Page:Archaeologia Volume 13.djvu/287

 Mr. Townley's Antique Helmet. 22$ The female figures with wings on each fide of the center of the diadem reprefent mofl probably victories. The figure that termi- nates in the divided tail of a fim is a well known metamorphofc in Ovid, where Bacchus changed thofe who would have offered vio- lence to him on his voyage to Naxos into fea-monfters, of which the poet fmgs, [/] Falcata noviffima cauda eft, Qualia dividuae fmuantur cornua lunae. Compare this defcription with the figure on the diadem, and yoii will find it exact. The head too in a ftatue of the Mufeum Flo- rentinum has, like this, all the foftneis of a female, which Ovid well explains : ' Cum dubitet Natura marem, faceretne puellam, Factus es o pulcher pame puella puer.' The ear in the mafk has been brought forwards to give perhaps an idea of the horns of the god which he wears in the poets, and oil medals, and which were placed, like thofe of Jupiter Ammon, quite on the fide of the head,juft as they are to be feen on an uii- publimed coin of the ifland of Tenos, with the head of Bacchus on one fide, and a Thyrfus encircled with ivy on the reverfe, and the letters T H under it. A drawing of this inedited coin, which is not in Dr. Hunter's collection, is here annexed in. The character which I have given to this vizor of exquifite work- manfhip in Corinthian brafs, may be ftill further illuftrated by an an- tique coin[w] of the ifland of Thafus, of which a drawing accompa- nies this dhTertation [o], where by infpection only it will be undcrftood what degree" of credit is to be given to an opinion, on the teftimony [/] Ovid Metam. 1. iii. v, 68 1. Nonnus E. K. p. 631. v. x. [m] See Vignette, next page. [] Dr. Combe's Catalogue of Hunter's Coins, and Gefner's Note on V. XXIV. Orpb. Argon. 8vo. 1764. Lipfice. [0] See Vignette, next page. VOL. XIII. G g of