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Show PORTLAND VASE. NoTE XXII. hanging to the handles of the vale, feem to indicate that there is a concealed meaning in the figures bcfides their general appearance. And the pricftefs at the bot tum, which I come now to defcribe, feems to lhew this concealed meaning to be of the facred or ,Eleufinian kind. 3· The figure on the bottom of the vafe is on a larger ;~ale than the others, and lcfs finely finilhed, and lefs elevated; and as this bottom part wai' afterwards cemented to the upper part, it might be executed by another ;utill for the fake of expedition, but there feems no reafon to fuppofe that it was not originally defigned for the upper part of it as fome have conjetlmed. As the myfteries of Ceres were celebrated by female pr ietl:s, for Porphyrius fays the antients called the prier.efl~s of Cere~, Meliffai, or bees, which were emblems of chaflity, Div. Leg. Vol. I. P· 235; and as, in his Satire againft the fex, J uvenal fays, that few women are worthy to be prieflelles of Ceres, Sat. VI. the figu rc at the bottom of the vafe would feem to reprefent a PR 1 EST rrss or H 1 E RO PH ANT, v, hofc office it was to introduce the initiated, and point out to them, and explain the exhibitions in the myfleries, and to exclud~ the uninitiated, calling out to them, " Far, far retire, ye profane!" and to guard the fecrets of the temple. Thus the introductory hymn fung by the hierophant, according to Eufcbius, begins, "I will declare a fecret to the initiated, but let the doors be Olllt againf1: the profane." Div. Leg. Vol. I. p. 177. The prief1:els or hierophant appears in this figure with a clofe hood, and drefled in linen, which fits clofc about her; except a light cloak, which flutters in the wind. Wool, as taken from flaughtered animals, was efl:eemcd profane by the prief1:s of Egypt, who were always dreffed in linen. Ap1Jieus, p. 64. Div. Leg. Vol. I. p. 318. Thus Eli made for Samuel a linen ephod. Samuel i. 3· Secrecy was the foundation on which all myfteries refleu, when publicly known thq ceafed to be myfleries; heuce a difcovery of them was 110t only punilhed with death by the Athenian law, but in other countries a difgrace attended the breach of a folemn oath. The prit:f1:cfs in the figmc before us has her finger pointing to her lips as an emblem of filence. Tht:re is a figure of Harpocrates, who was of Egyptian origin, the fame as Orus, with th<: lotus on his head, and with his finger pointing to his lips not preffcd upon them, in Bryant's Mythol. Vol. II. p. 398, and another female figure· lbnding on a lotus, as if juft rifen f~om the Nile, with her finger in the fame attitude, d1efe fccm to have been rcprefcntat10ns or emblems of male and female priefl:s of the· il.crct myfleries. As thefe forts of emblems were frequently changed by artifts for 1hcir mo1e elegant exhibition, it is poffiblc the foliage over the head of this figure may bear fmr.e analogy to the lotus above mentioned. This figure of fecrccy fccms to be here placed, with great ingenuity, as a caution tO· the initiated, who might undcrftand the meaning of the emblems round the vafe, not to di\'ulge it. And this circumfl:ance fecms to account for there being no written explanation extant, and no tradition concerning thcfc beautiful figures },andcd down to us along with them. Another explanation of this figure at the bottom of the rafc would fecm to confirm the id::a that the b:tffo-rclievos round its !ides are reprcfcntations of a part of the |