OBELISK. 
360 
Formerly, obedience in general: 
Not content with loyal obeyfance, 
Some gan to gape for greedy governance. Spenfer. 
OBE'ISANT, adj. Reverent, making a reverence; obe¬ 
dient. 
OBELISCOTHE'CA, f in botany. See Rudbeckia. 
OB'ELISK, f. [ obeli feus, Lat.] A quadrangular pyra¬ 
mid, very (lender, and high ; raifed as an ornament, in 
forne public place, or to (how fome'ftone of enormous lize ; 
and frequently charged with inlcriptions and hiero¬ 
glyphics : 
Between the ftatues oleli(!;s were plac’d, 
And the learn’d walls with hieroglyphics grac’d. Pope. 
Obelilks appear to be of very great antiquity, and to 
have been firft raifed to tranfmit to pofterity precepts of 
philofophy, which were cut in hieroglyphical characters j 
afterwards they were ufed to immortalize the great aCtions 
of heroes, and the memory of perfons beloved. The firft 
obelifk mentioned in hiftory was that of Ramefes king of 
Egypt, in the time of the Trojan war, which was 40 cubits 
high. Phius, another king of Egypt, raifed one of 55 
cubits ; and Ptolemy Philadelphus, another of 88 cubits, 
in memory of Arfinoe. Auguftus ereCted one at Rome in 
the Campus Martius, which ferved to mark the hours on 
a horizontal dial, drawn on the pavement. They were 
called by the Egyptian priefts the fingers of the fun, be- 
caufe they were made in Egypt alfo to ferve as ftyles or 
gnomons to mark the hours on L he ground. The Arabs 
■lbi 11 call them Pharuah's needles; whence the Italians call 
them aguglia, and the French aiguilles. 
The difference between obelifks and pyramids, accord¬ 
ing to fome, confifts in this, that the latter have large 
bafes, and the former very fmall ones, compared with their 
height. Cardan makes the difference- to confift in this, 
that obelifks are to be all of a piece, or confift of a (ingle 
((one ; and pyramids of feveral. 
The proportions of the height and thicknefs are nearly 
the fame in all obelifks ; that is, their height is nine, or 
nine and a half, fometimes ten, times their thicknefs; and 
their thicknefs, or diameter, at top, is never lefs than half, 
nor. greater than three-fourths, of that at bottom. 
F. Kircher reckons up fourteen obelifks, celebrated 
above the reft ; viz. that of Alexandria, that of the Bar- 
berins, thole of Conftantinople, of the Mons Efquilinus, 
of the Campus Flaminius of Florence, of Heliopolis, of 
Eudovifio, of St. Mahut, of the Medici, of the Vatican, 
of M. Cadius, and that of Pamphylia. M. Pouchard, in 
the Memoirs of the Academy of Infcriptions, gives a cu¬ 
rious account of fome celebrated Egyptian obelifks. See 
Gentleman’s Magazine for June 1748 ; and the article 
Egypt, vol. vi. p. 292, 3. 365, 378. 
One of the ufes of obelifks among the ancients was to 
find the meridian altitudes of the fun at different times 
of the year. Hence they ferved inftead of very large gno¬ 
mons. One of the obelifks now (landing at Rome, that of 
St. John Lateran, is in height 108 Englilh feet, without 
the pedeftal; and the other obelifk, brought to Rome by 
Auguftus, buried under the Campus Martius, wants but 
little of the fame height. Pliny gives us a defeription of 
this gnomon, lib. xxxvi. fed. 15. From him it appears, 
that there was laid down, from the foot of the obelifk 
northward, a level pavement of (tone, equal in breadth 
to the breadth of the obelifk itfelf, and equal in length to 
its fhadow at noon on thefhorteft day ; that is to fay, that 
its length was to the height of the obelifk, almoft as 22 to 
10 ; and that under this pavement there were let-in pa¬ 
rallel rulers of brafs, whole diftance from the point, di¬ 
rectly under the apex of the obelifk, were reipeCtively 
equal to the length of the fhadow thereof at noon on the 
feveral days of the year, as the fame lengths decreafed 
f rom the fhorteft day to the longeft, and again increafed 
from the longeft day to the fhorteft. See Phil. Tranf. 
N° 482. vol. xliv. 
The famous obeliflcs called the Devil's Arrows, now re¬ 
duced to three, the fourth having been taken down in 
the laft century, (land about half a mile from the town of 
Borough-bridge to the fouth-weft, in three fields, fepa- 
rated by a lane, two hundred feet afunder, nearly on high 
ground (loping every way. Mr. Drake urges many argu¬ 
ments for their Roman antiquity; and plainly proves 
them to be natural, and brought from Plumpton quarries, 
about five miles off, or from Ickly, fixteen miles off. The 
crofs, in the town, twelve feet high, is of the fame kind 
of ftone. The eafternmoft, or higheft, is 22 feet and a half 
high by 4 broad, and 14I in girth; the fecond 2i-iby 55^; 
the third i6| by 84. Stukeley’s meafures differ. The 
flutings are cut in the ftone, but not through; the tailed 
(lands alone, and leans to the fouth. Plot and Stukeley 
affirm them to be Britifh monuments, originally hewn 
fquare. 
On the north fide of Penrith, in the church-yard, are 
two fquare obelifks, of a fingle ftone each, n or 12 feet 
high, about 12 inches diameter, and 12 by 8 at the fides, 
the higheft about 18 inches diameter, with fomething like 
a tranfverfe piece to each, and mortifed into a round bafe. 
They are fourteen feet afunder; and between them is a 
grave, enclofed between four femicircular (tones of the un¬ 
equal lengths of five, fix, four and a half, and two, feet 
high, having on tire outfides rude carving, and the tops 
notched. This is called the Giant's Grave, and aferibed 
to fir Ewan Casfarius, who is faid to have been as tall as 
one of the columns, and capable of ftretching his arms 
from one to the other; to have deftroyed robbers and wild 
boars in Englewood foreft; and to have had a hermitage 
hereabouts called Sir Hugh's Parlour; but the conjec¬ 
tures refpeding them are extremely various and contra¬ 
dictory. A little to the weft of thefe is a ftone called the 
Giant's Thumb, fix feet high, 14 inches at the bafe con¬ 
tracted to 10, which is no more than a rude crofs, fuch as 
is atLongtown in Cumberland, and elfewhere; the circle 
of the crofs 18 inches diameter. 
Near the town of Forres, in the north of Scotland, there 
is a very fine obelifk, known by the name of the Forres's 
Pillar, ovSweno's Stone; but by fome called the Danijh Pil¬ 
lar, the reafonof which we fliall fee in the following deferip¬ 
tion of it, which we find in a letter from Mr. Cordiner to 
Mr. Pennant; for it was totally overlooked by Dr. John- 
fon, who merely fays, “ At Forres we found good accom¬ 
modation, but nothing worthy of particular remark.” 
Mr. Cordiner’s account is this : “ In the firft divifion, 
underneath the Gothic ornaments at the top, are nine 
horfes with their riders marching forth in order r in the 
next is a line of warriors on foot, brandifhing their wea¬ 
pons, and appear to be (flouting for the battle. The im¬ 
port of the attitudes in the third divifion is very dubious, 
their expreflion indefinite. The figures which form a 
fquare in the middle of the column are pretty complex, 
but diftinCt: four ferjeants with their halberts guard a 
canopy, under which are placed feveral human heads 
which have belonged to the dead bodies piled up at the 
left of the divifion ; one appears in the character of execu¬ 
tioner, fevering the head from another body; behind him 
are three trumpeters founding their trumpets, and before 
him two pair of combatants fighting with fword and target. 
A troop of horfe next appears, put to flight by infantry, 
whofe firft line have bows and arrows; the three follow¬ 
ing, fwords and targets. In the lowermoft divifion now 
vifible, the horfes feem to be feized by the victorious 
party, their riders beheaded, and the head of their chief 
hung in chains, or placed in a frame ; the others being- 
thrown together befide the dead bodies under an arched 
cover. The greateft part of the other fide of the obelifk, 
occupied by a fumptuous crofs, is covered over with an 
uniform figure, elaborately raifed, and interwoven with 
great mathematical exaCtnefs. Under the crofs are two 
auguft perfonages, with fome attendants, much oblite¬ 
rated, but evidently in an attitude of reconciliation; and, 
if the monument was erected in memory of the peace con- 
1 eluded 
