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.

    151/226 (page 139)
    As to the Form of the Tripod, it was a Machine eonfifting of four Parts, asMartinius defcribesit in his Lexicon. Firfl, Of a Frame with three Feet, whence it was called a tripod. Secondly, Of a Crater, that is, a Bafon or Bowl fet in that Frame* Thirdly, of a Plate or Table of Gold, or gilt, which covered the Bafon on which the Pythia fat to deliver the Oracles,, And this Table covering the Bafon, was the Table of the Sun, or Apollo, on which he infpired the Fro- phetefs: Such a golden Table alfo dedicated to the Sun, being placed on a rich Bed in a Chappel, on the top of the Temple of Jupiter Belus at Babylon, where a Woman attended it ; which Temple was poo Foot high, as Herodotus tells us : and the Table at Delphos was called Holmus, whence alfo Apollo was {filed En- holmus, and the Propheteffes Enholmides. Fourthly, There was a Brafs hollow Covering over this Table, within which the Pythia fate, and whence her refonant Voice came : which Covering was called Cortina, and hence Apollo was {filed Cortinipotens. And conformably to this, Gifanius on Lucretius, p. 3pp. writes. The brafen Cover of the tripod was the Cortina, the tripod was a very great golden Veffel; this had a golden Plate or Table laid over it, on which the Pythia fate when {lie gave Oracles. They called that Plate Holmus, as Julius Pollux fays, L. 10. The Author of the Delphi Phcenicizantes feems to agree with this Defer!ption of the tripod in all things but the Cortina : He fays, that thofe of Delphos, to conform themfelves in all things with the way of the Hebrews, and to fet up an Oracle at Delphos, like to that at Silo, made there the like Machines, viz. a Cortina, to the likenefs of the tabernacle; a tripod, to the likenefs of the Ark of teflimony; and an Hol¬ mus, to the likenefs of the Mercy-Seat; on which HoF mus the Pythia fate, or {food, when fhe gave Oracles* as there were two Cherubims on the Mercy-Seat. But I cannot allow the Cortina to have been an Edifice T 2 raifed