The antiquities of Herculaneum . m primum omnium impo-* fuiffe capiti fuo ex hedera. Diodorus, i. 17. relates, that the firft cultivation ofivy was attributed to Oliris, or Bacchus; and that therefore it was firft ufed in hisfeafts. Ovid, Fqji. iii. 767, &c. fays, that the nymphs who educated Bacchus,in order to withdraw him from the fearch of the jealous Juno, concealed him underthe leaves of ivy : * Cur hedera cincta eft ? Hedera eft gratiffima Baccho. Hoc quoque cur ita fit, dicere nulla mora Nyfiades Nymphae, puerum quaerente noverca, Hanc frondem cunis appofuere aflign
The antiquities of Herculaneum . m primum omnium impo-* fuiffe capiti fuo ex hedera. Diodorus, i. 17. relates, that the firft cultivation ofivy was attributed to Oliris, or Bacchus; and that therefore it was firft ufed in hisfeafts. Ovid, Fqji. iii. 767, &c. fays, that the nymphs who educated Bacchus,in order to withdraw him from the fearch of the jealous Juno, concealed him underthe leaves of ivy : * Cur hedera cincta eft ? Hedera eft gratiffima Baccho. Hoc quoque cur ita fit, dicere nulla mora Nyfiades Nymphae, puerum quaerente noverca, Hanc frondem cunis appofuere aflign different reafons. The reader may confult Plutarch, fympof. iii. qu, 1and 2. where he difcourfes largely about this plant, and the reafon why wine-drinkers crowned themfelves with it. [3] Bacchus and his nymphs are cloathed with the /kins of panthers: either be-caufe the nurfes of Bacchus were changed into panthers, or becaufe thefe animalsare very fond of wine. See Philojlratus, u imag* xix« and Phomutus de Nat. Deo- hangs. PLATE xxr. gt hangs from the left moulder, and crofting her body flies aboutunder her right arm ; and the cymbals [4] which fhe holds inher hands, in the acl of founding them by ftriking one agaLfcthe other [5] : are circumftances characleiiilic of a bac- rum, in Baccho, who give other reafons for it. They ufed alfo to wear the fl<inof the fawn, which fkins were called v-^ihq. Pollux, iv. fcgm. 118. and his com-mentators on the place. See Buonarroti in Cammeo del trionfo di Bacco, p. 438. [4] Rubenius de r-e vejliaria, lib. ii. cap. ult. remarks, that fome abfurdly con-found the cembalo with the cymbalum ; the cembalo of the Tufcans correfpondingto the tympanum of the ancients, as we have already obferved. Indeed Scrvius, on v. 64 of the fourth book of the Aeneid, writes : Cymbala limilia funt hemicyclis coeli, quibus cingitur terra. And Augufiin, on Pfalm cxxx, Cymbala invi-* cem fe tangunt, ut fonent: ideo a quibufdam labiis noftris comparata funt. Ca
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Keywords: ., bookauthorgri, bookcentury1700, booksubjectartroman, bookyear1773
