HISTORY ETHNOGRAPHY NATURE WINE-MAKING SITE MAP
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 57

been over-cultivated with the mosaic melodies of the present day, it might sound barbarous; but to me, in the short twilight, with the mountains behind, the Straits of Messina and the Calabrias in front, those rustic airs, simple and plaintive—perhaps the same notes that might have been heard in the days of Virgil, and perhaps even of Homer—were inexpressibly beautiful." My readers will, I am sure, pardon my introducing here, a propos of the " double pipe", a charming sonnet, recently published by Mr. Gosse, in which that poet, like Mr. John, recognised the plaintive sweetness of the music:—

" Cool, and palm-shaded from the torrid heat,
The young brown tenor puts his singing by,
And sets the twin-pipe to his lip to try
Some air of bulrush-glooms where lovers meet.
O swart musician ! time and fame are fleet;
Brief all delight, and youth's feet fain to fly !
Pipe on in peace ! To-morrow must we die ?
What matter, if our life to-day be sweet !
Soon, soon, the silver paper-reeds that sigh
Along the Sacred River will repeat
The echo of the dark-stoled bearers' feet,
Who carry you, with wailing, where must lie
Your swathed and withered body, by and bye,
In perfumed darkness with the grains of wheat."

Figs. 103, B, C, D are specimens of the pipe, trumpet or lituus, in terra-cotta, for mortuary purposes, which will be described hereafter in the place devoted to a consideration of the fictilia. The Phœnician altar, figured on page 100, is worthy of comparison with several stone relics in this collection, which have the forms of chalices, or, to speak more strictly, resemble baptismal fonts of very small proportions. In the year 1877, while I was digging in the land which lies between the sites of the ancient towns of Salamis and Constanzia, I found a very remarkable group carved in stone in the Greek style (fig. 104). It appears to me to be intended to represent a personification of Salamis, here conceived as Teucer, wearing a toga, and leaning against a terminal figureof Hermes. Constanzia, as a female personage, draped in the elegant folds of the chiton, and having her hair hound with a broad fillet, is leaning in an attitude of ease and gracefulness upon the male figure; the left hand and arm being placed behind her back, and the right arm, from the elbow to the hand, reposing on the shoulder of the other figure. This group may have possibly marked the spot where some territorial boundary between these two sites existed, or it may perpetuate the memory of some act of confederation or annexation, so to speak, between the authorities of these towns. From the introduction of the terminal Hermes, it is manifest that some question of boundaries is involved in the conception of this spirited piece of statuary. The height of the group is ten inches and a-half. Dr. Birch considers that this group is apparently that of a prince and his wife, in the characters of Mars and Venus. The breeches of the male figure are neither Greek nor Roman. The man's face somewhat resembles that of Antoninus Pius, and the portraits of that period; the woman's is not unlike that of Faustina the elder.1 A curious stone carving, unfortunately imperfect in the upper part. (fig. 105), bears the inscription in Greek capitals:—

This is a dedication to Diana " of the Beach" by one Apelles. The letters, which are well formed, and very nicely cut, seem to belong to the second century after Christ. Other dedications to this same Diana have been found before. All these come from the Salines of Larnaca, where probably stood a temple to the goddess, and where I, and those who worked before -me, found many terra-cotta heads,

1 This may be" compared with Clarao, Musée de Sculpture, pi. 835, No. 2093, Napl. Mua. Borb.; pl. 887, No. 2278a, Boissard; pl. 894, No. 2287, Rome, Coll. Giustiniani.

as well as a large number of gold staters of Alexander and Philip. On an elegant stone cippus of columnar form, with plinth and capital of elegant mouldings, two feet high and nine inches and a half wide, which was found at Salamis, is cut the inscription:—

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