BIRD AND BEAST IN ANCIENT SYMBOLISM. 189 



swallow, there again the lunar crescent of the swallow's wings is at once suggested to 

 me ; and the similitude to the swallow of Ulysses' bow is of the same nature : no 

 twittering swallow's note was ever like to the twang of the great bow, but the bow 

 was bent like the crescent wings of the bird, j(e\iS6n eliceXt] avryv. 



To draw yet another illustration from the mystical Kingdom of Birds, what was the 

 pitiful lay of dSwvqis, a<W'?, a»/<W?, or d^vv, that fills line upon line of Attic chorus and 

 Dorian and Ionian hymn with obtrusive melancholy ? Was it not simply the old dirge 

 of Adonis, the Dead March of the year, the keening song over the grave of the 

 Sun, whom the sorrowing East bewailed when women wept for Tammuz ? "Was it 

 not merely a disciple of another sect who said he preferred the swan's song to the 

 nio-hting-ale's ? 



Whether this or some other be the true explanation of the legend of the nightingale's 

 song, it is quite plain from the frequent hints of many writers that some esoteric 

 meaning was associated with the songs of Halcyon, Nightingale and Swan. Ltjcian, for 

 instance, gives us such a hint and a very notable one, though even he only points, with 

 sealed lips, to the immemorial riddle whose solution he cannot or must not tell : ovk av 

 eyoifxev elireiv fiefSalw? out ' AXkvovoov Trepi, out ' ArjSovwv /cAe'o? ^e avOoov, oiov irapeSocrav 

 TraTepes, toiovto ko.1 7rai<r\v e/moh, w opvi Opi'ivaov pteXwSe, 7rapaSw<jw tu>v o~wv u/ulvwv irepi, /ecu gov 

 top evuefiTj teal (pi\avc)pov epooTO. 7roX\dias v/j.vww. — LlJCIAN, Hcdc. 



In a certain small number of coins and gems the representation of astronomic 

 phenomena is set forth in clear and concrete fashion, with no riddle of esoteric 

 symbolism. The annexed figure of a gem (from Asia Minor) represents in this obvious 

 way the constellations of the Dragon and the two Bears : 



Maxirnus hie flexu simioso elabitur Anguis 



Circum perque duas in morem fluminis Arctos. — Virg., G., i. 244. 



centuries of antiquity ; and, second, how or why was it chosen and established in the first instance ? Now, it seems 

 to me more than a mere coincidence that 133 : 1 :: 365 : 27*4, the last number being precisely the period in days of 

 the Moon's revolution round the earth. In short, the ratio of gold to silver, established and maintained, I fancy, by 

 astronomic science and astrological superstition, was simply and precisely the ratio of the solar year to the lunar 

 month, the natural relation of the metal of the Sun to the metal of the Moon. 



If this speculation be justified, it may further throw some light on the use of electrum as a standard of currency. 

 This metal was an alloy of gold and silver in the proportion of 73 to 27 ; and it has been pointed out by Hultsch that 

 its value according to this scale would be to silver as 10 to 1, when gold was to silver as 13"3 to 1 : — that is to say, 

 gold : electrum : silver :: 13*3 : 10 : 1. It is generally assumed by numismatists that electrum was a native alloy, 

 coined for convenience to avoid the trouble of separating the silver from the gold. This explanation is in my opinion 

 altogether inadequate. The very fact that the ancients knew accurately the composition of the alloy is enough to 

 indicate that the separation of the two metals presented no serious difficulties to them : moreover, I do not believe 

 that an alloy of so precise a composition ever existed in large quantity or widely distributed : and, lastly, though some 

 sueh alloy undoubtedly did exist native, we are twice told by Pliny (R. N. ix. 65, xxxiii. 23) that it was made or 

 imitated artificially. It seems probable to me that electrum was an alloy ingeniously devised and skilfully manufac- 

 tured to form a new standard in simple decimal relation with silver, to take the place of the old, complex and 



10 13'3 



inconvenient astronomical standard of gold. And the ingenious framing of a -y in place of a -y- ratio and standard 



would form a parallel case to the splendid adaptation by which the Babylonians divided the circle into 360 degrees, 

 thus, by a sbght and simple change, co-ordinating with a sexagesimal notation, the old 365 or 365J degrees into which 

 the Chinese still divide the circle, as the Sun divides the circle of the year. 



