I 



APHRODITK. 



AIMS. 



404 



U n<4 known, Some authorities hare fancied that the celebrated 

 figure known a* the Venus de' Medici i. if not the Cnidian Aphrodite, 

 t lwt in ancient copy f it; it this U very improbable. Th.:. 

 U a brume ooin of the city ,.f t 'mdu-. of which a good impression in 

 in the cabinet of the Louvre, which ha* on one rnde a figure of 

 Aphrodite, who ruu undraped henelf for the bth, a portion of ].. ; 

 drapery being held in her left hind, and resting on a vase ; arid thin 

 figure mar be rauroably presumed to be a copy of that which the 

 dbaan* w highly esteemed. Much more nearly accordant with (hi* 

 figure than the Venu* de' Medici, U a atetue of Vemu in the garden* 

 of the Vatican, which, though certainly not the Aphrodite of 

 Praxiteles, i* now held by most authorities to be an ancient copy of 

 Muller, ' Arvhaol. der Kurort, 1 1 127.) Though inferior as a work 

 of art, and wanting in the refinement of the Medlcean Venus, thin 

 tatue ha* rtill something of a grander and loftier character, 

 the time of Praxiteles Aphrodite was represented more and more as 

 imply a beautiful woman gracefulness, tenderness, voluptuousness, 

 Hdfrrt/, IT a languishing sensuality, being the character imparted by 

 expression, form, and pose according to the feeling of the artist or tin 1 

 desire of the patron. To this later period belong the earliest repre- 

 sentations of the sea-born Aphrodite, or Venus Anadyomene. By 

 Praxiteles and later Greek artists hetenc noted for their beauty were 

 often represented in the character of Aphrodite ; and there still %xist 

 several portrait statues of ladies of the Imper al families of Rome as 

 Venuses, by Greco-Roman sculptors : some of them examples of almost 

 the lowest stage of the decline of art. 



In sculpture, but still more frequently on gems, Aphrodite is repre- 

 sented grouped with Eros ; with the Charites ; with Adonis ; alone, or 

 with the other goddesses before Paris. On vases, gems, and terra- 

 cotta*, she is seen persuading Helen to fulfil her promise to Paris ; 

 carried through the air on a swan ; in a shell among nereids, &c. One 

 picture of Aphrodite by Apelles has been mentioned; another which 

 he left imperfect, was so much esteemed tliat no artist dared to com- 

 plete it. The peculiar attribute of Aphrodite is the cestus (xisrits 

 i/uk'. 'II-' xiv. 214), or embroidered girdle, which had the power of 

 inspiring love for the person who wore it. Her favourite animals were 

 the swan, the sparrow, and the dove ; her favourite plants, the rose and 

 myrtle. The bird called inux, much used in amatory magic, was also 

 sacred to her. 



Representations of Aphrodite are to be found in moat collections of 

 t sculpture. Of several of the most esteemed in the public 

 galleries of Europe, there are excellent casts id the Ci -y.st.il Palace at 

 Sydi'iiham. In the sculpture galleries at the British Museum, will 

 be found six or seven statues or torsi of Aphrodite of very consider- 

 able value. A small terminal statue closely veiled (in the third Grceco- 

 Roman saloon), "has been thought to represent the Venus Architis of 

 the Phoenician*,' 1 but the correctness of this suggestion in very doubtful. 

 An undraped statue of heroic size, in excellent preservation, represent* 

 Aphrodite preparing for the bath, with a vase and drapery by her 

 side, and is a variety of the ('Indian ty|>e. Three of the others are 

 undraped; one, of heroic size, the right hand and left arm alone 

 modern, is half -draped, of the claas mentioned above. 



Of the existing statues of Aplirdite, that known OK the Venus de' 

 Medici i* so much the most celebrated being, indeed, one of the most 

 famous, if it be not actually one of the finest, relics of I 

 that a somewhat more particular account of it seems to be re<i'me<l. 

 It stands in the apartment of the Imperial gallery at Florence, which 

 U called the Tribune (Tribunal. It is said to have been found in the 

 villa of Hadrian, near Tivi.li. in eleven piece*, and was soi 

 wards carried to Florence in the pontificate of Innocent XI., a'-ml the 

 year 1880. It is all ancient, with the exception ,,f the right arm, the 

 lower half of the left . -it - .J -.:< the statue and 



it* accessories, and the plinth. On the plinth U inscribed the name 

 and country of the artist who made the statue : (.'lenmcnes, the son 

 of Apo)l<Hlonia. of Athens -KAEOMENH2 AnOAAOAWOT A9HNA1O2 

 CnOCSEN. Thin inwriptioii wan copied from tli.it of the original 

 plinth, which wa* broken. It* authenticity II.IH Wen questioned, but 

 on very insufficient groui .i Thicrsch fixed the period of Cleomeues, 

 for various reacons, to be about 200 years B.C., or certainly be? 

 destruction of Corinth, B.C. II*. KUxman also judges from its style 

 that It wa* made after the time of Alexander the Great, and be seems 

 to have considered it a copy of the celebrated Venn* of ('nidus, by 

 Praxiteles, an opinion opiosmd by Merer, Winckclmann, and IKOK 

 critic*, but, a* we have said, apparently without sufficient grounds. 

 Neither the time nor place of it* discovery I* positively known; but 

 it tud, in the 10th century, in the Medici Garden* at It. : 

 >' tavia at Rome i* air ..we been the pla< . 



discovery. It wa* taken by the French to Paris, but wan restored to 

 Florence in 1815. 



It is a null figure, 4 feet 11J Inches high without the flint!, 

 Parian marble, and stand . u|.n the left leg, which in strengthc: 

 .. dolphin with iu bead downward*, upon which t 

 fitting, callnl KPW iind Antero*. The statue U of small but Iwautiful 

 proportions, and nil the part* are xquuiuly rounded, but the face 

 has little npraariuo and not much beauty. The cars are pierced, and 

 at ami time lore ornament* ; the hair wa* gilded, and on the upper 

 part of the left arm thrre i* the mark where p bably a bracelet was 



' 



( \Vincke!i: Altfrttintiit 



t'inum ; Gerhanl, Vat. M< ; Larcher, Htm.ixr IV.w (177 

 in Wordsworth's Ortect ; Thiench. 



K*** ; Viseonli, Onrrtt fHrtnei, vol. iii ; Ilirt, Myil,^. 11,1,1- 

 vol. h -rk. dtr Karat, 874 378, and r. : 



API IN -i'..!!,.". . the name given by it* discoverer, M. Bme 

 to a peculiar principle in parsley, obtained .lM!in in 



water. In roll) water it is nearly insoluble, but dissolve* 



' them when heated, the solutions obtained gela- 

 thrfaing a* they cool. The solution has a yellow colour. Apiin i* 

 soluble in the alkalies and in limp -water ; the solutions are 



! ia added, apiin is . 1 in a gelatinous state. When 



it i* boiled with dilute acids, apiin undergoes a peculiar m.li: 

 If a small quantity of sulphuric acid be added to a boiling solution of 

 apiin, it soon becomes turbid, and is converted into thick y 

 fluid. On filtration after cooling, and saturation of the acid with 

 a small quantity of sugar remains in solution ; the portion precij 

 becomes of a yellowish-white colour after washing and dryin. 

 weighs but little less than the apiin submitted to experiment ; it is 

 neutral, inodorous, insipid, and insoluble in cold water, but it dissolves 

 in boiling water or alcohol ; the solutions do not gelatinise on cooling, 

 but precipitate in white >]que flocculi. 



Apiin dissolves in concentrated sulphuric and hydrochlo: 

 is precipitated from them by water in the state above desi ; 

 M. Braconnot inclines to the opinion that this is pure apiin. and dial 

 that which gelatin pound of apiin with cine of tile sub-' 



which the acids convert into sugar, an operation after which the apiin 

 is exhibited in its proper character. Apiin produces- a chara. i 

 action with protosiilphatc of iron, producing with it a blood-red i 

 which is so intense that about 16 grains of it dissolved in five 

 of water visibly colour it. The apiin which does notgelatini 

 duccH the same effect : a solution of it in boiling water given a blood- 

 red precipitate with a solution of the salt of iron. With niti. 

 apiin yields c. id and some traces of oxalic acid. 



APIRINE, a dubious alkaloid, said by M. Bizio to be contained in 

 the nut of tli- '/I'd. Its composition is unknown. 



A i 'IS, a .-acred bull, whose station and temple were at Memphis in 

 Egypt- His Kgyptian name was Heri, and he was regarded 

 living son of the god Phtha. He must be distinguished li 

 the sacred bull of Heliopolis. The real or true Apis was know 

 among all other bulls by certain marks, which are lie 

 dotus and Pliny (iii. '-'S ; viii. 40). His birth is commonly de- 

 as miraculous; th luced from a cow, h. 



caused by the descent of lightning, or the influence of 

 beams. When the bull Apis died, or had been put to deat'i 

 living the prescribed number of years (according to some 

 a successor was diligently sought for. and. when found, was in 

 in his temple of Memphis with all due solemnity. The cow wa* not 

 eaten in Egypt, but the bull wa* used a* food; yet no bull could be 

 slaughtered till it had been first ascertained that it had none > 

 marks which characterised a sacred bull. When this was aacei 

 satisfactorily, the priests put a seal or mark on the animal, to 

 that it might be slaughtered: no unstamped bull could be slaughtered, 

 under pain of death. The object of the regulation was probably the 

 raising of an income by a tax on slaughtered animals : there migl, 

 sibly > sons also. (Herod, ii. 38.) 



The worship of Apis existed at least as late a* the reign of Septimus 

 Severn*. We hear of Greeks and Romans of rank laying tie 

 specta ti> the bull of Memphis, in which curiosity and supei- 



to have been blended. Alexander the Great, when lit- visited 

 Hetuphi*, sacrificed to all the gods, and Apis among the rest. The 

 Persians, on the other liund, regaio. i.-hip of the bull with 



disgust, and Cambyses insulted the i 



Gennanicu* Omar, when he visited Egypt iu the reigu of Tiberius, went 

 to see Apis at Memphis. It nable -i-n when the g 



would take food from the hand of hi- i the rcvci 



looked upon as presaging misfortune. The bull refused what th 

 of (ieuuanietis offered, and the Roman general died shortly after at 

 Antioch. Strabo describes the Apis and his temple in the foil 

 terms, at the time of hi. \> <: (xvii. p. Sn7) : " Mcmphi- 



a temple ( ,f Api.-. who Is the same as Osiris. The bu! 

 in kept iii an niartinent (o-7|ic6i), and is regarded as a god : lie i 

 n the forehead and some other parts of the body, but in 

 other part black. By these "marks ti de which bull is to 



be the successor of Apia when he dies. In front of the apartment is an 



ic, iii which there is another apartment fur the bull's m 

 They allow the sacred bull to come into this court or inclosure at 

 certain times. ami chiefly for the purpi-xc of being shown to strangers." 

 The bull Apis, according to Herodotus (iii. 21*), was embalmed wh*o 

 he died; but if he lived beyond a given number of years, I. 



id buried ,-ecntly. If he died a natural death within the 

 1 time, he wo* buricd'with much solemnity in the temple of 

 Serapis, at >I ' >;cas says (vol. i. p. 345, ' Voyage fait en 171!) 



that he observed bulls' head* in several niches of the catacombs of 

 Abousir : he also found a bull embalmed, and in a great ch> 

 w Inch the head of the animal was represented ; the case, he says, was 

 gilded and painted. (.See also ' AlHl-Allatif,' De Sacy, p. 2<il.) 



The deity Apis won probably a symbol o{ tUo Mile (Jablousky, 



