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174

XIV.

MISCELLANIES.

1. ON TWO GREEK VASES IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

VASE OF EPIDROMOS.-Fine Nolan cylix, with red figures, lately purchased of Mrs. Baddam, by the British Museum. Sh. Durand Catalogue, No. 109. Interior, a naked youth, crowned with laurel, kneeling upon the right knee, his chlamys doubled, and held up as a defence on the left arm. In his right hand, he holds a short and knotted stick. On it are two names, EПIAPOMOΣ, 'Eπièроμos, that of the figure represented; and another, IXIAE KAAOZ, "Ichias is handsome." No mythological personage is known of the name of Epidromos; but a similar name occurs on two other vases, Archæologia, 1831, vol. xxI. p. 220, accompanied by Kaλós, and in an Athenian inscription, Boeckh, Corpus Inscr. Græc. vol. 1. p. 298. col. I. 41. The absence of ἔγραψε οι ἐποίησεν prevents our supposing that the name is intended for that of an artist; and it is still more difficult to connect it with any heroical or other personage. The attitude of the figure resembles that of Theseus attacking the Crommyan sow.

VASE WITH THE POTTER KERAMOS.-Cylix, purchased of S. Zitelli, with black figures on a red ground. On the exterior is Pallas-Athene, armed in the usual manner with helmet and ægis, and draped in a talaric tunic, piercing with her lance the giant Enkelados, who, armed as a Greek hoplite, has fallen mortally wounded on the ground; in the area are vine branches, and at each side is a large eye. In the interior is a potter, Kepáμevs, draped in a short tunic, seated on a low stool, having before him his lathe or wheel, resembling a circular table placed horizontally, this the potter works with his knee while he shapes the vase with his hands. In the present instance, the vase is a paτp to which the workman is adding handles. The vase is placed vertically in the centre of the wheel; above, on two rows of shelves, are vases already finished and awaiting their turn for the oven. This is undoubtedly the invention of the Ceramic art, which was claimed for the Athenians-by Kritias,

τὸν δὲ τροχοῦ γαίης τε καμίνου τ' ἔκγονον εὗρε
κλεινότατον κέραμον χρήσιμον οἰκόνομον

ἢ τὸ καλὸν Μαραθῶνι καταστήσασα τρόπαιον.

Athenæus, 1. p. 28, B. this refers to the wheel; but according to Pliny, H. N. vm. 57, figlinas Coroibum Atheniensem invenisse, which applies rather to figures, in the same manner as Prometheus presided over the corporation of potters, in remembrance of the mythic making of man out of clay. In the same sense the invention of the

potter's lathe was claimed for Hyperbos of Crete. When it is stated that the potter's art was derived from Keramos" the Cask," the son of Dionysos and Ariadne, this is perhaps rather to be understood of a particular form of vessel, than of the whole art of the potter, for the Kerameikos probably derived its name from being the spot where the casks were made. Hence the glosses on the word aμpópevs in Bekker's Anecdota, πᾶς κέραμος οὕτως λέγεται, for the word ἀμφόρους could hardly be applied to the smaller class of vessels, while that of Képaμos undoubtedly was to the larger vessels, which were exported from Athens. Aristophanes, Acharna, 910,-hence the victors in the Panathenaic Games, who we knew received the Panathenaic amphora, were presented, according to the Scholiast in Aristoph. Nephel. v. 991 (1001,) Dindorf, 8vo, Leipsic, 1822, p. 280, with a répapos éλaiov, which same prize the Scholiast of Pindar, Nem. Od. x. v. 65, calls vòpia Maiov, for the amphora was also used as a water cask, Cf. Apollon. Rhod. Argon. iv. 1770. But to return to the invention of pottery, one of the Attic demoi was called Kerameis, which was of the Akamantis tribe, and received its name, according to Philochoros, Φησὶ δὲ Φιλόχορος ἐν τῇ τρίτῃ, εἰληφέναι τούτους τοὔνομα ἀπὸ τῆς κεραμικής τέχνης, καὶ τοῦ θύειν Κεράμῳ τινὶ ἥρωι,—Fragm. Hist. Græc., Müller, 8vo, Paris, 1841, p. 395, fr. 72. Harpocrat., voce Kepaμeis, because that these took their name from the potters' art, and from offering sacrifices to a certain heroic personage [named] Keramos, viz. the son of Dionysos and Ariadne, already mentioned. The invention of the potters' wheel is, however, as early as Homer, who, describing the dancers on the shield of Achilles, mentions its use by the potter, Ι. Σ. 600, . . . ὡς δ' ὅτε τις τρόχον ἄρμενον ἐν παλάμῃσιν ἐζόμενος κεραμεύς, κ. τ. λ.—which would exactly agree with the mode of fabric, if we could suppose that the potter on the Museum vase turned the wheel by the lump of clay attached to it. As to the invention of the lathe by Anacharsis, as pretended by Ephorus in Strabo, VIII. 463, and by Posidonius, Senec. Ep. xc. tom. I. v. 11, against Homer; this is almost as true as the legend of the druid Abaris and his arrow, and evidently of later origin. In the present vase, which bears more resemblance to the Athenian legend, we must recognise the potter Keramos; and it is remarkable that he is manufacturing the Kulikes, or cups for drinking, which were made at Athens out of the clay found at the promontory of Kolias, and were famous for their beauty; Athenæus, xi. 480; Plutarch, I. p. 42; Cf. Critiæ Carmina, a N. Bachio, 8vo, Lipsiæ, 1827; Fr. 1. p. 34-38. This vase is alluded to by Ritschl, Annali. 1837, tom. Ix. p. 184,-" ab eodemque repertum tertium quoddam novimus necdum editum exhibens ipsam vasorum Fictilium Fabricam."

S. BIRCH.

2. TRANSLATION OF VIRGIL'S ENEID, Book 1.

I AM the same that whilom tuned my song

On slender oat,

And, issuing from the woods,

Compelled (nor seemed amiss the deed
To agriculturists,)

The neighbouring fields t' obey the greedy farmer.

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Say, Muse, for what offence,

What breach of the divine prerogative,

The queen of heaven, from toil to toil so drove, So with misfortune heaped

A man conspicuous for piety.

Hath so great wrath a place

In the celestial breast?

Over against Italia

And the far-distant mouths of the Tiber,

Stood an ancient city,

Hight Carthage:

A Tyrian colony,

Rich and resourceful,

And most studious of the rough art of war.

More than all other lands,

More, even, than Samos' self,

Juno, it is said,

This city cherished.

Here were her arms;

Her chariot, it was here;

And here, might but the fates at all permit, Already wrought the fostering Goddess' care, To found an empire that should rule the world.

For she had heard that from the stock of Troy A scion was springing,

That should hereafter overturn

Her Tyrian citadels;

And hence a people come,

Wide ruling, proud in war,

To the utter destruction of Libya.
Such she had heard were the revolutions
Ordained by the Parcæ.

In fear of this ;—

And recollecting

Th' inveterate war she erst had waged at Troy

For her dear Argos ;

Nor yet forgot

The bitter smarts

That caused those ires:

Storehoused lies,

In the depths of her mind,

The judgment of Paris

And slight of her beauty,

And the lustre-rapt Ganymede's honours shed

On a race she detested:

Kindled with these further fires, Saturnia,
Far off from Latium, warded,

And over the wide main

Hither tost and thither,

The remnant of the Trojans

Left by the Danaï

And ruthless Achilles ;

And many a year they wandered

All the seas about,

Impelled onward by the Fates,

So vast the work to found the Roman nation.

Scarce were they out of sight

Of the Sicilian land;
Joyfully sailing

Toward the high deep,

And with brazen bows dashing

The salt sea-foam,

When thus Juno to herself,

Th' eternal wound still nursing in her bosom :

"Must I then, vanquished,
Desist from my undertaking,
Unable to avert from Italia
The king of the Teucri ?

Forbid by the Fates, forsooth!

But could not Pallas burn the Argive fleet,
And whelm the crews in the sea,

For sole Oïlean Ajax' insane trespass?

"Herself shot from the clouds
The rapid fire of Jove,

Scattered their ships with storm,

The sea-plains overturned,

And him, expiring flames

Out of his transfixed breast,

Caught in a whirlwind and on sharp crag spiked: But I, who walk heaven's queen,

Jove's sister both and consort,

War with one race so many years am waging.

Will any one henceforth

Adore the deity of Juno?
Any suppliant lay

Honours upon her altar?"

Such thoughts revolving in her breast of flame,

The Goddess comes to Eolia,
Native home of storm-clouds,

Teeming land of raging south-westers.

Here in vasty cave

King Eolus rules over,

And with barrier and chains

Curbs and restrains,

The struggling winds and hurricanes sonorous.

Indignantly roaring

About the closed vents,

They make all the mountain round reverberate.

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