Dies, 545-547). The use of this cap by seamen was no doubt the ground, on which the painter Nicomachus represented Ulysses wearing one. "Hic primus," says Pliny (H. N. xxxv. 36. s. 22.), "Ulyssi addidit pileum[1]." For the same reason the cap is an attribute of the Dioscuri; and hence two caps with stars above them are often shown on the coins of maritime cities and of others where Castor and Pollux were worshipped. Figure 3. of Plate VIII. is taken from a brass coin of Dioscurias in Colchis, preserved in the British Museum. On the reverse is the name [Greek: DIOSKOURIADOS]. Figure 4. represents both sides of a silver coin in the same collection, with the legend [Greek: BRETTIÔN]. It belongs to Bruttium in South Italy. On the one side Castor and Pollux are mounted on horseback. They wear the chlamys and carry palm branches in their hands. Their caps have a narrow brim. The reverse shows their heads only, and their caps, without brims, are surrounded by wreaths of myrtle. The cornucopia is added as an emblem of prosperity. Figure 5. is from a brass coin of Amasia ([Greek: AMASSEIAS]) in Pontus. It shows the cornucopia between the two skull-caps. Charon also was represented with the mariner's or fishermen's cap, as, for example, in the bas-relief in the Museo Pio-Clementino, tom. iv. tav. 35, and the painted vase in Stackelberg's Grüber der Hellenen, t. 47, 48, which is copied in Becker s Charicles, vol. ii. taf. i. fig. 1, and in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, p. 404.
A pileus of the same general form was worn by artificers; and on this account it was attributed to Vulcan and to Dædalus, who, as well as Ulysses and Charon, are commonly found wearing it in works of ancient art. Arnobius says, that Vulcan was represented "cum pileo et malleo"—"fabrili expeditione succinctus;" and that on the other hand Mercury was represented with the petasus, or "petasunculus," on his head.[2], &c. Dial. Deor., vol. ii. p. 314. ed. Hemster]
- ↑ Compare Eustathius in Hom. Il. x. 265, as quoted below.
- ↑ Adv. Gentes, lib. vi. p. 674, ed. Erasmi. When Lucian ludicrously represents Jupiter wearing a skull-cap, which we may suppose to have been like that of the philosopher in Plate VIII. figure 1. he must have intended to describe the "Father of gods and men" as a weak old man; [Greek: Dieile tên kephalên katenenkôn kai ei gemê o pilos hantesche, kai to poly tês plêgês apedexato
