[867]. It is related of the bronze palm-tree at Delphi with fruit of gold, that the dates were imitated so exactly, that they were pecked at and destroyed by the crows: Ἐν δὲ Δελφοῖς Παλλάδιον ἕστηκε χρυσοῦν, ἐπὶ φοίνικος χαλκοῦ βεβηκὸς, ἀνάθημα τῆς πόλεως ἀπὸ τῶν Μηδικῶν ἀριστείων. Τοῦτ᾽ ἔκοπτον ἐφ’ ἡμέρας πολλὰς προσπετόμενοι κόρακες, καὶ τὸν καρπὸν ὄντα χρυσοῦν τοῦ φοίνικος ἀπέτρωγον καὶ κατέβαλλον. Plut. Nic. § 8.
[868]. Herod. i. 48. iv. 81. 70. The extraordinary forms sometimes assumed by these vases are in part mentioned by Pollux, who, in describing the προσωποῦττα says, it was a vessel expanding above into the mouth of an ox, or the jaws of a lion. Onomast. ii. 48. In the Royal Prussian Museum there is found a vase, the mouth of which represents that of a griffin. Racolta de’ Monumenti più Interressanti del Real Museo Borbonico, e di varie Collezioni private, Publicati da Raffaele Gargiulo, Napoli, 1825, No. 113. See in the same collection a variety of other vases representing the faces of Hermes, the heads of dragons, hippogriffs, wild boars, &c. No. 75, sqq.
[869]. Herod. ix. 70. v. 49.
[870]. Il. σ. 565. φ. 592. ψ. 561.
[871]. Beckmann, History of Inventions, iv. 13.
[872]. Palæphat. Fragm. ap. Gal. Opusc. Mythol. &c. p. 64, sqq.
[873]. Il. δ. 487.
[874]. Odyss. ι. 391.
[875]. Tenuiora ferramenta oleo restingui mos est, ne aqua in fragilitatem durentur. Plin. xxxiv. 41.
[876]. Plut. Lycurgus, § 9.