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Show PORTLAND VASE. NoTE XXII. Now as thefc were emblematic exhibitions they mufl: have been as well adapted to the purpofes of fculpture as of poetry, which indeed does not fccm to have been uncommon, fincc one compartment of figures in the fl1icld of Ai:neas reprefented theregions of Tartarus. Ai:n. Lib. X. The procefiion of torches, which according to M. De St. Croix was exhibited in thefc myfleries, is !till to be fccn in b:dfo relievo, difcoYered by : pon and Whekr. Mcmoires fur le Myfl:eres par De St. Croix. 178-t. And }tis very probable that the beautiful gem reprefenting the marrioge of CupiJ and Pfyche, :1s defcr ibcd by Apuleu>, was originnlly dL.fcriptivc of another part of the exhibitions In thefe myfl:eries, though afterwards it became a common fubj ef.t of antient art. S.::e Divine Legat. Vol. I. p. 323. What fubj dl: could ha\·e been imagined fo fublime for the ormments of a funeral urn :~s the mortality of all things and their refufcit::1t ion? vVhcre could the defigntr be fup1li ed with emblems for this purpofe, before the Chrifkm zcra, but from the Eleufinian myfl:eries? 1. The exhibitions of the myfl:eries were of two kinds, thofe which the per>ple were vrmittcd to fcc, and thofe whi ch were only fhewn to the initiated. Concerning the btter, AriJ1idcs CJlls them "the mofl: !110cking am\ mofl: r::tvifhing reprefentation~ .·· And Stob~us alferts th at the initiation into the grand myfl:erics cxaaly refemblcs death . Divine Legat. \'ol. I. p. 2Ho, and p. 272. And Virgil iu his entrance to the fl11des below, amongft other things of terrible form, menti ons dc::tth. lEn . VI. This p::trt of the exhibition fcems to be reprefentctl in one of tbe comp::~rtmen ts of the Portbnd vafe. Three figures of exquiGte workman01ip ::~re placed by the Gdc of a ru~ned column whofe capital is fallen off, and lies at their feet with other disj ointed ftones, they fit on loofe piles of flone ben eath a tree, which has not the leaves of any evergreen of this climate, but may be fupp ofed to be an elm, which Virgil places near the entr::~nce of the infernal regions, and adds, that a dream was believed to dwell under every leaf of it. JEn. VI. I. 281. In the midfl: of this group reclines a female fignre in a eying atti tude, in which extreme langnor is bcaurif11lly reprefented, in her hand is an inverted torch, an antient emblem of ext ingui01ed life, the elbow of the fame arm refl:ing on a fl:one fupports her as fhe finks," hile the other hand is raifed and thrown over her drooping head, in fome me::~f11re fufl:aining it and gives with great art the idea of fain• ing bHitude. On the right of her fits a man, and on the left a woman, both fnpportin g themfelvcson their arms, as people are liable to do when they are thinking intcnfely. They have their backs towards the dying figure, yet with their faces tmned towards her, as if ferioufly contemplating her fituation, but without fl:retching out their hands to afiift her. This central figure then appears to me to be an hieroglyphic or Eleufinian emblem of MORTAL LIFE, that is, the lethum, or death, mentioned by Virgil amongfl: the terrible things exhibited at the beginning of the myfleries. The inverted torch !h e w ~ tile figure to be emblematic, if it had been dcfigned to reprefent a real perf Ill in the aa of dying there had been no neceffi ty for the expiring torch, as the dying figure alo,ne wo1tld have been fuflici ently intelligible ;-it would have been as abfurd as to have p11 t an inverted torch into the ·hand of a real perfon at the time of his expiring. Bd!des if this |