DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5309#0065
TRIPOD BELONGING TO THE MONUMENT OF LYSICRATES
AT ATHENS.
Of all the utensils that were in request among the ancients, the most valued was
the tripod. We are surprised that no author has ever considered it in its proper
light. Whoever has a competent knowledge of the secret doctrine so much renowned
in the heathen theology, will not think us unfounded in conjecturing, that the tripod
was a sacred symbol, implying one of the chief instructions in the mysteries of
Orpheus. There can be no doubt but Plato derived from that source a noble con-
ception, which is to be found in the Timams, as well as in one of his epistles to Diony-
sius, the tyrant of Syracuse. But a disquisition upon such a subject having no imme-
diate relation to our actual province, it will be sufficient for us to remark, that the
fable of the famous golden tripod, taken out of the sea by some young men of Miletus,
and transmitted by turns to the wise men of Greece, offers an allegorical sense, by
which it appears, that the idea veiled under the form of a tripod, was looked upon as
the foundation of all human wisdom. Athenaeus mentions great and small tripods,
and does not seem to admit of any other distinction. The former were like that upon
which sat the Priestess of Apollo, for the convenience of catching the prophetic exha-
lations ; the others were termed votive, being set in the temples for pious purposes by
private individuals. The votive tripods were made to support a vase, in which
probably perfumes were burned. Our tripod is of that sort. We shall take occasion
to observe, that according to Pausanias,1 the Greeks, after the battle of Plataea, pre-
sented the Oracle of Delphi with a golden vase supported by a tripod, upon which
there was the effigy, that is, the head, of a serpent of brass. In our tripod there are
three visages ; the features of the one in the middle seem to discover a Silvanus ; nor
have the others a much different appearance : the feet correspond with the subject,
and are evidently shaped like those of an animal. It cannot be thought an improper
supposition, that the tripods mentioned by Homer were fashioned in the same manner ;
so, when he says that they walked to the assembly of the gods, we see the ground, as
well as the plausibility of the fiction. The name of Lysicrates, under our tripod,
Shews that the production of this piece of workmanship is to be traced to the time of
Demosthenes ; which is a proof, that even in that age, the art of sculpture had attained
a degree of uncommon elegance and refinement.
37
AT ATHENS.
Of all the utensils that were in request among the ancients, the most valued was
the tripod. We are surprised that no author has ever considered it in its proper
light. Whoever has a competent knowledge of the secret doctrine so much renowned
in the heathen theology, will not think us unfounded in conjecturing, that the tripod
was a sacred symbol, implying one of the chief instructions in the mysteries of
Orpheus. There can be no doubt but Plato derived from that source a noble con-
ception, which is to be found in the Timams, as well as in one of his epistles to Diony-
sius, the tyrant of Syracuse. But a disquisition upon such a subject having no imme-
diate relation to our actual province, it will be sufficient for us to remark, that the
fable of the famous golden tripod, taken out of the sea by some young men of Miletus,
and transmitted by turns to the wise men of Greece, offers an allegorical sense, by
which it appears, that the idea veiled under the form of a tripod, was looked upon as
the foundation of all human wisdom. Athenaeus mentions great and small tripods,
and does not seem to admit of any other distinction. The former were like that upon
which sat the Priestess of Apollo, for the convenience of catching the prophetic exha-
lations ; the others were termed votive, being set in the temples for pious purposes by
private individuals. The votive tripods were made to support a vase, in which
probably perfumes were burned. Our tripod is of that sort. We shall take occasion
to observe, that according to Pausanias,1 the Greeks, after the battle of Plataea, pre-
sented the Oracle of Delphi with a golden vase supported by a tripod, upon which
there was the effigy, that is, the head, of a serpent of brass. In our tripod there are
three visages ; the features of the one in the middle seem to discover a Silvanus ; nor
have the others a much different appearance : the feet correspond with the subject,
and are evidently shaped like those of an animal. It cannot be thought an improper
supposition, that the tripods mentioned by Homer were fashioned in the same manner ;
so, when he says that they walked to the assembly of the gods, we see the ground, as
well as the plausibility of the fiction. The name of Lysicrates, under our tripod,
Shews that the production of this piece of workmanship is to be traced to the time of
Demosthenes ; which is a proof, that even in that age, the art of sculpture had attained
a degree of uncommon elegance and refinement.
37