TROPHIES TROPPAU. 



681 



felt. And even tropes which do not actually be- 

 come mere abstract terms, lose their force by con- 

 stant use, as when a great statesman is called a pil- 

 lar of the state. " With every century," says Jean 

 Paul, m his Vorschule zvr Aesthetik, div. 2, "some 

 field of poetical flowers loses its freshness, and be- 

 comes dead matter;" and lively tropes become more 

 and more rare with the progress of time, because, 

 though changes of circumstances afford opportuni- 

 ties to make new ones, yet the best, that is, the 

 simplest, have been worn out, and every writer is 

 therefore obliged to omit the use of numerous 

 tropes, which his imagination suggests. Writers 

 disagree as to the various kinds of tropes, some 

 reckoning more, some fewer sorts. Quintilian com- 

 plains of this vagueness, and attempts a new divi- 

 sion, but without much precision. Adelung reckons 

 only the metonymy, synecdoche, and metaphor, 

 among the tropes ; but this enumeration seems to 

 be too restricted. More modern writers add the 

 allegory and prosopopoeia, or personification, which 

 certainly have the character of tropes. 



TROPHIES (rjoira/a) ; monuments in comme- 

 moration of a victory, formed of captive arms, or, 

 in a more general sense, all memorials of victory. 

 The ancients usually erected them upon the spot 

 where they had gained a victory. In the earliest 

 times, the Greeks were accustomed to hang up the 

 arms taken from the enemy, or the spoils, upon an 

 oak or an olive tree, in such a manner as to imitate 

 ihe appearance of an armed man. From the nearest 



tree, most of the branches were lopped off, a few 

 being left, upon which were fixed swords, shields, 

 epears, &c. Upon the top was placed a helmet, and 

 around the trunk, a cuirass or breast-plate. The 

 trophies were, at a later period, also formed by 

 erecting wooden frames, upon which the spoils were 

 suspended, as the Greeks were unwilling to render 

 the memorials of hostility permanent. At a still 

 later period, they were formed of bronze and mar- 

 ble, or even of gold; and they were often the sub- 

 jects of medals. In these, the emblem of the con- 

 quered province or town was sometimes represented 

 in a mourning posture, under a tree, with some in- 



scription, indicating the victory. Similar represen- 

 tations were also made upon altars. An inscrip. 

 tion was also sometimes placed upon a votive shield, 

 to perpetuate the victory. At triumphs, it was 

 usual to bear trophies before the triumphant gene- 

 ral. 



TROPHONIUS, a celebrated architect, son of 

 Erginus, king of Orchomenos, in Bceotia. He built 

 Apollo's temple at Delphi, with the assistance of 

 his brother Agamedes, and when he demanded of 

 the god a reward for his trouble, he was told by 

 the priestess to wait eight days, and to live, during 

 that time, with all cheerfulness and pleasure. When 

 the days were passed, Trophonius and his brother 

 were found dead in their bed. According to Pau- 

 sanias, however, he was swallowed up alive in the 

 earth ; and when, afterwards, the country was 

 visited by a great drought, the Boeotians were 

 directed to apply to Trophonius for relief, and to 

 seek him at Lebadea, where he gave oracles in a 

 cave. They discovered this cave by means of a 

 swarm of bees, and Trophonius told them how to 

 ease their misfortunes. From that time, Tropho- 

 nius was honoured as a god : he passed for the son 

 of Apollo; a temple and a statue were erected to 

 him, and sacrifices were offered to his divinity when 

 consulted to give oracles. The cave of Trophonius 

 became one of the most celebrated oracles of Greece. 

 Many ceremonies were required, and the suppliant 

 was obliged to make particular sacrifices, to anoint 

 his body with oil, and to bathe in the waters of 

 certain rivers. He was to be clothed in a linen 

 robe, and, with a cake of honey in his hand, he was 

 directed to descend into the cave by a narrow en- 

 trance, from whence he returned backwards, after 

 he had received an answer. He was always pale 

 and dejected at his return ; and thence it became 

 proverbial to say of a melancholy man, that he had 

 consulted the oracle of Trophonius. There were 

 annually exhibited games in honour of Trophonius, 

 at Lebadea. 



TROPICAL YEAR. See Year. 



TROPICS, TROPICAL REGIONS. The 

 tropics are those points of the ecliptic in which the 

 sun, having reached his highest southern or north- 

 ern declination, turns back (Greek, -r^iva, to turn), 

 and begins to approach the equator, from which'he 

 had been, for three months, receding. The ima- 

 ginary circles drawn through these points, parallel 

 to the equator, are distant from it 23 30', and are 

 also called tropics or tropical circles. The northern 

 tropic, cutting the ecliptic in the constellation 

 Cancer, is called the tropic of Cancer; and the 

 southern, cutting the same circle in the constella- 

 tion Capricorn, is called the tropic of Capricorn. 

 The part of the globe included within these limits, 

 twenty three degrees and a half each side of the 

 equator, and, consequently, forty-seven degrees of 

 latitude in breadth, is called the torrid zone, or, to 

 avoid the error of implying, that it is universally 

 scorched by burning heats, tropical regions. As a 

 great part of the tropical regions known to us is 

 formed of insular or mountainous countries, the 

 heat is much less excessive than was formerly re- 

 presented, and is even now generally supposed. 

 See the articles Climate, Temperature, and Moun- 

 tains; consult also Humboldt and Bonpland's Ta- 

 bleau physique des Regions Equinoxiales, and Hum- 

 boldt's Views of Nature. 



TROPPAU, a principality, which has belonged, 

 since 1614, to the house of Lichteristein, is situated 

 partly in Prussia, partly in Austrian Silesia. The 



