DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5309#0024
HERCULES.
Thi s bass-relief, discovered at Athens in the year one thousand seven hundred and
eighty-five, is a peculiar object of curiosity, from the resemblance it bears to one of the
Oxford marbles in the Arundel collection. The inscription in our monument is defaced
and very imperfect ; but in the Arundel marble, we distinctly read that the subject
alludes to the ceremonies of Eleusis. As this bass-relief represents Hercules in the
attitude of a Bacchanal, it might probably hint his well-known initiation ; since, on the
sixth day of the Eleusinian Solemnities, it was one of the stated rites for the initiated
to follow the statue of Iacchus from Athens to Eleusis, with all the mad parade, and
the obstreperous irregularities of the Mamades. Whoever is acquainted with the
theology of Plato, knows that the figure of Hercules was a secret symbol in the Eleu-
sinian mysteries, as Proclus1 and Olympiodorus," two famous Platonists, have sufficiently
declared. Our Hercules holds in the right hand the Scyphus, mentioned by Macro-
bius,3Atheneus,4and others; some authors gave it the epithet of long-eared, by reason
of its two large handles, which are seen in our image. He rests upon the lion's skin,
with the quiver and the club pendent by his side, while in the left hand he holds one
of those small leather bottles, the Greeks called F/a.sconcs," from which are derived the
words fiasco in Italian, flaccon in French, and flash in English.
The letters that are read in our marble shew the name of Timeus Eracleotcs, who
dedicated it ; but the mutilation precludes us from knowing to which Heraclea he be-
longed ; several towns of that appellation being recorded in the ancient geography.
11
Thi s bass-relief, discovered at Athens in the year one thousand seven hundred and
eighty-five, is a peculiar object of curiosity, from the resemblance it bears to one of the
Oxford marbles in the Arundel collection. The inscription in our monument is defaced
and very imperfect ; but in the Arundel marble, we distinctly read that the subject
alludes to the ceremonies of Eleusis. As this bass-relief represents Hercules in the
attitude of a Bacchanal, it might probably hint his well-known initiation ; since, on the
sixth day of the Eleusinian Solemnities, it was one of the stated rites for the initiated
to follow the statue of Iacchus from Athens to Eleusis, with all the mad parade, and
the obstreperous irregularities of the Mamades. Whoever is acquainted with the
theology of Plato, knows that the figure of Hercules was a secret symbol in the Eleu-
sinian mysteries, as Proclus1 and Olympiodorus," two famous Platonists, have sufficiently
declared. Our Hercules holds in the right hand the Scyphus, mentioned by Macro-
bius,3Atheneus,4and others; some authors gave it the epithet of long-eared, by reason
of its two large handles, which are seen in our image. He rests upon the lion's skin,
with the quiver and the club pendent by his side, while in the left hand he holds one
of those small leather bottles, the Greeks called F/a.sconcs," from which are derived the
words fiasco in Italian, flaccon in French, and flash in English.
The letters that are read in our marble shew the name of Timeus Eracleotcs, who
dedicated it ; but the mutilation precludes us from knowing to which Heraclea he be-
longed ; several towns of that appellation being recorded in the ancient geography.
11