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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CLAUDE DELAVAL COBHAM
Exerpta Cypria
page 306

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for at their first entrance, they ought to see the great altar, that they may cross themselves and bow to it: hence judge of their simplicity. In one apartment of the convent is a wretched piece of painting (which however they highly esteem) representing a caloyer on the cross; on his left hand is a gay figure of a man on horse back, at full speed, holding a cup of wine iu steady poise, nnd surrounded with palaces, groves, cascades, &c, and on the other side, is an oddly-imagined hell, with monsters among flames, devonriug the wicked, while oiir Savionr in the clouds, pointing to the martyr, offers hiin a crown of glory. On each side of this emblematical performance are explanatory verses which I shall give you in English, not for their poetical excellency, but to evince their taste in writing. On the right of the picture aie these lines, of which my learned and valuable friend, the Reverend Mr Crofts, gives this verbal translation. Behold liere fairly pictur'd the life of a true monk, How absolutely he is crucified to the flesh and to the world. The cross expressively typifies mortification, The lamps truly represent the splendor of the virtues. The shotting of the eyes, that be is not to regard at all Tlie vain and unstable objects of this false world. The silence of the mouth, that be sliould not speak unseasonably The coutume lion s and filthy language of the present age. The nails in the feet, that he mnst not at all walk In the broad patii, nor indulge in intemperate delicacies; But, with charity, silence, and purity of life, shine visibly to the world beyond the son's lustre; And wage perpetual war with the deceitful world, The lusts of the flesh, and the malicious devil: For the Lord of the universe, with His angeht, Is near him for his assistance, And holds in His hands a crown and a dia dein, Tliat if he prove victorious over the lusts of the flesh and the world, lie may, according to his merits, crown his brow, And admit him into the kingdom of heaven. Jafy, 1742. In the evening I walked about the pince with intention to give you a perspective of it from some proper spot ; but as I could find no point of view either uncommon or tolerably agreeable, I put up iny pencil, and dropped my design. Yet, notwithstanding its mean appearance, the revenues are sufficient to maintain three hundred of the fraternity, besides those who manage their farms, if they lived under any government less savage than that of Cyprus; whereas, when I was there, the number of the brothers did not exceed three score. The Valley of Soli in or Soglia I think the finest in the island; Massaria indeed is a rich, extensive, and wonld be a plentiful country, were it not wholly destitute of trees and villages, which the other has in plenty, together with abundance of water and wood freni the adjacent lulls. When Solon, the famous Athenian law-giver, came to Cyprus, he lived some time with Philocyprus, one of the kings, whose capital, Apeia, was bnilt, in the mountains, by Demophoon, son of Theseus; it was streng, because almost inaccessible, but the cirenmjacent laude were barren and bare, though near the river Clarius; the sage advised him to remove from these naked recks into the fertile plains, where he might build a larger and fairer city; his majesty relished the advice, and left the management of the whole to Solon, who, iu 2i)(> EXCERPTA CYPRIA.

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