In allusion to this practice it appears that the Romans, though they did not commonly wear hats, put them on at the Saturnalia.[619] At the death of Nero, the common people to express their joy went about the city in felt caps.[620] In allusion to this custom the figure of Liberty on the coins of Antoninus Pius holds the cap in her right hand. Figures 1 and 2 in [Plate IX.] are examples selected from the collection in the British Museum, and, as we learn from the legend, were struck when he was made consul the fourth time, i. e. A. D. 145.
[619] Pileata Roma. Martial, xi. 7; xiv. 1.
[620] Plebs pileata. Sueton. Nero, 57.
In contradistinction to the various forms of the felt cap now described and represented, all of which were more or less elevated, and many of which were pointed upwards, we have now to consider those, which, though made of felt, and therefore classed by the ancients under the general terms pileus, πῖλος, &c.,[621] corresponded more nearly to our modern hat. The Greek word πέτασος, dim. πετάσιον, derived from πετάννυμι, extendo, dilato, and adopted by the Latins in the form petasus, dim. petasunculus, well expressed the distinctive form of these hats. They were more or less broad and expanded. What was taken from their height was added to their width. Those already mentioned had no brim; the petasus of every variety had a brim, which was either exactly or nearly circular, and which varied greatly in its width. In some cases it seems to be a mere circular disc without any crown at all. Of this we have an example in a beautiful statue, which has, no doubt, been meant for Endymion, in the Townley collection of the British Museum. See [Plate IX.] Fig. 3. His right hand encircles his head, and his scarf is spread over a rock as described by Lucian[622]. He sleeps upon it, holding the fibula in his left hand. His feet are adorned with boots (cothumi) and his simple petasus is tied under his chin. In this form the petasus illustrates the remark of Theophrastus, who, in describing the Egyptian Bean, says, that the leaf was of the size of the Thessalian petasus[623]. For the purpose of comparing these two objects, a representation of the leaves of the plant referred to, is introduced into the same Figure (3); taken from the “Botanical Magazine,” Plates 903, 3916, and Sir J. E. Smith’s “Exotic Botany,” Tab. 31, 32. The petasus here shown on the head of Endymion, the original statue being as large as life, certainly resembles very closely both in size and in form the leaf of the Egyptian Bean, which is the Cyamus Nelumbo, or Nelumbium Speciosum of modern botanists.
[621] Plutarch (Solon, 179) says that Solon, pretending to be mad and acting the part of a herald from Salamis, ἐξεπήδησεν εἰς τὴν ἀγορὰν ἄφνω πιλίον περιθέμενος. Here πιλίον seems to mean the πέτασος.
[622] In the Dialogues of the Gods (xi.), the Moon says in answer to Venus, that Endymion is particularly beautiful “when he sleeps, having thrown his scarf under him upon the rock, holding in his left hand the darts just falling from it, whilst his right hand bent upwards lies gracefully round his face, and, dissolved in sleep, he exhales his ambrosial breath.”
The recumbent statue, here represented, is of white marble, and is placed in room XI. of the Townley Gallery. It was found in 1774 at Roma Vecchia (Dallaway’s Anecdotes of the Arts, p. 303). It has been called Mercury or Adonis. But there are no examples or authorities in support of either of these suppositions. It is not sufficient to say that every beautiful youth may have been meant either for Mercury, who was never represented asleep, or for Adonis. We know that the fable of Endymion and the Moon was a favorite subject with the ancient artists. In the Antichita d’Ercolano, tom. iii. tav. 3, we find a picture, which was discovered at Portica, and which represents this subject. It is still more frequent in ancient bas-reliefs. See Mus. Pio-Clem. tom. iv. v. 8, pp. 38, 41; Sandrart, Sculp. Vet. Adm. p. 52; Gronovii Thesaur. tom. i. folio O; Proceedings of the Philological Society, vol. i. pp. 8, 9.
[623] Πετάσῳ Θετταλικῇ. Hist. Plant. iv. 10. p. 147, ed. Schneider.
The flowers of umbelliferous plants are aptly called by Phanias[624] πετασώδη, i. e. like a petasus. The petasus, as worn by the two shepherds, who discover Romulus and Remus, in a bas-relief of the Vatican[625], is certainly not unlike the umbel of a plant. See [Plate IX.] Fig. 4.
Callimachus ascribes the same head-dress to shepherds in the following lines: