324 SYLVA FLORIFERA. 



The ivy so much revered by the ancient 

 bacchanalians, was called by the Greeks Kurds 

 and Kittos (kissus and Jcittus), from an infant boy 

 of that name, whom it is pretended that the 

 god of wine transformed into this plant. The 

 Athenians called Bacchus himself Kittus. 

 According to Pliny, he was the first that wore 

 a crown, and this crown was composed of 

 ivy. Silenus the demi-god, who became the 

 foster-father of Bacchus, is also represented as 

 wearing a coronet of ivy, as may be seen in 

 an antique statue (No. 468), in the Louvre, at 

 Paris. We are told that Silenus was crowned 

 with, and wore a wreath of flowers. This 

 mistake, we presume, has originated from the 

 ivy leaves being formed into rosets, and a clus- 

 ter of ivy berries placed in the centre of each, 

 with which his temples are surrounded, and 

 which, in diminutive-sized antique groups of 

 bacchanalians, can only be distinguished from 

 flowers by close inspection, and comparison 

 with those on a larger scale. 



At the marriage ceremonies of the Greeks, 

 when the young couple arrived at the temple, 

 the priest presented them with a branch of ivy, 

 symbolical of the tie which should unite them ; 

 and the omission of which, at the wedding of 

 Proserpine, was said to cause the Cocytus to 

 flow only with waves of tears. 



