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to harmonise the universe. An example of the former to which I would apply the expression of Plutarch, μετ ̓ ᾠδῆς πάσης καὶ μeons," with every kind of μεσικῆς, song and music," may be be seen in Tischbein's Collection, vol. i. plate xxiv.; of the latter, in that of D'Hancarville, vol. iii. plate LII. where an inscription appears in characters scarcely legible, but which D'Hancarville would explain to be OAOTC for OATCCEYC, Ulysses. The forms of the characters, however, are as follows, Vo◇, which, unless they be read £85pondò, give us something like the word Suoda. But to wave what cannot be affirmed with certainty, I beg the reader's attention to a painting from a Sicilian vase, in the collection of Thomas Hope, Esq., which exhibits a female representative of the deity, or mind, ascending a quadriga, preceded by Camillus, or Mercury, and accompanied by a male and female figure, the former with the hand open, and extended in an argumentative attitude, the latter with the arm uplifted and the fingers bent inward, as if persuading or inviting her companion.* These figures I conceive to be the λóyos and web, or Argument and Persuasion, which powers are here personated under the different sexes. The vine tendrils issuing from the breast of the female in the car, and from her agent the Dioscurus, are symbolical of the genial influence of Bacchus, who was differently entitled Osiris, Dionysus, and Ampelus (μλ05), "the vine," which Osiris was supposed to have first planted. The fabled expedition of this personage having been undertaken for the purpose of conferring benefits on mankind, the vine is therefore symbolically made to accompany the deity in his course. The cherishing power of the deity is thus generally expressed on vases by a vine springing from the breast, or from between the shoulders of the great Pan, from which the tendrils, diverging in thin waved and budding

*

* A youth with one hand extended, in the act of exhorting, is designated ПЕION in very legible characters on a Nolan Vase, formerly in the possession of H. Tresham, and now in that of Thomas Hope, Esq.

shoots, light upon different figures, that appear entangled in its folds. This is the meaning of those thin knotted lines which often intersect the groups on vases of the ancient class, ornamented with black figures on a red ground. A further example may be seen in plate XII. of this work.

The painting I first explained made us acquainted with the opinions of the ancient mystagogues respecting the demiurgic powers, from which the universe was supposed to have received animation, and the sun its light. This second plate has represented that luminary embodied, and setting out upon his course.

We will now consider his influence in the lower world, in which various vicissitudes were accounted for, and were measured by his example.

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CHAP. IX.

Attributes of the Deity, variously personated on Vases. Of Shields, and their Devices.

HAVING formerly resolved the mythological Bacchus into his attributes, and shown in what manner he represented the day and the night sun, accordingly as his visit was paid to either hemisphere, having likewise noticed his ambiguity of sex, whereby he comprehended within himself both the active and passive principles of creation, I will now confirm those illustrations by a different mode of proceeding. I will collect the scattered members of the Osiris, and synthetically show how groups were admitted upon vases, which are to be accepted only as parts of one mystic personage. The opposite engraving, from a Sicilian vase in the collection of Thomas Hope, Esq., represents a male and female figure, both draped, standing between two armed warriors, upon the shield of one of whom is emblazoned a dove, whilst a thigh, leg, and foot are bent, and comprised, by way of device, within the shield of the other. These male and female figures are personifications of the double sex of Bacchus diquès; the two armed attendants are his agents, the Dioscuri. The shield itself is a symbol of the deity; his creating power is typified by the dove, the well-known emblem of life, which seeks the upper part of the sphere; and the lower limbs of the human body, having allusion to the lower regions, denote the influence of Bacchus also

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