568 



TERPANDER TERRA COTTA. 



perors Tacitus and Florian, contains some interest- 

 ing ruins of the old Latin colony of Interamna (ly- 

 ing between two arms of the Nera). Four miles 

 east from Terni is the celebrated cadvta del mar- 

 more, or fall of the Velino or Evelino, 300 feet in 

 height, well known to the readers of Byron by his 

 glowing description in Childe Harold (iv. 69 72). 

 In the notes to this passage (37 and 38), he says, 

 " It is worth all the cascades and torrents of Swit- 

 zerland put together ; which are rills in compari- 

 son. It is singular enough that two of the finest 

 cascades in Europe should be artificial thus of the 

 Velino and the one at Tivoli." (See Cataract.) 

 This "matchless cataract" is, in fact, the work of 

 M. Curius Dentatus (B. C. 270), who caused the 

 rock to be cut through for the purpose of draining 

 the marshes, and making an outlet of the Velino. 

 Clement VIII. caused the old canal of Dentatus to 

 be reopened and enlarged. In the garden of the 

 episcopal palace are the ruins of an amphitheatre, 

 and in the church of St Salvador (St Saviour) the 

 remnants of a temple of the sun. The town has 

 about 7000 inhabitants ; and much oil and wine are 

 produced in the neighbourhood. Near Terni the 

 Neapolitans were defeated by the French in 1798. 

 Forty-five miles north of Rome. 



TERPANDER, a distinguished Greek poet and 

 musician, flourished about B. C. 650, was born at 

 Methymna or Antissa, on the island of Lesbos. 

 When Lacedaemon was distracted by internal 

 troubles, and the oracle was consulted respecting 

 the means of quieting them, it commanded the 

 Spartans to send for the Lesbian singer. He came, 

 and restored peace and quiet, by the sweetness of 

 his songs, which he accompanied on his lyre. His 

 melodies were afterwards known as the Lesbian 

 melodies ; and, for a long time, they served as uni- 

 versal models. He did much to improve the art of 

 music, and is said to have added three new strings 

 to the lyre. Other accounts ascribe this improve- 

 ment to Orpheus, Amphion, or even to Apollo. 

 Terpander was probably the first to introduce the 

 seven-stringed lyre into Sparta. The invention of 

 the musical notation has also been attributed to 

 him, and with some degree of probability, although 

 some accounts refer it to Pythagoras, who lived a 

 century later. The Lacedaemonians sang his songs 

 at their festivals ; and hence he has also been called 

 the inventor of the scolia, or drinking songs, sung 



at the feasts of the ancient Greeks See Scolia h. 



e. Carmina convivalia Gracorum, by Ilgen (Jena, 

 1798). 



TERPODION ; one of the finest musical keyed 

 instruments invented in modern times. The in- 

 terior mechanism consists of wooden staves, which 

 vibrate by the friction of a wooden cylinder, set in 

 motion by a wheel, and thus produce the sweetest 

 tones, susceptible of the finest swell and fall. The 

 higher tones much resemble those of a flute, the 

 lower those of the organ. It is particularly fine as 

 an accompaniment of vocal music, but is less fit for 

 compositions of a lively character. John David 

 Buschmann of Friedrichsrode, near Gotha, is the 

 inventor, and has exhibited his instruments in the 

 large cities of Germany and England. 



TERPSICHORE (she who loves dancing) ; one 

 of the Muses, the inventress and patroness of the 

 art of dancing and lyrical poetry. She is generally 

 represented with the tambourine (tympanum), 

 crowned with flowers, and in a mirthful attitude. 



TERRA, the Earth, was a cosmological divinity 

 of the ancients After the chaos, says Hesiod, the 



extended earth was the abiding place of all the im- 

 mortals, who inhabit the tops of snowy Olympus. 

 By her own power she brought forth the starry 

 heaven (Uranos), the lofty mountains, and the sea 

 (Pontus). By Uranos she became the mother of 

 the Titans (q. v.), Thea, Rhea, Mnemosyne, 

 Themis, Phoebe, Tethys, the Cyclops, and the 

 hundred-handed giants (Centiman'i). Uranos im- 

 prisoned these children, immediately after their 

 birth, in a dungeon. Terra, meditating revenge, 

 prepared a sickle of adamant, and persuaded her 

 sons to castrate their father. Saturn perpetrated 

 the deed. Terra received the drops of blood which 

 issued from the wound, by which being impregnated, 

 she brought forth the Furies, Giants, and the 

 Melian nymphs. By her son Pontus, she after- 

 wards had Nereus, Thaumas, Phorcys, Ceto, and 

 Eurybia. Dissatisfied also with Saturn, she pro- 

 mised her daughter Rhea to bring up the new-born 

 Jupiter, and carried him to Crete. When he had 

 grown up, she aided him in obtaining the throne, 

 advising him to free the imprisoned Centimans arU 

 Cyclops. 



TERRA COTTA (Italian) is the common 

 name for a very large class of remains of antiquity, 

 which have not, till recent times, been treated with 

 the attention which they deserve. The mythical 

 history of the Greek art celebrated Dibutades, 

 Rhoacus, Theodos, as masters in works of clay, 

 without, however, stating whether these works 

 were baked, or merely dried in the sun. The 

 Greeks may, at a later period, have given up the 

 use of clay for large works, after they had become 

 accustomed to marble and bronze ; but clay was 

 still used for fine pottery, and for lamps, of which 

 so admirable specimens have come down to us. 

 In Tuscany and Rome, however, works of sculp- 

 ture, both entire figures and reliefs, in terra cotta, 

 have been found in abundance. These are not 

 generally of large size, though whole friezes and 

 images on pediments were made of terra cotta in 

 antiquity (fastigia templorum fictilia), but manifest 

 the great skill of the qfficina figulince, which were 

 common in Rome and Italy. The works of Damo- 

 philus, Arcesilaus, and Pasiteles may have come down 

 to us in copies, among the remains which, since 

 the time of count Caylus, have been more assidu- 

 ously brought together in museums of antiquities. 

 A collection, made on the spot, by Mr Charles 

 Townley, belongs at present to the treasures of the 

 British museum (Description of the Collection of 

 ancient Terracottas in the British Museum, with 

 thirty-nine engravings, London, 1810, small folio); 

 another, collected by Seroux d'Agincourt, was left 

 by him to the museum of the Vatican (Recueil de 

 Fragmens de Sculpture antique en Terra cuite, par 

 M. Seroux d'Agincourt, Paris, 1814, 4to.). Earlier 

 than the appearance of these works, some relievi 

 found at Velletri were described in the work Bas- 

 sirilievi Volschi in Terra cotta (Rome, 1785, folio.) 

 Accurate examination, particularly of the vessels, 

 has shown a variety in the application of this 

 material, which may lead to results of much advan- 

 tage to modern art. The sorts of works distin- 

 guished are those dried in the air ; those simply 

 baked; those baked and coloured, but not with 

 fixed colours ; those varnished, and having colours 

 burnt in ; a mixed species, in which the colours are 

 in part fixed, in part merely painted on the sub- 

 stance ; and finally, the most costly of all, works 

 with rich gilding. These different productions, as 

 regards the material, are of the most various fine- 



