Although so complicated, and in some cases compounded of so very many different individual amulets, yet all are traceable to one and the same root.
We cannot find any notice of this charm throughout the Roman or mediæval periods, nor indeed is there any amulet like it, known to the writer, in any of the museums where one would expect to find such things, except one. In the Bologna Museum among the very earliest Etruscan amulets is a small bronze object of which is a careful drawing, and about the actual size. Comparing this, and its clearly ostensible purpose as an amulet for suspension, with the elaborate modern charm, every candid observer must admit the remarkable similarity of general form and evident design in both. It is much to be regretted that no other ancient example of this kind can be produced; but even so, and while living in hopes of further finds, it is not unreasonable nor speculative to conclude that we have here the germ, and that the "sprig of rue" is one of the very oldest of existing amulets. We may safely give it an Etruscan or early Phœnician origin; for we must always remember that
the objects among which it appears are labelled by experts, as found in tombs, "della prima età di ferro."
Looking, too, at the almost oriental unchangeableness of the Neapolitan character, it is no less reasonable to look upon the name itself of the amulet as a tradition of remote antiquity; and it is easy to see, even without evidence to prove it, how upon the simple sprig new symbols have been grafted, so that each of its tips has been made to carry a charm in itself, until at last we have the multiplied aggregation comprised in the modern amulet.
Worn upon the breasts of infants in Naples and the neighbourhood, it is considered their special protector against the ever-dreaded jettatura.
Mr. Neville Rolfe gives a list of eight different symbols, but in addition to these we have to point out several other features which may be recognised in it.
To begin with the title-role: No plant had more virtues ascribed to it in ancient times than rue, and the belief in these has continued down to the present day.
Pliny says the ancients held rue in peculiar esteem; that the plant has a great liking for the fig-tree and for that tree only, and that it thrives better under it than anywhere else. He says it is one of the most active of all medicinal plants, and one of the principal ingredients used in antidotes. "Every species of rue, employed by itself, has the effect of an antidote if the leaves are bruised and taken in wine." It is good for the stings of serpents--"so much so, in fact, that weasels when about to attack them, take the precaution first of protecting themselves by eating rue." It is good too for "stings by scorpions, spiders, bees, hornets and wasps, the noxious effects produced by cantharides and salamanders, and the bites of mad dogs." He quotes Pythagoras, Harpocrates, and Diocles, as to the value of rue in a great number of diseases, and in his last paragraph says that "of all the plants that are grown, rue is the one most employed for the maladies of cattle"; altogether he cites it as being a remedy for eighty-four diseases or ailments.
Gerard speaks much of the virtues of rue, but all herbalists call it "herb of grace."
Culpepper says: "It is an herb of the Sun, and under Leo."
It is suggested that inasmuch as rue was hung about the neck as an amulet in primæval times against fascination, and we know of no other herb that was so used, it may on that account have acquired its name in the Middle Ages. It was, moreover, believed to be of all herbs the most potent restorative medicine, and as a beneficent remedy this was, par excellence, the plant bestowing grace or favour upon such as used it.
No doubt our amulet from Bologna was one of those hung about the neck over three thousand years ago; and it may fairly be contended that it represented the same herb whose reputation has lasted through the ages; which in these latter days has by some means acquired for itself alone among plants the name "herb of grace." With rue as the basis of our amulet, we have to account for the conventional shape which the spray assumed even in Etruscan days.
In all the complete specimens here produced, it will be seen that the Cimaruta has three main branches; and considering the material of which these charms are always made, in connection with the other symbols on this complex object, we can come to no other conclusion than that the three branches are typical of Diana Triformis or of her prototypes. Epithets are given to her denoting that she is the giver of light and life, benefits also attributed to Proserpine, and these "make it seem that she (Proserpine) was also thought to be concerned for women in labour, which cannot appear strange if we consider her as the same goddess with Diana, who being in three different capacities, as conversant in heaven, earth, and hell, has three distinct names: in heaven she is Σελήνη, the Moon; upon the earth Ἄρτεμις, Diana, in hell Περσεφόνη, Proserpine; whence are those epithets whereby the poets denote her threefold character as τρίμορφος, triformis, tergemina, with several others."
Considering her in another threefold character, she is Hecate, Diana, Proserpine.
Montfaucon pictures a statue of this goddess, whom he calls Hecate, in three positions, so as to bring each form alternately to the front.
1. On her head is a crescent; above that a flower (the lotus), "the usual mark of Isis." She holds two torches in her hands, and thus represents Diana Lucifera.
2. She wears a Phrygian cap with rays of light proceeding from it, and holds a sword in one hand with a serpent in the other. "Servius says she (Diana) presides over health, of which the serpent is the symbol."
3. She is crowned with laurel, holding a key in her right hand, and ropes in her left. "The key belongs properly to Hecate; she was guardian of Hell, where she reigned with Pluto. The ropes referred to her office of guardian of Hell for reasons evident to all the world."
One of the attributes of Diana was the especial protection of women in childbirth, and by Cicero she was maintained to be one and the same as Ilithyia or Lucina. Horace also invokes her:--
"Sive tu Lucina probas vocari Seu Genitalis."
In this attribute we have Diana Lucina as the direct forerunner and counterpart, in Neapolitan belief, of Madonna del Parto.
This charm must always be of silver, and each one has to bear the hall-mark; without this the poorest will not have it.
Silver was Diana's own metal--in Greece, in Ephesus, and in Rome alike. Demetrius who made the shrines (housis, according to Wiclif) was a silversmith.
We turn our silver in our pockets when we first see the new moon or Diana; and in fact the silver moon is something more than a mere figure of speech.
In all complete specimens two of the attributes are never wanting. These are the crescent and the hand, with which the tip of every spray is made to finish, reminding one of the sun's rays on the sculpture in the tomb of Khuenaten, except that here the hand, when alone, is bent into the gesture already described as a potent amule in itself--the mano fica, and in the other cases is made to grasp some other object. The half-moon on in itself combines two other symbols, namely horns, already dealt with, and a serpent enclosing the crescent.
The key, which like the crescent takes a prominent position, appears in every perfect specimen. We may therefore conclude that it is an important amulet; this key also is compounded. On the Cimaruta the bow of the key is always shaped like a heart as on. In the key appears singly, i.e. without the heart, in many shapes more or less ornamental, clearly proving the position it holds in Neapolitan estimation as a simple charm to be worn by adults, as well as in its compounded form by infants. As an amulet it has a distinct phallic significance.
There can be little doubt that the key is another of the symbols of Diana, and relates to her in the form of Luna, or in her proper name of Diana, the wife of Dianus; for Janus and Jana are but alternative forms of one and the same word. As keeper of the gates of heaven, Jana was entrusted with her husband's key to open the portals for the exit of Aurora and the life and light giving Phœbus, as well as to close the gates of night. The key might possibly be also regarded as an attribute of Hecate-Proserpine, who as mistress of the lower world might open the gates and free the imprisoned spirits. A medal represents her with a key in one hand and a serpent in the other. It is a remarkable fact, and not to be overlooked in connection with Diana and the Cimaruta, that the Neapolitan vernacular for a witch is not, as in ordinary Italian, strega, but Janara; evidently conserving the ancient belief In the Bologna Etruscan Museum are several finger-rings, having little keys attached to them, precisely like the horns attached to the modern rings in Rome. They are far too small for use, and can only have been worn as amulets, thus proving the antiquity of the key as such.
The heart has already been shown as an ancient symbol in connection with the cross, and it is suggested that in the key with the heart-handle may be a conventionalised representation of the crux ansata. We may safely accept the heart as implying an allusion to the maiden goddess "whose affections were regulated by the key of prudence."
One of the writer's specimens contains two birds, and assuming that they are not meant for the same bird, we consider one to be the cock and the other the eagle.
The cock on several gems, like, is either alone or combined with Apollo in a grillo, as in He is regarded as a "solar animal," and thus sacred to the sun-gods, Osiris, Serapis, Jupiter, Apollo. The cock is also the symbol of Mercury, denoting vigilance. He: is sometimes represented as holding an ear of corn in his bill, meaning that "only vigilance can produce plenty." As a watchful guardian, who will drive away the fiercest beast, even a lion, the cock is a singularly appropriate symbol for the protection of an infant, and hence possibly he is placed on both sides of the Cimaruta, and also upon the Mano Pantea to guard the woman and child. His crow is said to be the praise offered to the sun-god, when Chanticleer proclaims the approach of day. It is said that even the lion is afraid of a cock, and that his eye is all-powerful as an amulet; also that all demons with lions' heads vanish instantly when the cock (or his image) is presented to them. May not this be the reason why a weathercock is placed high on our church towers? See remarks on Gurgoyles in Appendix II. Pliny says "the lion is terrified--still more on seeing the crest, or hearing the crowing of the cock." The eagle is well known as Jove's own bird. It is shown alongside him on the gem as an amulet. In Montfaucon most of the prints of Jupiter have an eagle accompanying him.
The sword or dagger grasped in the hand appears not only as a separate charm on, but is in the hand of the gladiator on the Woburn marble and in several of the hands of Diana Triformis. This may represent the knife shown on the Mano Pantea, or it may be the dart of Diana Venatrix as on.
The fish grasped by the hand is among the separate coral charms shown also on. The fish appears also on the Cortona lamp and on various gems and medals. In some it appears as a dolphin. The dolphin was the special attribute of Neptune, but Diana-Proserpine was a sea goddess, and it may as an amulet refer to her, inasmuch as it is on her statue.
Lastly, the flower must be intended for the lotus, the symbol of Isis, i.e. of Diana.
To sum up: we have in this highly composite and therefore powerful amulet, no less than thirteen separate and distinct symbols, any one of which by itself may be taken as prophylactic against the dreaded evil eye.
These are:
1, Rue.;
2, Diana Triformis;
3, Silver;
4, Hand;
5, horned Crescent;
6, Serpent;
7, Key;
8, Heart;
9, Cock;
10, Eagle;
11, Sword or Dart;
12, Fish;
13, Lotus.
Of all the many charms combined in the Cimaruta we find on close study that there is scarcely one which may not directly or indirectly be considered as connected with Diana, the goddess of infants, worshipped to-day by Neapolitans as zealously as ever she was in old times by the men of Ephesus and Rome; the only change is in her name. Many a Demetrius, who still makes her silver shrines, flourishes near the Piazza Margherita, though nowadays he knows her only as La Madonna; she is, however, his goddess, his "regina del Cielo, della terra, del parto, ed anche del Inferno."
Figs. 166-169 are all modern amulets in daily use, and all alike avowedly contra la jettatura. These are all for suspension, and are mostly provided with chains by which to hang. Like all Diana charms, they are of silver. Unlike the Cimaruta, these are always made both sides alike, for the reason that they are worn by women outside the dress, or hung up in the house, specially in the window. Although all pass under the general term Corno, which is Neapolitan for amulet, these particular objects are known as Sirene, or Cavalli Marini respectively. In all the former the female figure is crowned. In one she is seated on a double sea-horse, though usually the horses are represented by their two tails rather than two heads. There are, though very scarce, specimens of the figure on a single sea-horse. Readers who are familiar with Abraxas gems will notice the Gnostic influence so plainly visible in these double-tailed mermaids.
By far the most difficult problem connected with this subject has been to account for these strange objects as amulets at all; and next, for their being known in Neapolitan as sirene.
First, then, we are in the very home of the Sirens: their islands are close at hand; the promontory of Ulysses is, next to Capri, the most visible object from Naples. Parthenope, one of the Sirens, is a name of the city itself. "Hyginus writes that at the time of Proserpine's rape, the Sirens came into Apollo's country, which is Sicily, and that Ceres, to punish them for not assisting her daughter Proserpine, turned them into birds." We have plenty of representations of the Sirens, birds with women's faces, as they were believed to be by the ancients; and moreover we have some evidence of their being used in this form as amulets. In the famous Cortona lamp they are shown alternating round the Medusa's head in company with the capo di bove, fish and Priapus, all well-recognised amulets.
The arms of the Neapolitan family of Petronia are a siren, Parthenope, playing a flute. On a medal belonging to them she is represented as a female standing, having wings of the angel kind, but with a bird's tail and legs. There is thus everything about the locality of Naples to connect it with the Sirens, and we know their conventional shape, but whence did the notion come, and how are we to connect them with Proserpine?
The Etruscan lamp once more directs us to Egypt. There we find that Isis was represented with wings as a flying goddess. This is a step forward; but Wilkinson, vol. iii. p. 115, shows us precisely what we are looking for. This is the goddess Hathor, holding precisely the same relation to Isis as the Ephesian Artemis held to the chaste Roman Diana; or rather we may say that Hathor was to Isis what Proserpine was to Diana.
On Egyptian paintings and sculptures we have Hathor represented as a bird-woman; that is Isis, that is Proserpine, that is Diana. How do we know that the crowned figure sitting on sea-horses, called a Siren, is Proserpine, and therefore Hecate, and therefore Diana the protectress of women in childbirth, and therefore a suitable amulet for the use of women as a guardian against the evil eye? No candid reader will refuse to admit that in the bird-woman Parthenope, on the Cortona lamp, we have the same person as the bird-woman Hathor in Fig. 171. Further, if any doubt remained, we have a representation of Isis herself holding her own siren attribute, just as we shall see the same goddess represented by the statues of the Ephesian Diana bearing the distinguishing symbols belonging to her under that title.
Fig. 173 is from a photograph purchased in Naples. It is part of the very large Greek vase of Pluto and Proserpine, No. 2959 in the Museum. The figure on the sea-horse is undoubtedly Proserpine. It is a colossal vase of the- transition period, about the third century B.C., with twenty-two figures, nearly all named. This one has been of great service in identifying figures found upon other vases.
The three-headed Cerberus sufficiently marks the locality. We invite attention next to Fig. 174, half-size of a drawing by the writer from another late Greek vase of about the same date, found at Capua about 1888, now belonging to Mr. Neville Rolfe. The latter has no other ornament than this solid block upon a gray ground. The vase is of course a small one, but there is no doubt as to its genuineness. It will hardly be disputed that these two Greek paintings represent the same idea and the same person. From these the reader is asked to turn to the five statues of Diana taken from Bellori. Upon these seem to be crowded the various symbols of Diana, every one of which in some place or other is to be found as a separate amulet. Upon four of these statues, perhaps four or five centuries later in date than the Greek vases, is to be seen, nearly in the same position, the female on the sea-horse.
Will any person venture to deny that the several representations here brought together are anything else than the prototypes, the direct parents of the modern Neapolitan amulet shown on, and of all those shown on Figs. 166, 167? Inasmuch, too, as we know the ancient ones to represent Proserpine-Diana, so it is maintained that the modern amulet called a siren also represents the same deity.
There are in Montfaucon, and n other books of classic art, plenty of female figures sitting on seahorses, but these are called Nereids. No one will venture to call those here produced by that name, and possibly some of the so-called Nereids may in reality be Proserpines.
Such a chain of evidence, connecting in the most obvious manner the beliefs of to-day with the mythology of perhaps thirty centuries ago, is not often to be found; and again, judging from the known to the unknown, it is reasonable to maintain that most of the habits and customs now persistently upheld by the people would, if they could be thus traced, be found to have their beginnings in the same dim ages of obscure antiquity. Conversely, there is hardly a custom or occult practice of the ancients which may not be traced somewhere or somehow amongst their modern descendants. The statuette, well known to the writer, is now in the Museum of the Collegio Romano. The others are in private collections. It is strange that not one of these four seems to have been known to Montfaucon, or to his authorities. He has, however, the more typical statue of the Ephesian goddess, in which she appears as the patroness of maternity. Those which have the attribute of Proserpine so prominent, appeal more to the Roman ideal, although they are matronly in appearance.
It is difficult satisfactorily to interpret the various attributes upon the four statues from Bellori. In general type they are strikingly alike, though each one is different in detail. Every one has the corona turrita, by which the author of Symbolicasays vertex inisgnitur. This is usually the attribute of the Phrygian Cybele as well as of Diana. The two Farnesian statues have wreaths or floral crowns; in the centre of each is no doubt her own flower--but which? The rose, chrysanthemum, heliochrysum, lotus, were all sacred to Diana. One has the sun upon her crown, while every one wears a half-moon on her breast with the horns downward, just as these amulets are now always worn by horses.
The object above the crescent on three statues is said to represent a crab, but the whole looks more like a scorpion, with the crescent to represent his claws. We are distinctly told that the crab was suspended to the neck of Diana of Ephesus because it was sacred to her. Hence we find the crab on the breast in, and also engraved on gem amulets.
All four statues have two busts upon them, which the present writer does not pretend to explain; a single bust, something like one of these, appears as an amulet on the Kertch necklace.
Another feature common to three of the statuettes is that they have in each case, both above and below the sea-horses, a group of three nude Graces; and the upper group in each shows the outer figure holding a cornucopia. The lower groups have wings, and in one they are holding the wreaths in their hands, probably the same wreath that two of the other statues have on their heads. Moreover, it will be noted that on the breast of are two draped females holding up a wreath, and also on this latter are shown two of the nude females in line with the three stags' heads.
The fourth statue has but one row of Graces, without anything in their hands. It is difficult to determine the meaning of these nude figures. They may possibly represent Diana Triformis.
Every one of these five statues has both hands posed in distinct gesture-like attitudes, and every hand is open.
The cavalli marini (Figs. 166-169) of course represent the same sea-horses as those upon the Diana statues. The sea-horse is an amulet apart, worn equally by the cab horses and upon the breasts of Neapolitan women. On the statues these creatures seem to have heads more like goats than horses. The same may be said of the silver charms. Nevertheless they are all known as cavalli.
Each of the statues wears a veil, reaching to the ground upon four, but curtailed to a mere head-dress on the fifth. These are like the veils often worn by brides, not to hide but to set off the face. Upon Diana the veil represents night--"Velo Dianæ nox indicatur." Moreover, it is the symbol of modesty and chastity.
In the British Museum is an ancient terra-cotta flat bottle, having on both sides the same figure, brandishing in the right hand a sword and in the left a scabbard. All that is known of it is that it was purchased at the Durand sale, described in the "Cabinet Durand," by De Witte, Paris 1836, No. 1550. It is called a Scylla, but on what grounds we are not told. Fig. 179 is from a rough sketch by the writer, but it is sufficient to suggest the general resemblance of this figure to the Proserpines upon the Diana statues and upon the Neapolitan amulets. The two dogs are true Diana symbols, but there is no sign of a crown. One striking feature is in common: the dolphins on the water-bottle are matched by the dolphin alongside the Proserpine on Fig. 175. In any case the coincidence is strange, and does not appear to have been noticed before.
The same conception of the double sea-horse, combined with fish tails, is apparent in the Durand bottle, though the twist is not in the same direction as that invariably seen in the Abraxas and in the Sirens.
Considering how much these charms vary, and the singular individuality there is in all of them, notwithstanding the very rough work of Neapolitan silversmiths, it is yet remarkable that they should all be so true to their respective types. It cannot therefore be surprising that after all these centuries the modern charm should not have developed a far greater divergence, and that it still keeps so near to its prototypes on the Greek vases of two thousand years ago. Such divergences as there are, doubtless arise from their having had to pass through the mill of the Gnostic influence, whereby they adopted new forms without, however, departing from their own types. The bells upon these various objects are all much alike, and of one conventional kind. So indeed are the bells upon our children's corals, and strangely ours are always of the same special pattern and size as these Neapolitan ones; but stranger still, on the walls of Medinet Habou are these same little bells upon the personified crux ansata. Are these mere coincidences? Is it also a coincidence that the coral we use was also an ancient protective amulet for children, and that we have it always mounted with silver? Is it also mere coincidence that two of the sirens shown on Fig. 166 end in whistles like our baby's toy?
We cannot explain the exact likeness in the little bells between those on our baby's amulet and on that of the ancient Egyptians or modern Neapolitans; still the peculiar shape remains the same from the time of Ptolemy X. and during all the eighteen centuries since Pliny wrote. The little bells of brass seen upon horses are different: in shape they are mostly globular. "Le son de l'airain" was thought to have a prophylactic virtue. Little bells of this metal were employed in certain rites, but also worn as amulets. They are often suspended to the phallus.
We omitted to refer to one of the amulets upon the Naples cab horses on Fig. 83, the man in a boat. This is said to be Osiris, the Nile, or water, by which the sun fertilises and nourishes the earth. The old confusion between the several deities here appears again; for Horus is also depicted as sitting on a lotus (his usual representation), and also in a boat. He also is a sun-god, and as much confounded with his father Osiris as is Demeter with her daughter Persephone. Fig. 180 represents Horus on a lotus, holding the whip of sovereignty in his left hand, with his right as usual raised towards his lips in token of silence. Above are the regular Gnostic symbols, (the Turkish) sun and moon. His boat is the sacred baris, terminating at the prow in the head of an eagle or vulture, and at the stern in that of a bull-both symbols of the sun.All these latter accessories do not appear on the Neapolitan horse charm, but the idea is the same. Of course the capo di bove is the old favourite, repeated all round the tomb of Cecilia Metella, the Cortona lamp, and in two rows of three each on the statue of Diana, where they are flanked by dragons and griffins, which were sacred to her. Even these latter are compounded creatures, and so represent double attributes, all pointing to the sun: the dragon or flying serpent with a lion's head, and the griffin or lion with vulture's head and claws. The serpent is here supposed to represent the inner senses and the quickened understanding. The bee is specially sacred to Diana and Ceres. It is the symbol of virginity, as testified by many ancient authorities. Our custom of beating kettles, ringing bells, and making other noises to cause swarming bees to settle, is not a modern one. Varro (De re rust. iii.) says: "Who does not know that dispersed and wandering bees may be got to one place by cymbals and rattles (plausibus)?"
Among symbolic amulets are some very remarkable objects which have hitherto met with rather limited attention.
One of these Jahn (p. 52) calls a wonderful monument and, moreover, a distinct amulet. It is a terra-cotta plaque, circular in shape, with a sort of handle projection on one side. It is like a very shallow bowl with a flat rim round the edge, within which are huddled together a number of very remarkable objects. This one is now to be seen in the British Museum. The drawing reduced from Jahn's book is by no means satisfactory, yet it is for our purpose much clearer than a photograph. The plaque came to the Museum by the bequest of Sir W. Temple, who described it as found at Pozzuoli. Jahn says his illustration is one-third of the original size, but the plate itself does not exceed six inches in diameter. The purpose of this terra cotta, besides serving for a very compound amulet, is not referred to by Jahn, although tablets of this character cannot have been uncommon in classic times; for we read of another found in Amyklai, described by Aberdeen in Walpole's Memoirs, p. 452. Moreover, there is in the Ashmolean Museum a complete specimen with a portion of another, brought by Mr. A. Evans from Taranto.
All these seem to have a projection by way of handle. Fig. 182 represents the Oxford disc. Fig. 183 is in the Naples Museum, and there is another in Berlin. Comparison of these illustrations will convince the I reader that, whatever their purpose may have been, they generally convey the same idea, and are as much alike as any of the examples of the ancient Mano Pantea or of the modern Cimaruta. The material is the same, and the size, about 5 inches in diameter, is nearly alike in all: the various objects represented upon them all are not raised but rather deeply sunk.
A glance is sufficient to show that many of the objects represented are the same in each, though their position upon the respective plaques varies. In the London and Naples tablets they seem to be arranged in lines vertically, and more or less horizontally; in the Oxford one they seem to be divided into four segments, with a number of the articles ranged round the circumference, the rest being roughly radiated from the centre. Moreover, the latter tablet has a hole, apparently for suspension, which the British Museum one has not.
On the top of Figs. 181 and 183 we see our old friends the sun and the moon very distinctly. In the other, both are also represented, but in different positions. The three upright objects between the sun and moon in Fig. 181 appear likewise in all the tablets. Jahn says he does not know what they are.
Mr. Evans says they are distaffs, and that a fourth, a larger one, is also there. We presume he means the horizontal object alongside--these distaffs, he says, are wound round with wool. There is a large upright object beneath the ladder in the British Museum tablet which Jahn does not refer to, but which Minervini says is an acorn. In the middle of the next row, above the ladder, is a head over an object like an ambos. Neither of these can be identified on the Oxford tablet, although Mr. Evans seems to see in it the "head of a nymph." In each tablet is seen a pair of Amphoræ, or Canthari; and again we are reminded of the Cantharus upon both our examples of the Mano Pantea. These represent, we are told, the Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux). On either side of these is a sheep, but there is nothing to match them in the Oxford or Naples tablets. This animal, however, closely resembles that upon the modern bone amulet from Sienna. In front of one sheep at the top of the ladder is, according to Jahn, an oval thing which may be a mussel. On the Oxford tablet is something like it on the right of the distaffs. In the next row is a round object in the centre, which Jahn cannot explain. Then come the club and the trident-the latter very plain on all the plates. The ladder is plain on all, and Jahn says between the torch and ladder is a two-pronged fork (Zweizack), and that this is an attribute of Hades. The lyre and bow appear on all, and next the lyre (on the left) what he thinks is meant for a pair of cymbals. The open hand is plain on all; the right hand in two, and left in the other. To the right of the lyre is a leaf, the meaning of which, Jahn says, is not clear, but it is surely the phallic fig-leaf.
The pincers are distinct on all, as they are upon the nail, Fig. 159. One other object, common to all the tablets, which neither Jahn nor Mr. Evans attempts to explain, is the oblong slab with twelve square holes in regular lines. Three flat discs, on all the plates, Mr. Evans thinks may be coins, but three similar discs are upon the table on the hand, Fig; 156, apparently as an offering to Serapis. There are, besides these, several objects upon the Oxford tablet not to be found upon those of the British Museum or Naples. First, the upright column above the crescent, which Mr. Evans calls the club of Herakles, we submit is much too important an object upon this combination of attributes to be the symbol of either of the lesser gods. It is suggested that this may be one of the pillars of Hermes on which that god engraved all knowledge. The objection to this is that the caduceus has already typified him. Still there may be two symbols like the sun and thunderbolt for the same god. Again, there is a bird, but hardly a dove; it would rather be intended for a cock or an eagle. The object near the bird, called a lover's knot by Mr. Evans, is, we suggest, much more probably a scorpion. The "curved object" is manifestly the same as Jahn calls a Füllhorn, but it rather represents a scythe or sickle; which of them is the tunny or the grapes which Mr. Evans sees we cannot explain.
Jahn finishes his description of Fig. 181 with the remark that "surely are distinguishable over and above the stars, the symbols of Zeus, Poseidon, Hermes, Herakles, Apollo, Artemis, Hephaistos, perhaps of Pluto and of Demeter: the cymbals may typify Dionysos or other orgiastic deities; the cornucopia Tyche (Fortuna)." The well-known symbols of various deities here brought together make it pretty evident that the rest, which we cannot identify, all belong to the same category, and are grouped here for a like purpose. Upon the general aspect of these tablets Mr. Evans points out that their wheel-like character renders it highly probable that they were used for stamping cakes in use on various religious occasions. The segmental division certainly recalls the cakes still to be seen in the Pompeian room at Naples, and the same thing appears on the cakes set before the "three men" by Abraham, from the early Ravenna mosaics. Loaves or cakes so marked are still sold in the streets and markets of Naples, while our own hot-cross buns perpetuate the same form, though now under a Christian guise.
It is much to be desired that the British Museum authorities would have a cast made from the plaque in their possession, for it, like all the other similar tablets, is an unmistakable mould. Examination of the convex casts placed alongside the mould in the Ashmolean, and of a fragment of another in the same case with it, shows much more distinctly what the objects are intended to represent, than can be determined when one only looks at the concave mould. Another matter of interest is, that the fragment at Oxford is an exact duplicate of the plaque in the British Museum, and is broken in a line from about the centre of the ladder, passing through the lyre to the centre of the three discs, and preserves the objects above that line. The cast makes clear several objects which Jahn evidently did not understand in the perfect plaque of Sir W. Temple. It is remarkable that duplicate moulds, identical in pattern and in shape, should have been found at Pozzuoli and Taranto. The Naples example is both clearer and sharper, as well as in much better preservation than the others. The engraving published in the Bullettino Archeologico Napoletano, No. 120, 1857, from which we take Fig. 183, has been badly copied in Daremberg (p. 256), but without acknowledgment.
We also give here a copy (Fig. 184) of a terra-cotta lamp from the collection of Signor Barone, also published in the Bullettino Archeologico Napoletano, vol. iii. p. 182, Tav. VII. Another plaque of the same kind is at Berlin, too indistinct and wanting in definiteness to be worth reproduction, yet a large number of the objects can be readily made out, and are common to all the others here shown. In the arrangement of objects it matches Fig. 182, particularly in the division into four segments; but in this Berlin plaque is one very noticeable and remarkable point--it has a border almost identical in pattern, if not actually the same, as that shown on the lamp, Fig. 184. Attention is particularly invited to this, inasmuch as we hope by these drawings to prove what was the object of these terra cottas. A mere glance at the three cuts, really representing five distinct moulds, is sufficient to prove that the purpose is the same in all, and that the majority of the objects represented upon them are identical, and therefore must all symbolise the same ideas or persons. Besides these, there is, another plate of the like kind in the Louvre, which however the writer has not seen. The greater plainness of the objects upon Fig. 184, together with their proper convex forms in the casts at Oxford, and a general comparison of all together, enable us to correct Jahn, and to determine what certain obscure objects are in each of the moulds. Minervini (Editor of the Bullettino) writing on Fig. 183, remarks upon the great similarity between this and Jahn's plaque. He insists that the whole is an amulet symbolising many divinities; that a horizontal line through the centre of each of these plates passes through a series of identical objects.
Minervini says that the open hand has not been sufficiently considered by Jahn; that it seems to point upward to the numerous symbols depicted above it; that he considers these hands to be of the same meaning as those Jahn calls votive hands, here dealt with in the chapter on the Mano Pantea.
Beginning on the left, he compares the two seriatim. The ladder, he remarks, is doubtful in its meaning to Jahn, but we see in both plaques the symbols of the twelve great gods. Ceres however is wanting, whereas on Barone's lamp she is represented by the ear of corn; and he maintains that what seems to be a ladder is arnese di tessere, i.e. a loom, and that it represents Ceres in all cases. In every one of the moulds seen by the writer there is the ladder unmistakable.
The next symbol, he says, is a lighted torch with the flame turned to the left. This, Jahn says, is a two-pronged fork; but he is surely wrong, for that would mean nothing.
On Fig. 181 is a nondescript object above the ladder, corresponding in position to what Minervini calls a flame. Now, as in the Ashmolean plaque there is an undoubted torch, we think that in both moulds a torch with flame turned to the left comes next the ladder, and that it represents Vesta; so asserts Minervini. On the lamp we see the torch most distinctly. Next comes a scabbard, which Jahn took for the torch. It is very plain, and shows the ring by which it is attached to the belt (balteo) on Fig. 183. This is for Mars. The scabbard is shown on the lamp, and is probably intended by one of the objects upon the Mano Pantea which we could not explain. Minervini in one of his articles calls this a quiver (turcasso), but corrects himself afterwards. The thunderbolt appears in all the plaques, and needs no explanation. On the lamp it is superseded by the eagle.
Next, according to Minervini, is the patera in the centre, representing Juno. In the cast of the fragment at Oxford this centre is marked distinctly with a cross, which seems to point to its being an offering cake.
Next comes the caduceus of Mercury, plain on all the plaques, and also on the Barone lamp. The trident of Neptune is on all the moulds, but on the lamp he is represented by a dolphin.
Next is the club of Hercules, followed by an object which is not easily explained. On Figs. 181, 183, between the caduceus and trident, there is in each what Minervini says unhesitatingly is a knife in the latter; and if this be so, it is doubtless a knife in the other. In the B.M. tablet is a large double object next the trident. We believe this to represent the two separated objects in Fig. 183, which are the club and possibly, as suggested by Minervini, a distaff simply, or a distaff filled with wool (conocchia o pennecchio). Against this, however, his own argument respecting another of the objects tells with some force. Speaking of the cymbals, he refutes Jahn's opinion, and says it is impossible to suppose two symbols of the same deity upon one monument. Now, as Mr. Evans says that the three upright objects found on all three of our plaques represent three distaffs, and also that another object on his, near the ladder, is a large distaff, it is very difficult to reconcile authorities. The three objects referred to have every appearance in Mr. Evans's cast of being rather three spools or bobbins, for the winding of the thread is distinct upon them, and therefore I should say they represent the three Fates. But I can offer no opinion as to the larger object, also said to be a distaff.
In all three molds, and also on the lamp, are found the tongs or pincers of Pluto or rather Vulcan. Minervini says that he believes these to represent the shears of the Fates rather than the tongs of Pluto; but here again he is inconsistent with his own dictum. He says he cannot attempt to explain the obscure article near (i.e. below) the telajo (loom) of Ceres. Whatever this may be, there is the same nondescript at the foot of the ladder in all three plaques. Jahn calls this a shell, but in his mold (Fig. 181) it appears more like an acorn. I would suggest rather that in each case this object is meant for a pine-cone; the same symbol is found upon the lamp and on the hand, Figs. 156, 157. Minervini believes the object called a fig-leaf by Jahn, close to the lyre (Fig. 181), to be the same as that on Fig. 183, between the tongs and the moon. This he thinks to be a bunch of grapes for Dionysos--a bunch of grapes certainly appears on the lamp. He wildly asserts that the three objects between the vases, which are certainly more like reels of yarn, are three masses of incense, and that they recall the well-known verse of Ovid:--
"Et digitis Tria Tura tribus sub limine ponit."
He says this is proved by the adoption in some rites of three lumps (grani) of incense. This, to the present writer, seems far fetched.
The three discs near the trident are very evident in Figs. 181-183; and in Mr Evans's cast from Fig. 182, the object at the top of the caduceus is very unmistakably intended also for them though obscure on the mould. They represent the three sacrificial loaves doubtless the same as are on the hand, Fig. 156. It is a coincidence to be noted that upon the table spread by Abraham (Fig. 116) we see the same number of round cakes, each, too, marked with a cross. Near the lyre on Fig. 183 is a bird, which Minervini says is certainly the Iynx, or dove of Venus. A bird also appears plainly on the Oxford cast, and also on the lamp.
The undoubted owl upon the Naples plaque of course means Minerva. Upon this Minervini says that the same position in Jahn's drawing is occupied by a head over an anvil, but that this is a modern restoration! It is certainly very indistinct, and the head may be a creation of Jahn's draughtsman; but on the other hand there is a head upon the lamp, and also we find a head upon the Isiac tablet from Pignorius. It has been suggested that one of the obscure objects on the Ashmolean mould may represent a head. Minervini believes that the head in Fig. 181 is really an owl, and the anvil its tail.
Near the hand beneath the bird, is the strigil accompanied by the vase of oil, "or rather the xistrolecilo, a well-known symbol of bath and palestra." These are called strigil and guttus in Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities. The square tablet in all the plaques is, according to Minervini, a tabella representing athletic laws of the gymnasium and palestra. I prefer to follow the example of Jahn and Evans, by saying I do not know what it is. On comparing them together no candid reader will deny that all these moulds were certainly intended for the same purpose, particularly as duplicates were found so far apart as Pozzuoli and Taranto.
Although very different in the general arrangement of the objects represented upon it, yet the lamp shows so much resemblance, and it has so many symbols belonging to the other combinations, that it is but reasonable to consider them upon the lamp as representing the same ideas or cult as upon the plaques. In the centre is a winged female seated, whom we may take to be a divinity, surrounded by so many symbols that she seems to be intended for Fortuna Pantea, who is called upon a Roman monument FORTVN : OMNIVM · GENT · ET · DEOR. In her left hand she holds a cornucopia, from which appear flowers and grapes. In her right she holds a patera, which she is presenting to a serpent twined round an altar of offerings. At the top is a beardless head, enclosed in an ornament like a crescent. Beneath the crescent is a wheel-like object mounted on something unknown, but the whole strikingly suggestive of the Ashantee crescents; and we may fairly explain the whole as the sun and moon. We see also the eagle; the Dolphin; the scabbard, or, as Minervini calls it, the quiver; the club; the sistrum of Isis; the lyre; the tongs (these are no shears); the caduceus; the thyrsus of Bacchus, having the pine-cone at the top; the cymbals of Cybele, Bacchus, and Juno, suspended to the "pomegranates of Proserpine," and near them the ear of corn of Ceres. There is a second serpent, Agathodemon, often seen in connection with Fortuna, which is climbing up behind and looking over her shoulder, much in the same position as that on the hand, whereon again two serpents are represented.
Presuming that the illustrations, here brought together for the first time, have been duly examined and compared, we must now try to ascertain the true object of the moulds represented by three of them.
Heydemann, writing in the Gazette Archéologique, 1883, p. 7, quotes Lenormant as of opinion that they are intended for the making of mirrors in bronze. M. Albert Dumont and M. Robert de Lasteyrie support this opinion, while M. Henzey says they have served to mark the religious impression upon sacrificial cakes. Mr. Arthur Evans assumes this to be an unquestioned fact, as he simply calls them "moulds for sacred cakes." He says later that it seems "highly probable" that this was their purpose. Heydemann disagrees with both these opinions, and supports Jahn in the contention that they belong to the class ἀποτρόπαια, that is of prophylactic amulets; and he goes on to compare the various specimens of moulds known to him, but not including those now at Oxford, and gives to some of the objects an explanation differing from any yet noted: for instance, he finds a thimble, a rosette, a key, a wing, a lizard, etc., but admits that the objects are often very indistinct. After disputing several contentions of Minervini, he points out that in every case there is an umbilicus, round which the symbols are placed. In this last belief the writer fully agrees with him; at the same time it is evident Heydemann is not a careful observer, for he asserts that the plaque of Sir W. Temple and that of Mongelli at Naples are certainly from the same model. It has been stated that the Berlin terra cotta (published in the Gazette Archéologique) in general arrangement resembles that at Oxford, but in addition there is a border with a pattern like that on the Barone lamp. Moreover, this lamp is of almost the exact size of all the known terracotta moulds of this sort, while of course the figures upon the Barone and all other lamps are raised by having been shaped in a concave mould. Looking then at the great demand there must have been for lamps of all kinds, and at the peculiar and exactly similar shapes of these moulds found in various places to that of the lamp; looking also to the fact that lamps so frequently bore objects upon them which were obviously intended as amulets; we have little hesitation in setting aside all the other theories advanced, and maintaining that these were the moulds with which the potter shaped the top of the peculiar flat-shaped lamp shown on Fig. 184. In the specimen we have, there is a round hole just below Fortuna's arm, to pour in the oil. In forming a lamp from the other moulds, the maker would cut a round hole in the soft clay just in the centre, at the spot where in each mould there is left a suitable umbilicus. There is no evidence whatever that the sacrificial cakes bore any such devices as are upon these plaques. Moreover, the symbols are so small that in a material like dough they would have simply appeared as shapeless, meaningless excrescences, whereas the plaster cast at Oxford shows that in a fine material like terra cotta each symbol comes out in convex form, distinct and fairly sharp, merely requiring the ordinary hand trimming to make it as clear and distinct as the representations upon the many lamps in our museums, and especially on that of Barone at Naples. The border pattern upon the Berlin mould completely destroys the sacred cake theory. The plain border round our Oxford, Naples, and British Museum specimens, would be pared off by the workman in fitting the soft top on to the body of the lamp. It is of course possible that bronze also may have been cast in these moulds, for the many specimens of the Mano Pantea are all cast in a mould of some sort, and the symbols upon them have been dressed and trimmed afterwards, just as the statuettes of bronze or of terra cotta have been finished up after being cast. These things could no more have been used for sacred cakes than the other moulds exhibited alongside them at Oxford-from which ornamental plaques, statuettes, and other artistic objects have been made.
The lamps they were intended to shape were of the commonest form, and lent themselves conveniently to the collocation of a number of symbols such as are found on these moulds, as well as upon many lamps. We submit they were intended, in the same way as the more costly bronze hands, to display constantly an assemblage of amulets in a cheap material analogous to the wax ex votos now seen in churches, as compared with the very same objects often alongside them in more costly silver.
Somewhat allied to the remarkable terra-cotta plates we have been discussing is the curious tablet illustrated in Pignorius, of which Fig. 185 is a copy. Many of the objects drawn upon it are very obscure, yet amongst them are some we recognise as old acquaintances; and there can be little doubt of the whole being a protective amulet against the evil eye, and that it is a veritable Mensa Isiaca. The head probably represents a skull, or possibly it may be the same person as the bust in Fig. 181. Over it is the mystic eye. The triangle, whether with base or apex downward, is a well-known phallic symbol. Both occur upon this plate. The typical hoe or plough shown upon Egyptian ushebtiu and in the hands of Isis, Fig. 172, with more than one crux ansata, and two arms with hands palm tip, are all very plain.
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