670#0011
0
N A M E N T A L P
1 Iron,
We; we are {peaking of the original statuc, and describing it after Winkclman ; let the mind
raise itself in contemplating this figure, up to the sphere of celcstial beauties, and make its ut-
most efforts to gaze upon the transeendent charms of a heavenly body. The (on os Jupiter is here
represented worthy of his father ; such was the forehead of the thundcrer, when pregnant with the
goddess of wisdom, and such were his brows arched over his radiant eyes, which by their motion ex-
press his will; the mouth is the voluptuous mouth os Bacchus ; his silken tresies persumed with aro-
matic (cents are softly blown by the breath of Zephirs, and float like the tendrils of the unpruncd
vine, but those locks above his front, are tied in majestic pomp by the hands of the Graces.
Such was his countenance when lie pursued the Python, whom he pierced with a thousand arrows.
On this account the Pythian games were mstituted, and celebrated near Delphi; the place that sor
the oracles challenged the pre-eminence, as well for its antiquity (wherein it contended even with
Dodona) as sor the truth and perspicuity of its answers, the magnisicence of its structures, the
number and richness os the sacrcd presents. Apollo himself was the author of these games, ac-
cording to the mod common opinion.
Neve open's famam pojj'et delere vetitssas
Jti/lituit facros cekhri certamine iudos,
Pythiti perdomhtc jerpent'ts nomine diftos.
Ovid. Metam. Lib. I.
The arrows of Apollo are sigurative of the rays os the sun, which exhale and dissipate the noxious
and putrid vapours of the earth arising srom stagnated waters in marlhy and swainpy lands; but
as this heathen deity is also deemed the god of physic, by the python may be understood th'at
legion of distempers to which animal bodies are exposed, which find their cure in-those plants
and herbs endued with salutiserous virtues from the genial warmth of the sun.
There were to be (ctn in the temple of Delphi, the sigaires of two eagles, in memory of the
■eagles sent forth by Jupiter, one from the Ealt and the other srom the West, to discover the
■middle spot (the navel) of the earth, and they meeting in this place determined the question.
Eagles in their flight are said to be able to look stcadfastly upon the sun; certainly they are
the kings of the feathered tribe, and as such are represented to carry the thunderbolts of Jupiter;
"when he seized upon Ganymede, he disdained the ihape of any other bird.
— ■ - ■—---------Nulla tamen aliie vcrtt
Dignatur ; riiji qiuz pojjit suajulmina serre.
Ovid. Metam. Lib. X.
o heave*
; be &*
Me;
The dignity of the eagle, even in his lleep, is finely exprelsed in the following lines.
Perching on the scepter'd hand,
Of Jove, thy magic lulls the seather'd king,
With ruffled plumes and ssagging wing;
Quench'd in dark clouds of number lie
The terror of his beak, and lightnings of his eye.
Gray's Ode.
VII. At the end os the book.
Mercury seated on a ram, with his caduceus and purse; as in the primitive (late of nations,
riches consistcd in ssocks and herds, Mercury is represented with a ram, being thought to take
them under his protection, and likewise to occasion their increase ; the first money among the Ro-
mans, was called stcunia, from pecu a ssock, because Servius Tullius had it (tamped with the
figure of a ram.
The caduceus, or wand, is taken sor an emblem of eloquence, and of that power in oratory which
allures or drives the minds of men to the purposes it has in view. This wand however is the
proper
N A M E N T A L P
1 Iron,
We; we are {peaking of the original statuc, and describing it after Winkclman ; let the mind
raise itself in contemplating this figure, up to the sphere of celcstial beauties, and make its ut-
most efforts to gaze upon the transeendent charms of a heavenly body. The (on os Jupiter is here
represented worthy of his father ; such was the forehead of the thundcrer, when pregnant with the
goddess of wisdom, and such were his brows arched over his radiant eyes, which by their motion ex-
press his will; the mouth is the voluptuous mouth os Bacchus ; his silken tresies persumed with aro-
matic (cents are softly blown by the breath of Zephirs, and float like the tendrils of the unpruncd
vine, but those locks above his front, are tied in majestic pomp by the hands of the Graces.
Such was his countenance when lie pursued the Python, whom he pierced with a thousand arrows.
On this account the Pythian games were mstituted, and celebrated near Delphi; the place that sor
the oracles challenged the pre-eminence, as well for its antiquity (wherein it contended even with
Dodona) as sor the truth and perspicuity of its answers, the magnisicence of its structures, the
number and richness os the sacrcd presents. Apollo himself was the author of these games, ac-
cording to the mod common opinion.
Neve open's famam pojj'et delere vetitssas
Jti/lituit facros cekhri certamine iudos,
Pythiti perdomhtc jerpent'ts nomine diftos.
Ovid. Metam. Lib. I.
The arrows of Apollo are sigurative of the rays os the sun, which exhale and dissipate the noxious
and putrid vapours of the earth arising srom stagnated waters in marlhy and swainpy lands; but
as this heathen deity is also deemed the god of physic, by the python may be understood th'at
legion of distempers to which animal bodies are exposed, which find their cure in-those plants
and herbs endued with salutiserous virtues from the genial warmth of the sun.
There were to be (ctn in the temple of Delphi, the sigaires of two eagles, in memory of the
■eagles sent forth by Jupiter, one from the Ealt and the other srom the West, to discover the
■middle spot (the navel) of the earth, and they meeting in this place determined the question.
Eagles in their flight are said to be able to look stcadfastly upon the sun; certainly they are
the kings of the feathered tribe, and as such are represented to carry the thunderbolts of Jupiter;
"when he seized upon Ganymede, he disdained the ihape of any other bird.
— ■ - ■—---------Nulla tamen aliie vcrtt
Dignatur ; riiji qiuz pojjit suajulmina serre.
Ovid. Metam. Lib. X.
o heave*
; be &*
Me;
The dignity of the eagle, even in his lleep, is finely exprelsed in the following lines.
Perching on the scepter'd hand,
Of Jove, thy magic lulls the seather'd king,
With ruffled plumes and ssagging wing;
Quench'd in dark clouds of number lie
The terror of his beak, and lightnings of his eye.
Gray's Ode.
VII. At the end os the book.
Mercury seated on a ram, with his caduceus and purse; as in the primitive (late of nations,
riches consistcd in ssocks and herds, Mercury is represented with a ram, being thought to take
them under his protection, and likewise to occasion their increase ; the first money among the Ro-
mans, was called stcunia, from pecu a ssock, because Servius Tullius had it (tamped with the
figure of a ram.
The caduceus, or wand, is taken sor an emblem of eloquence, and of that power in oratory which
allures or drives the minds of men to the purposes it has in view. This wand however is the
proper