There is in the Vatican a Roman representation of the River Nile as a colossal reclining figure with long flowing hair and beard, like Zeus or Poseidon, holding a paddle. His tributaries being represented by a number of small Cupid-like boys, who clamber and play about him, or nestle at his side. The land of Egypt is typified by the sphinx upon which the figure leans.
Alinari Photo.]
IL NILO (VATICAN, ROME).
Father Thames has often figured in "Punch" depicted by John Tenniel as an old man with long hair and beard, not unlike his prototype, but somewhat degraded and worse for wear.
The Greek gods, too, and their Roman representatives were each distinguished by their proper and appropriate emblems, as well as by marked differences of character and physical type.
Chronos, or Time, afterwards Saturn, is always known by his scythe; Zeus or Jupiter, the Thunderer, by his thunderbolt; Poseidon or Neptune by his trident; Helios by his horses, and Apollo by his bow; Aphrodite or Venus by the golden apple won by the most beautiful; Pallas Athene, or the Roman Minerva, as goddess of the arts, by her serpent, her lamp, and her owl of wisdom; Artemis or Diana by the crescent moon; Hermes or Mercury by his caduceus—the serpent-twined staff, which has in modern times become an emblem of commerce—since Mercury was the messenger, the fetcher and carrier of the ancients, quick-witted and keen, and, according to some legends, not over scrupulous. His rod and serpents have reference to the story of his parting two snakes in combat, in which might be read a modern meaning of the individual gaining fortune through commercial competition, though that is not its usual signification. I only offer it as an example of reading a new meaning into an ancient symbol. Then, of course, Heracles or Hercules bears the apples of the Hesperides, or the Nemean lion's skin and his club. In the Hesperides story of the dragon-guarded tree of golden apples, and its three guardian sisters, we seem to have another form of the tree of life and the fates. An interesting Greek relievo in marble, enriched with mosaic in parts, at Wilton House, shows the Hesperidean tree with the apples, and twined with the guardian serpent, with Paris seated and Aphrodite approaching as if asking for the apple—the prize of the most fair.
VENUS AND PARIS. THE APPLES OF THE HESPERIDES. FROM A RELIEF AT WILTON HOUSE.
In the ancient Greek story of Pandora and her box—so suggestive a subject to artists, and fruitful in art—we have the classical version of the fall of man and origin of evil.