DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5309#0223
19. A sacrifice to Bacchus is represented in this small gem cornelian. His image is
placed on a circular altar, and dressed as a bassaris, having the thyrsus in one hand
and a kid in the other ; at the foot of the statue there is a plough, and beyond it, on
an eminence, a small edifice ; and a female figure, like the one introduced in Plautus's
comedy of the Aulularia, is playing on two flutes in honour of the god.
20. Jupiter, the image of the Sun, and a Victory, were the tutelar deities of the
Roman empire, about the third century, and even after that period. Of Jupiter Capi-
tolinus it is unnecessary to make any remark. In the medals of those times the Sun is
styled Dominus imperii Romani, and Victory had an altar in the Senate, which was
destroyed by order of the Emperor Gratian.
21. This curious intaglio appears to have served a victor in the Circensian games ;
the empty quadriga in the centre of this gem has a Victory holding a crown over it,
in the same manner as the Olympic Victories are represented on the coins of Sicily.
The zodiac forms a circle round the car and Victory. It is carefully engraved on a
circular sardonyx of two colours, and was found near the lake of Perugia, formerly
more celebrated as the Thrasymenus.
22. A Cercopithecus, or small monkey, is engraved in the Egyptian style in this
scarabzeus. In the Capitol there is a monument of basalt similar to this gem. Abbé
Winckelmann informs us that the Greeks established a colony which was named
Pithecusa, on account of the quantity of monkies which were found there; and Dio-
dorus says they were venerated there in the same manner as dogs were in Egypt ; that
they ran tame about the houses, and were even permitted to take what they found in
their way. This gem, as well as the monkey in the Capitol, was probably an object of
veneration in the Greek colony of Pithecusa.
23. This Egyptian cornelian represents Isis Canopus, with the fruit and leaves of
the peach tree upon the head.
24. Harpocrates, the god of silence, sitting on the lotus, as he is represented in a
bronze medal (which was in the late King of France's Cabinet) of Antoninus, struck in
Egypt in the second year of his reign, as appears by the legend. The Egyptian theo-
logists make him the son of Isis and Osiris, and the symbol of the sun in the winter
solstice. The worship of Harpocrates was so much in vogue in the time of the
Emperors, that almost every one wore his image on their finger.
25. The hero here represented with a helmet, buckler, and lance, in ambush, is
Hector, as is proved by the name engraved in Etruscan characters in the field. The
Abbé Lanzi, in his learned dissertation on the ancient languages of Italy, informs us
that the Etruscans employed the V instead of the O. This monument of the Etruscan
style of engraving is probably unique, as it proves to us that the Evas of the famous
Patera, where Mercury is weighing the lives of men, is not the name Hector in the
Etruscan language, as believed by Winckelmann, but of Memnon, son of Aurora Eoas,
the name given him by the Greeks, as has been judiciously remarked by the above
learned author.
138
placed on a circular altar, and dressed as a bassaris, having the thyrsus in one hand
and a kid in the other ; at the foot of the statue there is a plough, and beyond it, on
an eminence, a small edifice ; and a female figure, like the one introduced in Plautus's
comedy of the Aulularia, is playing on two flutes in honour of the god.
20. Jupiter, the image of the Sun, and a Victory, were the tutelar deities of the
Roman empire, about the third century, and even after that period. Of Jupiter Capi-
tolinus it is unnecessary to make any remark. In the medals of those times the Sun is
styled Dominus imperii Romani, and Victory had an altar in the Senate, which was
destroyed by order of the Emperor Gratian.
21. This curious intaglio appears to have served a victor in the Circensian games ;
the empty quadriga in the centre of this gem has a Victory holding a crown over it,
in the same manner as the Olympic Victories are represented on the coins of Sicily.
The zodiac forms a circle round the car and Victory. It is carefully engraved on a
circular sardonyx of two colours, and was found near the lake of Perugia, formerly
more celebrated as the Thrasymenus.
22. A Cercopithecus, or small monkey, is engraved in the Egyptian style in this
scarabzeus. In the Capitol there is a monument of basalt similar to this gem. Abbé
Winckelmann informs us that the Greeks established a colony which was named
Pithecusa, on account of the quantity of monkies which were found there; and Dio-
dorus says they were venerated there in the same manner as dogs were in Egypt ; that
they ran tame about the houses, and were even permitted to take what they found in
their way. This gem, as well as the monkey in the Capitol, was probably an object of
veneration in the Greek colony of Pithecusa.
23. This Egyptian cornelian represents Isis Canopus, with the fruit and leaves of
the peach tree upon the head.
24. Harpocrates, the god of silence, sitting on the lotus, as he is represented in a
bronze medal (which was in the late King of France's Cabinet) of Antoninus, struck in
Egypt in the second year of his reign, as appears by the legend. The Egyptian theo-
logists make him the son of Isis and Osiris, and the symbol of the sun in the winter
solstice. The worship of Harpocrates was so much in vogue in the time of the
Emperors, that almost every one wore his image on their finger.
25. The hero here represented with a helmet, buckler, and lance, in ambush, is
Hector, as is proved by the name engraved in Etruscan characters in the field. The
Abbé Lanzi, in his learned dissertation on the ancient languages of Italy, informs us
that the Etruscans employed the V instead of the O. This monument of the Etruscan
style of engraving is probably unique, as it proves to us that the Evas of the famous
Patera, where Mercury is weighing the lives of men, is not the name Hector in the
Etruscan language, as believed by Winckelmann, but of Memnon, son of Aurora Eoas,
the name given him by the Greeks, as has been judiciously remarked by the above
learned author.
138