ROMAN PAVEMENTS AND INTRECCI. 



'73 



triangles. Its first stage is shown in* Illustration XIII. A. 

 The flower is easily recognised, but the outlines of its parts are 

 becoming rectilinear. At the same time the calyx is curling 

 over, on its way to the formation of a curious motif that does not 

 now concern us. An intermediate stage is seen on the neck of 

 an amphora,f Illustration XIII. B. A designer has come in, and 

 has constructed a pattern for textiles. He makes the lines of 

 the flower simple, straight, and symmetrical. 

 Next, he repeats this element. Then, he 

 adds an inversion so that a central square 

 is produced, as well as two lateral half 

 squares which are all dealt with, and filled 

 in like so many calyces. Lastly, he em- 

 panels the whole, and his pattern is 

 complete. But the lotus has now become 

 cryptic in a multitude of squares and 

 triangles. A still further stage of meta- 

 morphosis is witnessed in j Illustration XIV., 

 fig. i., which represents a detail on the neck 

 of another Ormidian vase. But below the 

 cryptic flower, on the vessel's body, is a band of buds and 

 blossoms realistically treated, as if to show that the tradition 

 of the lotus is continued through all changes. 



It is continued also, though perhaps sub-consciously, on the 

 Dorchester pavement, where an amphora has on its neck a 

 decoration of squares, and is supported on either side by a row 

 of large triangles, Illustration XIV., fig. 2. The amphorae of 

 Silchester and of Frampton have similar supports. 



The vase as a sign of fecundity is also, by the fact itself, a 

 solar symbol. If Earth is the teeming Mother, the Sun is the 

 divine Father. The beneficence of nature was acknowledged at 

 curative springs by placing there a sculptured goddess who held 



* Perrot and Chipiez, Art in Phoenicia and Cyprus ii., 306. 



f Ibid, ii., 308. 

 J Perrot et Chipiez, Op. Cit. ii., 297. 



