by Lucian[1]. 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[2]. 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.
The flowers of umbelliferous plants are aptly called by Phanias[3] [Greek: petasôdê], 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[4], is certainly not unlike the umbel of a plant. See Plate IX. Fig. 4.. Hist. Plant. iv. 10. p. 147, ed. Schneider.]
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ [Greek: Petasô Thettalikg
- ↑ Apud Athen. ix. 12. p. 371 D. ed. Casaub.
- ↑ Museo Pio-Clementino, tom. v. tav. 24. This bas-relief formerly belonged to the Mattei collection. See Monumenta Matthæinana, tom. iii. tab. 37.
