Title-page.—Serapis,
lord of the subterraneous world, and of all its treasures, represented
with the attributes of Ammon and of Phœbus; for, according to the
pantheistic religion of the age, all these deities were only types of
the Sun. The profile of the god seems intended for that of M. Aurelius
; of the art in whose times this intaglio may be pronounced the finest
specimen in existence. The legend occurs on an altar dedicated to the same god, in the Villa Albani. Sapphirine Calcedony.
P.
vii.—Democritus : the earliest Greek writer on mineralogy. His
portraits, as Easpe lias observed, have much of the character of those
of Socrates. But on comparing this with the Socrates, p. 340, the
difference in the expression, and in the form of the beard, proves
clearly enough that they represent two different individuals ; though
both of the same sarcastic, " ironical " genius. Greek. Dark-brown
Calcedony.
P. x.—Head of Proserpine, wearing the Sicilian hair-net, and mitra, or head-cloth. Greek. Brown Calcedony.
P.
13.—Hercules in the act of letting fly an arrow at the Stymphalian
Birds. It will be noticed here, as in all other representations of
early Greek archery, that the arrow is propelled by the elasticity of
the string alone, not by that of the bow, which remains almost rigid. A
recent traveller in Caffraria informs me that the bow of the Bushmen
acts on precisely the same principle, itself not bending in the least,
whilst the string of twisted gut yields to tension sufficiently to
drive very heavy iron-headed arrows with enormous force. Early Greek
work. Yellow Sard.
P.
18.—Mask of an old Satyr and a female Comic Mask conjoined. Masks were
amongst the most popular devices for the signets of the ancients, from
their supposed virtues as amulets. In fact, the word mash comes from ταλάμασκα, " a bugbear," the low Greek form of βασκανος, " fascinum." Roman. Pale Sard.
P.
48.—Silenus playing upon the double-flute ; the instrument
appropriated to Bacchus and his train. Greco-Italian. Pale Sard.
P.
56.—Bust of the youthful Caesar, Diadumenian, son of Macrinus. Instead
of the usual spear, he wields the rudder of Fortune ; an ingenious
piece of flattery, but contradicted by his fate. Roman. Sard.
