Page 3. note, for lxv., read xlv. 5. 35. 47. 103. 104. ERRATA. for Ναζαραίος, read Ναζωραίος. for page 455., read page 485. 151. line 2. after incurved, read lip reflected. Accents misplaced. — Title-page, for yàp èswîn, read yáp èsw ǹ: —page 18. for δὲ τινα, read δέ τινα: page 19. for wapapúðμoi, read wapápvðμ01:—page 35. for ayn Of the painted Greek Pottery found in the Tombs of Magna Græcia. Use of these Vessels, as conjectured from a Passage in Pindar, — As proved by a Passage in Aristophanes. - Their Connection with the Greek Mysteries inferred from Apuleius.-Mazzocchi's Explanation of the Inscription KAAOΣ confuted. That these Vessels were symbolical Records of religious Doctrines and Opinions. THE antiquary, who has investigated Pagan customs and opinions in very early times, when the field of his enquiry has extended beyond those periods to which the events of history can be traced with accuracy, has usually had little more than traditions to consider, etymologies to sift, and allegories to reduce to some consistent meaning; and much has been effected by men of learning in this way. If it has been said, that deductions from such imperfect premises are little to be depended upon, yet must it be better to approximate to the truth by such means, than to reject them, because we may not be able to show that they lead us precisely to it. Nay, many have wandered much farther from the truth by declining such aid. They who shrink from the difficulties presented by these studies, and who will not exercise B their judgment upon them, are apt to take the an' axis of the ancients in too literal a sense; and unbelievers have gladly availed themselves of their errors, which enabled them to set at nought the chronology of Scripture. But there is another class of materials of a more substantial nature, that seem calculated to supply the void occasioned by the want of records and authentic dates, in the early ages. The analogies of symbols furnish conclusions that, on some occasions, amount almost to certainty. If allegory was the style that prevailed in the first languages, symbols were the characters in which they were noted down. Many of these are confessedly national signs. The concurrence of them in distant situations, proves a connection no less clearly than the page of history could have transmitted it. The means of explaining them one by another may be attained by a careful examination; and, by beginning with the more obvious and simple, and proceeding upward to the more intricate and obscure, it is not impossible that the studious enquirer may eventually succeed in penetrating the engraven records of Egypt, and in extorting from them all the information they conceal. On these analogies I shall very much rely, in my present enquiry respecting the ancient earthen vessels, which have been discovered at different times and in great numbers, chiefly in the tombs of Lower Italy. So various have been the rites of sepulture among the nations of antiquity, that their languages scarcely present a stronger characteristic of each individual people. While the Egyptian filled the corpse with gums, and swathed it in asphaltus, the Jew contented himself with a more superficial mode of embalmment. Both deposited their dead in caves, or subterranean recesses. The Romans burnt their dead, having received the custom from their Trojan ancestors. The Heracleidæ introduced it into Greece, from the example of the founder of their race, who constructed for himself a pile upon Mount Eta. Burning and interment were, indeed, long and indiscriminately practised in Greece; but I suspect that the former custom became less frequent, as the doctrines of Eleusis obtained a stronger influence on the public mind. The notion of combustion was inconsistent with the doctrines alluded to on the painted vases. A presumed connection between these vessels and the mysteries of Eleusis, may both account for the use of them as a funeral rite, and for the very scanty allusion made to them by Greek authors. This custom of depositing vases in sepulchres, is supposed to have been introduced into Sicily and Magna Græcia by the early Greek colonists from Greece Proper, and into Etruria, by emigrants from the same country. The term Etruscan, indeed, applied to these vases, seems to be now generally abandoned. Nevertheless the early use of them by the Tuscans is established by the discoveries of the late Mr. Wilcocks at Civita Turchino, in Italy. * The Cav. Bossi in his history of Italy, claims the first manufacture of these vessels for the Tuscans: -"Di quest' arte, "siccome di molte altre, furono maestri gli Etruschi ai Romani, e "fors' anche ai Greci.”—Istoria d'Italia, vol. i. p. 286. But this, I apprehend, will scarcely be conceded. The manner in which these vessels are disposed in tombs is well represented in an engraving, introduced into the second volume of the great work of D' Hancarville, p. 57, that illustrates the first collection of vases formed by the late Sir William Hamilton. The body of the deceased was deposited in the centre of the vault, or upon an embankment raised against a side wall of the structure. surrounded by these painted earthen vessels, some of which had particular positions assigned to them, one being placed upon the It was See the interesting account of some subterraneous apartments with Etruscan inscriptions and paintings explored at his expense, in the preface to his Roman Conversations, vol. i. p. lxv. |