DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4265#0125
124
OF A RUIN AT SALONICA CALLED THE INCANTADA.
The Tail-piece, " Plate XXXV., fig. 15", is a basso-relievo3 in the school near the Megale
Panagia, elegantly wrought, but very ill-preserved.
a This marble is now in the British Museum. Although
the entire original surface of the sculpture has disappeared, it yet
displays the most elegant execution. It is a sepulchral stele to a
youth, who is represented on horseback attended by a pedestrian,
and has been thought to allude to the ' Decursio Funebris', an
equestrian ceremonial in honour of the dead, called by the Greeks
tliptJpopw. The inscription which is here given more correctly
from Chandler, composes a verse of three lines, the first and last
being hexameters, and the second a pentameter, although it be
engraved regardless of the measure, or even the termination of
the words:—
Ex ya/aj (ZXcLtrruiv yotia. 7raAf_tJv ytyova,'
Saepe cum aetate compari qui suaviter lusi,
E terra ortus terra rursus factus sum,
Sum vero Aristocles Piraeensis, filius autem Menonis.
Dr. Chandler supposes the inscription may allude to the Avro^o-
mj, or Aborigines, and that this Aristocles may have been of a
family which boasted of being indigenous to Attica. On many
sepulchral marbles, which are decorated with equestrian figures,
the name of the deceased is accompanied with the word
HPI2S (heros), a title implying a species of deification after
death, which allegory the sculptor may here have equally in-
tended to convey. In the elaborate work of our Florentine
acquaintance, the talented Cavaliere Inghirami, he alludes to
a marble represented by Montfaucon with an inscription
on it to the memory of a' child only ten months old, but on
which there is a figure of a youth on horseback : from which
that antiquary draws the following conclusion, that may be
also applicable to this Athenian sculpture. " VE dunque in-
contrastabile che il nome di Eroe nei giovani equestri non signe-
fichi altro che spirito tendente alle sfere celesli." See Syn. Brit.
Mus. R. XV. No. 213. Chand. Ins. Ant. p. 69. Visconti, Mem.
p. 151. Inghirami, Monumenti Etruschi, o di Etrusco Nome,
Tav. VII., delle Urne Etrusche, p. 56, Fiesole, 1820. Montf.
Ant. Exp. T. V. p. 70. [ed.]
OF A RUIN AT SALONICA CALLED THE INCANTADA.
The Tail-piece, " Plate XXXV., fig. 15", is a basso-relievo3 in the school near the Megale
Panagia, elegantly wrought, but very ill-preserved.
a This marble is now in the British Museum. Although
the entire original surface of the sculpture has disappeared, it yet
displays the most elegant execution. It is a sepulchral stele to a
youth, who is represented on horseback attended by a pedestrian,
and has been thought to allude to the ' Decursio Funebris', an
equestrian ceremonial in honour of the dead, called by the Greeks
tliptJpopw. The inscription which is here given more correctly
from Chandler, composes a verse of three lines, the first and last
being hexameters, and the second a pentameter, although it be
engraved regardless of the measure, or even the termination of
the words:—
Ex ya/aj (ZXcLtrruiv yotia. 7raAf_tJv ytyova,'
Saepe cum aetate compari qui suaviter lusi,
E terra ortus terra rursus factus sum,
Sum vero Aristocles Piraeensis, filius autem Menonis.
Dr. Chandler supposes the inscription may allude to the Avro^o-
mj, or Aborigines, and that this Aristocles may have been of a
family which boasted of being indigenous to Attica. On many
sepulchral marbles, which are decorated with equestrian figures,
the name of the deceased is accompanied with the word
HPI2S (heros), a title implying a species of deification after
death, which allegory the sculptor may here have equally in-
tended to convey. In the elaborate work of our Florentine
acquaintance, the talented Cavaliere Inghirami, he alludes to
a marble represented by Montfaucon with an inscription
on it to the memory of a' child only ten months old, but on
which there is a figure of a youth on horseback : from which
that antiquary draws the following conclusion, that may be
also applicable to this Athenian sculpture. " VE dunque in-
contrastabile che il nome di Eroe nei giovani equestri non signe-
fichi altro che spirito tendente alle sfere celesli." See Syn. Brit.
Mus. R. XV. No. 213. Chand. Ins. Ant. p. 69. Visconti, Mem.
p. 151. Inghirami, Monumenti Etruschi, o di Etrusco Nome,
Tav. VII., delle Urne Etrusche, p. 56, Fiesole, 1820. Montf.
Ant. Exp. T. V. p. 70. [ed.]