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Selected and rare materials, excerpts and observations from ancient, medieval and contemporary authors, travelers and researchers about Cyprus.
 
 
 
 
 
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SALAMIS

SALAMIS IN THE ISLAND OF CYPRUS.
BY ALEXANDER PALMA DI CESNOLÀ, F.S.A.,
page 108

named ornament hangs between the mammǽ of the wearer, whose dress is cut "square", or straight across the bust, and low enough to expose the throat and half the bosom. This is the mode of leaving uncovered the bust which is still in vogue among the women of Greece and the islands. Coronets similar to those above described are still worn by bishops of the Greek rite. Some of the heads of these terra-cotta statuettes have the brows encircled with fillets, which exactly represent the gold chaplets, or coronals, which I have mentioned in the chapter devoted to the gold relics. I may here introduce figures 232, 233, of two gold-leaf relics of this nature which will supplement those given in the earlier part of the work. They are the exact types of those carved on some of the heads. The Choir, or Musicians.—In this rather numerous company .of statuettes we have a curious and valuable category of worshippers. They are to be conveniently divided into three classes, although every individual carries a lyre; but these instruments differ from each other in greater or less degrees. The first class consists of women whose physiognomy, stature, carriage, costume, and coronets are unquestionably Greek, in which respect they resemble a body of similar personages, whom I have already described as bearing offerings of animals for the goddess. The second class consists of figures clad in tunics and togas, carrying lyres, but wearing no lofty coronets, their hair being bound by fillets, while the heads of some of them are partially covered with veils. The third class appears to be more distinctly sacerdotal than the second, although both of these classes differ from the first in exhibiting the "Cypriote" types of features and forms, as described before. I distinguish the third class as stole-wearers, on account of the stoles which accompany their togas. In the first class, one holds a nearly perfect lyre, of the Greek form, which distinctly shews the use of the little ivory rods with bronze brackets, to which I have already alluded while dealing with examples of the former material. The jewellery of the wearer is very clearly shown in this work. The second class wear garlands, usually of large flowers or disks. Nearly every example of the whole company of three classes shows a large bracelet on the right wrist. Red colour occurs on most of these relics. These members of the choir remind us of the well-known line descriptive of Cyprus:—" Insula lǽta choris; blandorum et mater amorum."

CHAPTER XX.

TERRA-COTTA.

(Continued.)

MASKS---CARICATURES—ANIMALS—CHARIOTS—WARRIORS—TOYS— AND OTHER OBJECTS.

CLASS of small terra-cotta masks, or rather half-heads, of which there is a considerable number, being works of great spirit and variety of character, ought to have place here. One represents an aged faun (fig. 234) wearing a garland and a very long beard which streams downwards in hanks of hair; another is the half-head of a very young man (fig. 235), the expression of the features ofwhich admirably represents drunken hilarity; another is crowned with ivy leaves and is a true mask of the satyric order, as the form of the open mouth attests (figs. 236, 237). A large garland, intertwined with ivy, projects far over the forehead. The last is one of the most animated and beautifully executed works of its class, and it deserves a high place in that category; traces of deep purple pigment appear on the features. These examples may have been intended for puppets, to be suspended by strings from above and

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