DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.69192#0256
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cafcade of water. But taking in all he says, his
description of Elysium, and the pleasures enjoyed
there, are so very low, that it seems almost to be
borrowed from the manner in which the com-
mon people at Rome passed their holidays on the
banks of the Tyber k.
2Eacus, the proper judge of Elysium, is nei-
ther described by the poets, nor represented by the
artist. But Pluto and Proserpina are common
subjeds with both. Their palace stood where the
three great roads of Ades meet, near the centre
of their dominions. There is a great resemblance
in the faces of the three brothers, Jupiter, Nep-,
tune, and Pluto, which appears in their several
figures (and is certainly well preserved by Ra-
phael, in his feast of the gods, on the marriage
of Cupid and Psyche) only the look of Jupiter is
the most serene and majestic, and Pluto’s the most
sallen and severe. The poets make the same dis-
tin&ion. Statius calls Pluto the Black Jupiter,
and his complexion (as well as his veil) ihould be
dark and terrible. He is sometimes called Dis,
and Proserpine is named Persephone l.
From
k Compare the description cf a holiday by Ovid. Fart. iii.
v. 340. and of the joys of Elysium by Virgil, /En, vi. v. 647.
This Holiday was kept on the ideas of March, in honour of Anna
Perenna, then a saint, but formerly an old cake-woman at Rome.
The best description of a heaven is in Pindar, Olymp. od. 2.
1 In one of the pieces of painting discovered about the end
of the last century, is an old burial-place os the Nassbnian fa-
wty,
cafcade of water. But taking in all he says, his
description of Elysium, and the pleasures enjoyed
there, are so very low, that it seems almost to be
borrowed from the manner in which the com-
mon people at Rome passed their holidays on the
banks of the Tyber k.
2Eacus, the proper judge of Elysium, is nei-
ther described by the poets, nor represented by the
artist. But Pluto and Proserpina are common
subjeds with both. Their palace stood where the
three great roads of Ades meet, near the centre
of their dominions. There is a great resemblance
in the faces of the three brothers, Jupiter, Nep-,
tune, and Pluto, which appears in their several
figures (and is certainly well preserved by Ra-
phael, in his feast of the gods, on the marriage
of Cupid and Psyche) only the look of Jupiter is
the most serene and majestic, and Pluto’s the most
sallen and severe. The poets make the same dis-
tin&ion. Statius calls Pluto the Black Jupiter,
and his complexion (as well as his veil) ihould be
dark and terrible. He is sometimes called Dis,
and Proserpine is named Persephone l.
From
k Compare the description cf a holiday by Ovid. Fart. iii.
v. 340. and of the joys of Elysium by Virgil, /En, vi. v. 647.
This Holiday was kept on the ideas of March, in honour of Anna
Perenna, then a saint, but formerly an old cake-woman at Rome.
The best description of a heaven is in Pindar, Olymp. od. 2.
1 In one of the pieces of painting discovered about the end
of the last century, is an old burial-place os the Nassbnian fa-
wty,