Gleanings of antiquities / By John Beaumont, Gent.

  • Beaumont, John, -1731.
Date:
1724
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Gleanings of antiquities / By John Beaumont, Gent. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    155/226 (page 141)
    offer a more probable Conje&ure concerning thofe three Figures, I fhould be glad to fee it. Mr. SchottuSy Antiquary to the King of Pniffia, publifhed a Book in French, Anno 1714, with this Title ; A new Explication of the Apotheofis of Homer, reprefented on an ancient Marble, and concerning the Ufe of the Tripod at Delphos, and of the Employ of the Engaftrimuthi. Now, as for the Explication of the Apotheofis of Homer, reprefented on the Marble, it feems to me he has given a confiderable Light to it more than what was given before, by Kercher, Cuper9 Heinjius, Gronoviusy and IVefleiny all Men of great Name, whole Explications he has fet forth in his Book ; and on the occalion of the Figure of a Cortina, as he conceives, in the Marble, he comes to treat of the CortinUy and the other Parts of the Tripod, and its Ufe, with whom I cannot agree in many refpe&s. He conceives the Cortina and Bafon were two Herni- fpheres made exa&ly to fit each other, fo that both join’d made a Sphere, and he has given us feveral Cuts of Tripods with thofe two Hemifpheres fo join’d : but I conceive thofe Bafons and Cortinay fo join’d, were only in little votive Tripods, and not in Tripods of ufe, tho5 thefe alfo were fometimes votive, or given to the Temple, as that of Belle-forefl feems to have been, they not being fo convenient for the Pythia to fit on, as a Cortina in the form of a Tent, unlefs the Cortinas made in the form of an Hemi- fphere, were very large: and indeed we want the true Dimenfions of the Bafons and Cortina in ufe, as to their Depth and Diameter, which I have not met with in any Author, Again, Mr. Schottus makes the Cortina and Holmus, or golden Plate which covered the Bafon on which the Pythia fate, to be the fame thing, which confounds the whole Defcription of the T*ripod; and whereas he makes the Pythia to fit on the Cortina, this could not be, if the Cortina were in the form of a Tent, nor can I conceive how it fhould well be, if it were in the form of an Hemifphere. Befide^