ppanll ls)ore, lf)eqe^/, cmsl Tsijric/. 305 



of a bygone age. Pausanias tells tis, that the Greeks guarded 



scrupulously the Cypresses which grew over the Tomb of Alcmaeon, 

 and that these trees attained such a height, that they cast their 

 shadows on the neighbouring mountain. The same writer mentions 

 several groves of Cypress which were looked upon as sacred by 

 the Greeks; for instance, those which surrounded the Temples of 

 Bellerophon and ^Esculapius, one of the shrines of Venus, the 

 TomI) of Lais, near Corinth, and a dense wood of Cypress, where 

 were to be seen statues of A])ollo, Mercury, and Rhea. Diodorus 

 Siculus, Plato, and Solinus speak of groves of Cypress which 

 were held sacred in Crete, near the ruins of the reputed dwelling 

 of Rhea, and in the vicinity of the Cavern of Zeus. Solinus also 

 remarks on the peculiarity of the Cretan Cypresses in sprouting 



afresh after being cut down. P. della Valla, a great traveller 



of Evelyn's time, tells of a wonderful Cypress, then extant, near 

 the tomb of Cyrus, to which pilgrimages were made. This 

 tree was hollowed within, and fitted for an oratory, and was 

 noted for a gummy transudation which it yielded, reputed by 



the Turks to turn, every Friday, into drops of blood. Plato 



desired to have the laws engraved on tablets of Cypress, because 

 he thought the wood more durable even than brass : the antique 

 idol of Vejovis (or Vedius), in Cypress- wood, at the Capitol, 

 corroborates this notion. Semiramis selecled the timber of the 

 Cypress for his bridge across the Euphrates ; the valves, or 

 doors, of the Ephesian temple were of this material, as were also 

 the original gates of St. Peter's, Rome. It has been thought 

 that the Gopher, mentioned in Genesis (vi., 14), of which the Ark 

 was built, was really Kupvos, Cupar, or Cuper, the Cypress. Epi- 

 phanius relates that some relics of the Ark {circa campos Sennaar) 

 lasted even to his days, and was judged to have been of Cypress. 

 Certain it is that tlie Cretans employed it in ship-building, and that 

 so frequent was the Cypress in those parts of Assyria where the 

 Ark was supposed to have been built, that the vast armadas which 

 Alexander the Great sent forth from Babylon were constructed 

 of it. Of Cypress-wood were formed Cupid's darts, Jove's sceptre, 

 and the club of Hercules used in recovering the cows stolen by the 

 robber Cacus. Either of Fig- or Cypress-wood were fashioned the 

 obscene statues of Priapus set up by the Romans in their gardens 

 and orchards, which were presided over by this lascivious god, who 

 exercised a peculiar faculty of detecting and punishing thieves. 

 The thunderbolts of Indra possessed the like distincftive power. 

 In Northern mythology, the club of Hercules and the thunderbolts 

 of Indra are replaced by the mallet of Thor, which it is not difficult 

 to recognise in the mallet of Cypress-wood that, in Germany, 

 was formerly believed to impart the power of discovering thieves. 



From its qualities, the Cypress acquired throughout the East a 



sacred characTier. This was more particularly the case in Persia. 

 In the Zend-Avesta, it is accounted divine— consecrated to the 



