GREEK COINS. AURORA AND TITHONUS. XI 



perhaps the best extant representations are those 

 stamped on some Athenian coins, hthographic draw- 

 ings of three of which I give on the first Plate of this 

 Yohime. It is very possible that many of the early 

 representations in gold- work which have been called 

 "bees," in reality are Tettiges, which on coins often 

 have the appearance of bees.* 



The ancient classic story of Aurora and Tithoniis, 

 alluded to by Virgil, is familiar to most. Tithonus, 

 the beautiful son of Laomedon, a king of Troy, was 

 beloved and carried off by Aurora. He asked of her to 

 be made immortal, and the boon was granted ; but he, 

 forgetting to include perpetual youth and vigour in 

 his request, became old and infirm, and his life 

 insupportable. Therefore he prayed Aurora that he 

 might die ; but, as he was immortal, the goddess 

 changed him into a complaining Cicada, f 



iEsop, who probably was a contemporary of Anacreon, 

 refers in one of his fables to the Cicadas, who, in the 

 winter, unavailingly asked food of the ants. This 

 story, doubtless, is the foundation of the similar French 

 tale told by La Fontaine. 



The Athenians were proud of being of tbe ancient 

 stock, born from the soil, and styled themselves 

 ahiox^oMiq, like the Cicadte. Accordingly, as a mark of 

 their antiquity, they twined golden Tettiges in their 

 flowing hair, which ornaments they would in no ways 

 permit a stranger to use. Such fops were called 

 Tettigophori. The ornament is believed by some to 

 have been a pin with a golden Tettix for its head, and 

 employed to gather the hair into a knot. 



* Through the kindness of my friend Mr. L. E. Upcott, of Marlborouf^h 

 College, I shall be able to show in one of my later plates that the Tettix 

 was occasionally taken as a subject for engravmg on gems ; and on the 

 same plate, through the liberal loan of Mr. John Evans, F.R.S., I 

 represent an ancient Roman ornament, probably as old as 300 B.C., cut 

 cleverly from a block of chalcedony. The stone is drilled from end to 

 end in such a manner as, through a string, it may be used as an amulet 

 round the neck. 



\ In late Greek times the word Tettix passed almost as a synonym of 

 a querulous old man. 



