Page:Philological Museum v2.djvu/319

309 On the Painting of an ancient Vase. 309 ' In the centre of the painting is an altar constructed of large rough stones of various sizes, one of the largest, of quadrangular shape, forming the basis, and a similar one the upper slab. On the altar a flame is blazing before the statue of a female deity, here named XPY2H, which stands on a fluted Doric pillar. On the right of the goddess, by the side of the altar, is standing a robust man, bearded, naked as to the upper part of his body, but clothed in a peplum from his loins downward, wearing an olive garland, and holding his left hand open in the act of praying, his right on the head of a victim, a bullock, toward which his face is turned. Over this figure is painted the name HPAKAH2. By the side of the bullock stands a young man with a small travelling- hat on his head, his right arm wrapped in his chlamys, and holding two spears in his left hand : this figure is named I0AEQ2. Over against Hercules on the left side of the altar stands a female figure, with large wings on her shoulders spread aloft, clad in a tunic with a peplum thrown over it, holding a cup in her right hand, and in the left a large patera, encircled with three sprigs : she is designated by the name NIK A. By her side a boy is stooping, apparently for the purpose of putting a lid, which he is holding in both hands, on a fourcornered chest : to this figure no name is annexed. The painting then represents a sacrifice, offered to a god- dess Chryse by Hercules, in the company of his faithful lolaus, and of a boy, and in the presence of Nika, who, as will be shown in the sequel, probably appears at this sacrifice as a symbol. In one of the old Scholia to the Philoctetes of Sophocles, V. 195, it is distinctly related, that Hercules made a sacrifice on the island of Chryse, when he marched against Troy. Philostratus likewise mentions this sacrifice, though not so expressly^. Hercules, in passing over to Asia with his fleet of eighteen, or, as Homer has it, of six ships, to avenge the perfidy of Laomedon, landed on the little island of Chryse, and there sacrificed on the same altar which Jason had erected during the Argonautic expedition. Now if the name ^ Imag. Phil. Jun. I7. In fact he mentions no sacrifice, but only the altar raised by Jason, when sailing to Colchis. But he subjoins, that Philoctetes shewed the altar to the Greeks, €k ttJ? ^iV 'HpaK-Xel fxvrifxri^, Tr.