The symbolical language of ancient art and mythology : an inquiry / by Richard Payne Knight.
- Richard Payne Knight
- Date:
- 1892
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The symbolical language of ancient art and mythology : an inquiry / by Richard Payne Knight. Source: Wellcome Collection.
422/458
![Page. No. the sun, the seven clays of a C]uarter of a moon. The small figures on the sides are for the winds, waters, fruits and flowers. At the top a monster’s head—the sun as a boar; the destroyer. The statue was found in 1833 on Saugur island at the mouth of the Ganges, India, by Mr. P. G. Sinclair, an East India Company’s pilot, and sold by him to Mr. J. W. Rulon, of Philadelphia, where it now is, in possession of his .son, by whose leave this drawing was made. 3. CtOds and Goddesses Before Persephone—Montfaucon 4. Young Bakchos on a Tiger.—Boiir. Mas 9 The young god holds in his hand the sacred Kanthar, the two-handled drinking cup. Rawlinson, Herod, ii, 74, says : “ It is connected with deep drinking, as being raised with lioth hands and emptied at a draught, a fashion in which Marius is said to have copied the god.” A vine with clusters and leaves hangs on the tiger’s neck, and a Thynsos lies under his feet. The god is crowned with ivy. He may as well be called Dionysos as Bakchos, unless the comic masks indicate “ the in- ventor of comedy,” another title of Bakchos. The group represents lx)th the creative and the destructive powers in nature combined. See Richard Payne Knight’s Worship oj Priapus,\>. 74, also Cabinet Secret., pp. 20, 32, 45, 89, 112, 113. 5. Seilenos.—Boiirboti Museum 10 The god of humidity and moisture, and so of “ thirsty souls.” A dweller in fertilizing streams, 'fhe word means a bubbling fountain. “He gives drink of delicious sweetness.” His son Evanthes gave Odysseus wine which Polyphemos said was sweeter than honey. He is also a god of Wisdom, for Platon said Sokrates learned of him. The poets made him son of Aphrodite, or of the Naiad Chione and of Dion- ysos, or of Adonis, or Pan, which was to say he was a union of water and sun or wind. A very different idea of this god is given by R. Payne Knight {^Worship of Priapus, pp. 41, 42). 6. Seilenos.—Boiu'bon Museum 10 The names of the ancient artists who designed these two pictures of the god of generous drink are lost, but their work remains for our admira- tion and delight. They are well worth study for the several attribute^ of Seilenos, and the beauty of their grouping and execution. 7. Nymphs and Water Gods.—Montfaucon n A Hindu personification of the bright rays of the sun, or of the flashing rays, as young women with wings. Nearly all the famous artists ot ancient and modern times have made groups of the Graces; sometime^ as three, then four, or more, led by Apollo or Mercury. The names ol the three are Thaleia (the blooming one), Aglaia (the shining), and Euphrosyne (joy), sometimes called Pasiphae (all brilliant). See Note 157- 10](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24885320_0422.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
