H TWO EXAMPLES OF SYMBOLISM. 



** Pillar of the House," a cult to which we shall presently 

 return. 



It is now time to observe that the motif we are considering, 

 so common on Roman mosaic pavements, never appears in the 

 form of a double axe, and never exhibits the least indication of 

 a handle. 



And who is this (Fig. n) depicted at Herculaneum? Who 

 indeed, if she be not Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons, who 

 brought her fair troops to the aid of Priam at the siege of Troy, 

 and was slain, alas, by Achilles, whose heart was wrung by her 

 beauty as she lay dead at his feet. 



" Ducit Amazonidum lunatis agmina peltis, 

 Penthesilea f urens, mediisque in millibus ardet, 

 Aurea subnectens exertae cingula mammae 

 Bellatrix, audetque viris concurrere virgo." 



Into the thick of the fight the war-maiden, girt with a golden 

 belt, leads her Amazons with their crescent shields, eager to do 

 battle with men. So sings Virgil (^neid I. 491) and adds in 

 another place (xi. 663) 



" magnoque ululante tumultu 



Fceminea exultant lunatis agmina peltis." 



And Ovid makes Cydippe say to Acontius, 



'* / had not taken my stand, defended by a buckler, wielding 

 the battle axe like Penthesilea on the Ilian shores ; no belt 

 embossed with Amazonian gold was borne off as a booty by 

 ihee ! * 



It is remarkable that the double battle axe, such a favourite 

 weapon round the ^Egaean in prehistoric times, was unknown in 

 Egypt, was despised by the Greeks, and was never used by the 



* " Non ego constiteram sumpta peltata securi, 



Qualis in Iliaco Penthesilea solo. 

 Kullus Amazonis ctelatus balteus auro, 

 Sicut ab Hippolyte, prseda relata tibi est." 



Heroides, xxi., 118. 



