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.

    158/226 (page 144)
    as Dr. Spon fays, or as Gaffendus fays, 1630 ; a Brafs \Tripod was found in the Forum fulii, on the Coaft of the Sea of Liguria, and was carried to Peireskius, whofe Lite is written by Gaffendus, in which he de- fcribes it, as Dr. Spon alfo does in his Mifcel. Erud. An- tiq. where he has alfo given us a Cut of it: But they ieem to me both fo obfcure in their Defcriptions, that I cannot get any clear Notion of it from them, which I fhould fufpeft to proceed from the Tardinefs of my Apprehenfion, unlefs the learned Spanheim, in his Notes on Callimachus, ‘Tom. 2. p. 390. had obfer- ved, that Gaffendus is fhort and perplex’d in his De¬ fer! pt ion of it. And as for Dr. Spon, he leaves the thing obfcure in feveral refpe&s : For firft, he does not give us the Dimenlions of that Tripod, but fays, it may properly be called a Delphick or Pythian Tripody and feems to be made according to the Proportion and Likenefs of the true Delphick Tripod; whereas Gaffendus tells us, it was little more than a Foot high, and was look’d upon as a Votive Tripod, fuch as were hung up in the Temples, fo that it could not have been a Tripod of Ufe, as the Do&or feems to have fancied it, according to the large Figure he has given us of it, p. r 18. where he defcribes it thus: It is eompofed of five Parts, of which the lower-mod is as the Bafis, on which three others (lands, as Legs, or Pillars, fupporting the fifth, which is in the Form of a Bowl or Bafon, the whole made of Yellow Brafs, and well wrought. He calls the Bafis on which the three Feet flood, Hypocrateridion \ a Term ufed alfo by Plutarch in his Tradt of the Ceafing of Oracles, and fignifies a Cratercula, or little Bafon, and is oi: a Tri¬ angular Figure, made after tne Form of that trian¬ gular Delphick Machine, which ferved as a Cover to the Mouth of the Cave whence the Prophetick Breath ilfued ; and had a triangular Hole in the mid’ft of it, over which the Pythia fat when fhe gave Oracles. This Bafon alfo had three fhort Feet under it.