Pantænus, for so the name should be written, was the nephew of Phidias.]-δείκνυται δὲ καὶ γραφαὶ πολλαί τε καὶ θαυμασταὶ περὶ τὸ ἱερόν, ἐκείνου pya. So Nicias was employed to colour the statues made by Praxiteles. Plin. xxxv. 10. 'Hic est Nicias, de quo dicebat Praxiteles, interrogatus quæ maxime opera sua probarit in marmoribus, quibus Nicias manum admovisset: tantum circumlitioni ejus tribuit.' This practice, which is altogether adverse to the taste of modern times, seems to have prevailed amongst all the people of antiquity. Sir W. Hamilton, in the accounts which accompanied the drawings made of the discoveries at Pompeii, and presented to the Antiquarian Society, says, that in the chapel of Isis, the image of that goddess still retains the coat of paint; her robe being of a purple hue. Something therefore may be said, on the score of precedent, in behalf of the richly gilt and painted images of saints which decorate the Romish churches, as well as of the gorgeous robes and wigs of many of our English worthies of former times, whose costume still lives in marble and vermilion, Shakspeare, in the Winter's Tale, represents the statue of Hermione as painted by Giulio Romano. The first instance which Mr. Walpole adduces, is from Elian, ὡμολόγει τὴν πράξιν τοῦ Γέλωνος τὸ γράμμα-where, says Cuper, γράμμα may mean a statue; which we shall content ourselves with denying. The second is from Athenæus, οἱ ποιηταὶ καὶ οἱ γραφεῖς πλεῖν αὐτὸν ἐν ποτηρίῳ ἐμυθολόγησαν, where Casaubon says per pictores intellige omnes simulacrorum artifices.' The fact is, that ypass is a mere παραδιόρθωμα of Casaubon. The old and genuine lection is οἱ ποιηταὶ καὶ συγγραφείς ' the poets and historians.” The third is from an epigram of Antipater, κατ ̓ εὐόροφον γραπτον réyos, which Mr. Walpole translates, on the well-roofed pediment, sculptured and painted,' in which version réyou is improperly rendered pediment, and the words in italics are a gratuitous addition. If it be true that the roofs or ceilings of houses were frequently carved and painted, does it therefore follow that there is any allusion to carving in the word ypapa? A roof which was both carved and painted might be called indifferently the carved roof,' or 'the painted roof.' The fourth is from an epigram of Perses, Brunck. Anal, ii. p. 4. Δειλαία Μνάσιλλα, τί τοι καὶ ἐπὶ ἠρίῳ οὗτος Μυρομένας κούρας γραπτὸς ἔπεστι τύπος ; where unos may perhaps mean a sculptured image, but partOS certainly means only painted. Mr. Walpole has observed, in p. 378, that the custom of painting tombs was common in Greece. Upon the whole, we assert, that ypápsw was never used of a statue or relievo, except with reference to the painting. The yra sixoves, which we find occasionally mentioned, may seem at first sight more favourable to Mr. Walpole's opinion; but even these, we be lieve, were no more than portraits. Inscript. ap. Spon. Miscell. p. 344. ἀναθεῖναι δὲ αὐτοῦ εἰκόνα γραπτήν. This was an honour frequently paid to illustrious men. Pseudo-Plutarch. Vit. Isocr. p. 839. C. ἦν δὲ αὐτοῦ γραπτὴ εἰκὼν ἐν τῷ Πομπείφ. Strabo xiv. p. 648. καὶ ἡ πατρὶς δ ̓ ἱκάνως αὐτὸν ηύξησε, πορφύραν ἐνδύσασα ἱερωμένην τοῦ Σωσιπόλιδος Διός· καθάπερ καὶ ἡ γραπτὴ εἰκὼν ἐμφανίζει ἡ ἐν τῇ ἀγορᾷ. Amasis presented to the temple of Minerva eixóva ¿würoù yçantηv, says Herodotus ii. 182. So Pausanias v. 16. καὶ δὴ ἀναθειναί σφισιν ἐστὶ γραψαμέναις εἰκόνας, having caused their own portraits to be painted. Hence eixovoygágos, Aristot. Poet. 28. At p. 425 we are presented with a valuable dissertation by the Earl of Aberdeen, upon the gold and silver coinage of Attica. Many learned men have doubted whether the Athenians ever coined any gold money. Our own opinion is that they never did, except perhaps a few pieces on some particular occasions. Gold coin was current at Athens, but it was of foreign coinage; either the stater of Persia, of Ægina, of Cyzicum, or some other town; and when gold coin is spoken of generally, under the name of χρυσοῦς Οι στατήρ, we are to understand the Δαρεικός. The autho rities by which we could support this opinion would occupy too much space in our pages. Aristophanes in the Frogs speaks of a gold coinage, greatly alloyed with copper; and calls the pieces novηpa xanxía, which words the learned Corsini (Diss. XII. p. 225.) misunderstands, as being spoken of copper money. It is probable that from its extreme badness it was not long current. Lord Aberdeen justly observes that The currency of the silver money of Athens was almost universal, owing to the deservedly high reputation for purity which it possessed; and on this account we find several cities of Crete copying precisely in their coins the design, weight and execution of the Attic tetradrachms, in order to facilitate their intercourse with the barbarians. It is possible that the general use and estimation of the produce of the Attic mines contributed to render the Athenians averse from a coinage of another metal, which, by supplying the place of silver money at home, might, in some degree, tend to lessen its reputation abroad.'-p. 445. The Attic tetradrachm seems to have obtained as extensive a currency in ancient times, as the Spanish dollar since the discovery of the silver mines of the new world; and for the same reason. The following remarks are important and original. One of the greatest problems in numismatical difficulties is the cause of the manifest neglect, both in design and execution, which is invariably to be met with in the silver money of Athens; in which the affectation of an archaic style of work is easily distinguished from the rudeness of remote antiquity. Different attempts have been made to elucidate the subject: De Pauw affirms that, owing to a wise economy, the magistrates, whose office it was to superintend the coin age of silver, employed none but inferior artists in making the design, as well as in other branches of the process, an hypothesis wholly inconsistent with the characteristic magnificence of the republic. Pinkerton asserts, that it can only be accounted for from the excellence of the artists being such as to occasion all the good to be called into other countries, and none but the bad left at home. It would be somewhat difficult to explain how Athens came to be so long honoured both by the presence and the works of Phidias and Praxiteles, Zeuxis and Apelles.'* The Attic silver was of acknowledged purity, and circulated very extensively the Athenian merchants, particularly in their commercial dealings with the more distant and barbarous nations, appear frequently to have made their payments in it. The barbarians being once impressed with these notions of its purity, the government of Athens, in all probability, was afraid materially to change that style and appearance by which their money was known and valued among these people. A similar proceeding in the state of Venice throws the strongest light on the practice of the Athenians. The Venetian sechin is perhaps the most unseemly of the coins of modern Europe: it has long been the current gold of the Turkish empire, in which its purity is universally and justly esteemed; any change in its appearance on the part of the Venetian government would have tended to create distrust.' We agree with the editor in considering these remarks of the Earl of Aberdeen, as affording a more satisfactory explanation of the difficulty in question, than any which has hitherto been offered. We cannot help adducing a testimony in favour of his lordship's hypothesis, from a quarter, where one would not expect to meet with any thing bearing upon a question of this kind. Sir W. D'Avenant, in his Prologue to The Wits,' says that there are some. who would the world persuade That gold is better, when the stamp is bad, As if a guinny and louis had less Intrinsick value for their handsomeness.' If merit depended, in poetry as well as numismatics, upon * ugliness' and 'raggedness,' these verses of Sir William would be, in their way, perfect Attic tetradrachms. The present volume has also been enriched by the same accurate and learned nobleman with an account of two very curious and interesting marbles, found at Amycle, in Laconia, which is the place where the Abbé Fourmont pretended to have found his celebrated inscriptions, the spuriousness of which has been so ably demonstrated by Mr. R. P. Knight. Of the two pieces of sculpture described by the Earl of Qu.-How long was Athens honoured by the presence of either Zeuxis or Apelles! Aberdeen, and copied in an engraving at p. 446, each represents a hand-basin, surrounded with the various implements of a female toilet, combs, pins, a needle or bodkin, perfume-boxes and bottles, mirrors, paint-boxes, curling-irons, rollers, toothpicks, and reticules, (or perhaps night-caps). What we believe to be hand-basins the Earl of Aberdeen calls patera. In one of them is the following inscription, ΑΝΘΟΥΣΗ ΔΑΜΑΙΝΕΤΟΥ ΥΠΟΣΤΑΤΡΙΑ ; and in the other, ΛΑΥΑΓΗΤΑ ΑΝΤΙΠΑΤΡΟΥ ΙΕΡΕΙΑ. The first remark which suggests itself, upon inspecting these inscriptions, is, that they are not in the Laconic dialect. The only Doric form in the first, is the first A in AAMAINETOr. In the second, Lord Aberdeen considers ΛΑΥΑΓΗΤΑ to be for ΛΑΟΑΓΗΤΑ. But AAOAгHTA assuredly was not a Greek proper name. We suspect some error in the transcript. Mr. Walpole supposes the marbles to have been offerings made by the priestesses Anthusa and Laoageta; or as consecrated during the priesthood of those women; in which case they may have been presented by the KOZMHTPIAI or ornatrices of some deity. Caylus considers the word TпOTATРIA ΥΠΟΣΤΑΤΡΙΑ to signify sous-prêtresse. Lord Aberdeen thinks that it may have some allusion to the distribution or regulated measure. The fact is that the word means nothing more nor less than underdresser. Zzárpia was one appellation of a female hair-dresser. Hesych. Στάτρια. ἐμπλέκτρια. Νow ἐμπλέκτρια was the same xouμręca, a tire-woman, one who dressed and depilated the ladies; as an old grammarian explains it. The name xoμμzęca is derived from xópu, a sort of gum, used by females to make the plaits of their hair retain the form which was given them: the profession itself was called τέχνη κομμωτική. This is the account given by a scholiast on Plato; to which, if it were necessary, we, we could add much more, illustrative of the subject. as Amongst the articles, represented upon each of these marbles, are two pair of slippers. We have an epigram of Antipater of Sidon, which mentions the dedication to Venus of sandals, amongst other articles of dress. Σάνδαλα μεν τὰ ποδῶν θαλπτήρια ταῦτα Βίτιννα, κ. τ. λ. And we may observe, by the way, that a peculiar kind of sandals were used at Amycle, where these marbles were found, and were thence called Αμύκλαι Oι Αμυκλαδες, for withholding a dissertation upon which, our readers will probably thank us; as also for the suppression of a page or two of observations on the Caryatides of ancient architecture, of which no satisfactory account has hitherto been given, nor is the matter cleared up by Mr. Walpole in his remarks at p. 602. Mr. Wilkins conjectures, that these Caryatides, who are called Kopar in a very ancient inscription, were no other than the Canephora. 6 Several inscriptions are published for the first time in this volume; they are generally well explained by the learned editor, but not always. For instance, in p. 457. we have the following, from the journals of Mr. Hawkins: ΓΑΙΟΣ ΙΟΥΛΙΟΣ ΚΕΛΕΡ ΕΚ ΤΩΝ ΙΔΙΩΝ ΚΑΤΕΣΚΕΥΑ ΚΑΙ ΓΑΙΟΣ ΙΟΥΛΙΟΣ ΕΡΜΑΣ Ο ΤΗΣ ΥΠΟΧΩΡΗΣΕΩΣ. Caius Julius Celer built, at his own expense, for the people of Apollonia, the recess or passage; and Caius Julias Hermas, who is called also Mercupus, paved at his own cost the broad court leading from the zygostasium as far as the recess.' Mercupus! a pretty name! what can be clearer than that the true reading is ΜΕΡΚΟΥΡΙΟΣ, Mercurius ? The ὑποχώρησις Was a recess by the side of the street, resembling, we suppose, those on Westminster Bridge; for what purpose we need not say, Zyotácio should have been translated, the weighing place, or public steelyards, which, in every city of the Roman empire, were superintended by an officer, called præfectus ponderibus. Lastly, the concluding words should be rendered, 'paved at his own cost the street from the steelyards to the recess;' not 'leading from the zygostasium, which would have been τὴν πλατείαν τὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ ξ. with the article repeated. The volume concludes with a valuable dissertation of Mr. Wilkins upon a Greek inscription, six years older than the date of Euclid's archonship, at which era the Ionic letters began to be used at Athens in public documents. But we observe some inaccuracies, both in the copy of the inscription, which is given as divested of its archaisms, and also in the translation of it; none, however, of material consequence. Amongst other symptoms of the haste with which this volume has been put together, is the circumstance, that some of the plates are in one part and the descriptions of them in another. Thus, at p. 321. we have the representation of a lecythus, which is described in p. 539. This cruse, which presents the figures of two horses and their grooms, is entitled ΛΗΚΥΘΟΣ ΑΤΤΙΚΟΣ. Now as the book is an English one, we do not see the propriety of giving Greek titles to the plates; which, to our minds, savours of pedantry. An English inscription would at all events have avoided the false concord of λήκυθος Αττικός for λήκυθος - Αττική. |