lately discovered in the Ruins qf Selinus, 167 



on the metopes of any temple hitherto discovered." In the sixths 

 (which he describes with its companions), he beUevesthat he has 

 recognised the education of the Sicilian Bacchus, the son of Ju- 

 piter and Ceres, more ancient than the Theban offspring of Ju- 

 piter and Semele. This he eruditely deduces from many circum- 

 stances, and especially from its affinity with another group as- 

 cribed to Polycletes ; which, according to Pausanias, was to be 

 seen in the temple of Ceres at Athens. In both, the young 

 Bacchus is placed between two goddesses, his mother, and his 

 sister Proserpine. The only peculiarity in our sculpture is, that, 

 assisted by his mother, he stands in the act of curbing four horses 

 yoked to a rustic car ; an unequivocal symbol of agricultural 

 operations. The seventh metope appears to the author still more 

 easily explained. He does not hesitate to find here delineated 

 the moment of time in which Perseus^ sustained by Minerva, 

 under a human form, cuts off the head of Medusa (guilty of 

 having profaned the temple of the goddess by the seduction of 

 Neptune), while from the blood of the wound, Pegasus is pro- 

 duced, whom the dying female presses to her bosom as part of 

 herself. And, lest it may be objected to him, that the Gorgon 

 is not recognisable, as she wants the characteristic of snaky locks ; 

 he answers, that the first who gave her this attribute was M^- 

 chylus, who was several ages posterior to the sculpture of which 

 he treats ; so that this characteristic may be considered in some 

 degree as modern and arbitrary. Indeed, he remarks, that the 

 beautiful and unfortunate young woman is also represented 

 with the long and natural tresses on an ancient Etruscan monu- 

 ment, made known by his countryman Micale in his history *; 

 as likewise on a valuable coin, which Eckel attributes to Popu- 

 lonia ; Castello to Camarina ; and which he believes to have be- 

 longed to Selinus -f-. 



In the eighth metope, which is better preserved than the last, 

 he recognises Her miles Melampyges, either from his black bul- 

 locks, or because he carries on his shoulder, appended to each 

 extremity of the spear, the two brothers Passalus and Arche- 

 mon; who were induced to betray him whilst he slept. This 



• " Italia avanti il Dominio dei Romani." 

 t Ossia delle Neitiche nere che porta in ispalla," &c. 



