Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/298

 276 HISTORY or ART i PIKKXICIA AND ITS DHPHNDENCIES. union of Cypriot towns (*o</<V Ki-rrpiwi'}, an edihce appears which archaeologists agree in recognizing as the most important temple on the island, that of Paphos (Fig. 199).' The representation is very summary, as it always must be in such cases ; it was made to remind contemporaries of a building which they all knew, not to help modern archaeologists. In order to get the fullest information Irom such a document as this, the student must begin by master- ing the principles upon which the die-sinker proceeds when he has to represent a work of architecture upon the narrow surface of a coin ; with a little practice he will learn to read between the lines, and if not to divine all the arrangements of the building, at least to understand those hinted at by the engraver, and to restore much that the latter has been compelled to omit. Here we have the elevation of a facade in front of which extends a semi-circular court inclosed by a balustrade. Beyond the court arises a kind Fir,. 199. -Coin of Cyprus. From Guigniaut. of pylon with very slender flanking towers. In its upper part there are small windows, and below them an opening or doorway, which the engraver seems to have deliberately enlarged in order to show, in the sanctuary, the rudely fashioned conical stone which did duty for a statue of the goddess ; on this a head and pair of arms are roughly indicated. At each side of the quasi-pylon there is a portico, much lower and with a flat roof. Upon this roof and in the front inclosure appear some of the sacred cloves of Aphrodite. Between the angle columns of the portico and the pylon, two objects which look like candelabra are indicated (see Figs. 8 1, 82, 83) ; they may have served either for incense, or for 1 We have already figured this same coin on a larger scale (Fig. 58); but the larger woodcut was not taken from the same example. Between the two there are slight differences, due to the unequal skill of the engravers employed ; they are not enough to suggest that they followed different models.