Previous First Next

SALAMIS IN THE ISLAND OF CYPRUS.
BY ALEXANDER PALMA DI CESNOLÀ, F.S.A.,
page 101

From the inscription of the plinth in front of the figure, in Greek capital letters, THI ΚΛΕΟΠΑΤΡΑΙ ΒΑΣΙΛΙΣΣΑΙ, "To Cleopatra, the Queen", it is clear that the object is votive in character, and dedicated to one of the queens of that name.The coin of a Cleopatra was found with it. As a remarkable coincidence which occurred during the progressof my excavations, it is worthy of recording that this interesting terra-cotta statuette of a Genius riding on a cock was takenfrom a spot hot many feet from that wherein I found the silver coin of a queen named Cleopatra, here figured (No. 225). There is little doubt as to the age of the terra-cotta, or the motive which prompted the addition of the inscription to it, when we bear thus in mind the peculiar circumstance that a coin shewing a similar inscription should be found in such close contiguity to the fictile relic. Another figure of the same class shews another boy mounted on a cock and wearing a crown like a nimbus, with rays exactly like those appropriated to Phoebus Apollo. The same nimbus occurs in other cases in my collection of antiquities. This cock is almost a grotesque, the head and beak being unusually large. Another boy, wearing a close-fitting military dress and round cap, is seen galloping on a pony, with a high action of its forefeet. A boy, wearing a mantle and Phrygian cap, sits his horse easily, and looks aside, while the animal walks to: wards our right. I may here describe the subject of the accompanying illustration (fig. 226). A winged boy, perhaps Eros or Cupid, wearing a kind of skirt fastened by a band round the waist, is riding upon a horse, designed after the Greek manner, which is walking or pacing in graceful action to the right. The face of the rider is turned to the front, so as to be full face to the spectator. There is no inscription on the plinth at the base of the group. There is a statuette of a little boy, who, lying on his back, between the shoulders of a large goose, or swan, seems to be fast asleep. Like the before-mentioned group of a boy, who plays with a dog, and has fallen on the floor, is the other naked boy, who is assailed by a cock half as big as himself. A boy-genius, riding on a dolphin over the sea, has been already mentioned. A few groups, comprising boys in pairs and with girls, may now be mentioned. These are a boy, clasping in his arms, as if to draw it towards him, an hermaphrodite. The double sex of the latter is unmistakeably expressed by the bust, hair, and other details; both these figures are winged. Likewise winged are the statuettes in a group which may represent Eros and Psyche embracing. They stand side by side, she has the wings of a butterfly, both wear large garlands, she only is draped, and her form is thus partly covered. There is a similar group of larger figures, which are in the act of kissing; this female is more covered than the former one. There is a bust of an infant, formed of peculiarly white terra-cotta, whose face is laughing with a very lively expression; on the forehead, on one side only, as in the previously-mentioned instance of the statuette of the boy with grapes and a cock, is a fillet sustaining pendants of circular shapes, like the coins still worn in the same manner by innumerable women in the East. Round the neck a ribbon carries a round object like a bulla. Among the adult male figures, besides the animated statuette of Hercules, is an Apollo seated on a rock, on which he leans one hand, while the other hand, in a very graceful way, is cast over the side of a lyre, which rests on the rock at his side. The closely-clad effigy of a youth, with wingsdisplayed from his shoulders, suggests an older Eros. The head is wrapped in drapery, and bound with fillet in that which may be called the Phrygian mode; two long tresses escape from this hood, and trail before the shoulders of this statuette, which wears likewise a tunic fitted loosely to the torso, bound by a girdle at the waist, and falling thence to the knee. Loose trousers, like those the Romans considered the dress of the barbarians, and which are many times represented on the Column of Trajan, as well as in more ancient Greek examples, occur on the legs of this work, which is in the attitude of standing, with one of the feet crossed before its fellow, while each hand rests on its proper hip, and the slightly advanced head bears a cheerful smile of inquiry on its youthful features. There is a very elegant and well-proportioned male figure standing erect, as if about to walk forward, wrapped in an ample, beautifully disposed toga, which, while it encloses the hands and arms (one of which is placed against the breast, the other hanging at the side), is fastened on the left ' shoulder by a fibula. There is another in an attitude

Previous First Next