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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 29

ducing the great club of Hercules, which appears as if encircled by two bands intended to strengthen the weapon; the knots on its surface have been given in enamel in a manner like that which is known as cloisonnée (fig. 10). Representations of Hercules, generally of the skin-clad, satyr-like type, and imbued with a certain element of satyric grotesqueness, will be found in this collection among the numerous terra-cotta statuettes. The club of this hero is no unfrequent subject in the Greek artistic antiquities, but this minute model in gold, or perhaps electrum, is one of the most curious of its order. Another club is used as the pendant of an ear-ring. Another necklace (fig. 17) comprises dark sard beads of an oblong form, similar to those which have been already described in the same terms, and strung on their original gold wires. With these is a tear-shaped bead of glass, now oxidized and beautifully iridescent, and enclosed in a frame of gold closely fitting its shape. This frame, or setting, has a delicate line of punctured dots by way of border. The exceptional character of this little relic suggests that it was a personal relic, a souvenir designed to commemorate some pathetic event, some death, or event of love. Attached to this carcanet is a pendant of very lovely design, doubtless originally an ear-ring, and including within a lyre-shaped frame a very delicate fern, or acanthus leaf, cut from a plate of gold, modelled with rare artistic tact, and designed with spirit. Three cylindrical beads have terminated this pendant in a sort of fringe; of these beads a piece of emerald, or glass, remains in the centre, while, at the sides, only the wire on which the now missing beads were strung, exists. Two other stones, out of three, are enclosed by gold settings in this pendant.

There is also a wedge or obelisk of crystal, pierced for suspension,and retaining the wire by means of which it may have been supported as one of the pendants of a necklace. Likewise a second crystal obelisk, which is of octangular section, whereas the section of its companion here is oblong; it is still supported by a carefully applied band of gold, to which was attached the little chain or wire supporting the object in its place among the pendants of a large carcanet for the neck, or bandeau for the head, such as the before-named Egyptian women wear in the picture which was brought from Thebes. There was found also an object which is undoubtedly a pendant, like that which is described above, and the companion ear-ring to the latter. It comprises the fern-leaf and similar cylinders of glass or green stone, and, by way of companion for them, a small pearl. In the same group is an oval sard set in a square tablet of gold, and furnished with a hook for suspending it with some other objects of personal adornment. Another class of pendants appear in the gold or electrum sheathing of the tooth of a beast, which may be a trophy of prowess or good luck in hunting. Another similar object belongs to two similar remains, both mounted in the above manner; these teeth are furnished at the back with little tube-like appendages or hollow rods; the last seem to have been used to attach strings to the mounting of the teeth. There was found, in the course of my diggings, a necklet of gold, with a circular pendant disk of the same metal, and embossed with a full face of Phœbus, of Greek workmanship, found at Salamis. This article, like most of its fellows from the same city, attests that place was the most Greek of all the towns of Cyprus. In the collection there is also (fig. 18) a composite circle of

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