Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/277

 THE COIJBRIDGE LANX. 225 decrees of Fate, and listening with all attention to the dic- tates of the god who inspires her responses. Apollo stand- ing within his shrine, in the attitude of one declaiming, utters to lier his oracles in hexameter verse, holding aloft his unstrung bow with his left hand, and with the other extend- ing a branch of a tree of singular appearance, upon which some remarks will be oflercd Ylicn we come to consider the various attributes and symbols introduced into the piece. By the Pythia's side stands Themis, daughter of Earth and Goddess of Justice (a character denoted by the long sceptre in her hand) ; she holds this place by right, for she was the first owner of the Oracle, which she afterwards ceded to Diana, who immediately transferred it to her brother : a transaction fully detailed by -^Eschylus in the prologue to his " Eumenides."' Next to Themis stands Minerva, with shield reposing on the ground, holding up her finger to enjoin attention to the utterance of the god. This gesture appears to bo occa- sioned by the entrance of Diana, and her obstreperous hound, for it would be too far-fetched a supposition to credit the late Eoman ccelator^ with the knowledge of that deity's transient owuershii) of the shrine. The accessories form perhaps the most curious portion of the whole tahkau. The spreading tree, above the heads of the two goddesses, despite its ntdallic stiffness and contor- tion, is probably nothing more than a conventional tree, merely introduced for the sake of affording a perch to Apollo's peculiar bird of augury, the Q'avcn, " oscinem corvum," and the /law/cs, his attribute in his other character of the Sun-god, as the same bird Yas of his prototype, the Egyptian Phre. There were, indeed, certain celebrated trees in bronze decorating the sacred inclosure at Delphi : notably the immense palm-tree, the gift of the Corinthians, described by Plutarch in his interesting tract, " De Pyth. Orac. xi. ; " and another with dates of gold, supporting a ]Iinerva in gilt metal, dedicated by the Athenians to commemorate their double victory on the Eurymedon. This latter is mentioned by Plutarch (in his Life of Nicias) and by Pausanias,^ who architectural portions proves that the the second century, will afford archoeo- design cannot be earUer than the reign o£ logists, dissatisfied with uiy interpretation Severus. of the scene before us, plenteous materials ^' Doscriptio Gi-jccitc I. 15,4. Bis very for making out another exposition more detailed account of the statues and reliccj to their own liking.
 * The use of spiral culumus ia the at Delphi, as existing in the middle of