--■v.;.v-<.,;;'.,■ '•'

2 The Dance of Death.

insist that the ancients adopted a more elegant and alle-gorical method for this purpose; that they representedhuman mortality by various symbols of destruction, asbirds devouring lizards and serpents, or pecking fruits andflowers; by goats browsing on vines ; cocks fighting, oreven by a Medusa's or Gorgon's head. The Romans seemto have adopted Homer's 1 definition of Death as the eldestbrother of Sleep ; and, accordingly, on several of theirmonumental and other sculptures we find two winged geniias the representatives of the above personages, and some-times a genius bearing a sepulchral vase on his shoulder,and with a torch reversed in one of his hands. It is verywell known that the ancients often symbolized the humansoul by the figure of a butterfly, an idea that is extremelyobvious and appropriate, as well as elegant. In a very in-teresting sepulchral monument, engraved in p. 7 of Spon'sMiscellanea Eruditae Antiquitatis, a prostrate corpse isseen, and over it a butterfly that has just escaped fromthe mouth of the deceased, or as Homer expresses it," from the teeth's enclosure." 2 The above excellent anti-quary has added the following very curious sepulchral in-scription that was found in Spain, " HiEREDiBVS meis mando

ETIAM CINERE VTMEO VOLITET EBRIVS PAPILIO OSSA IPSA

tegant mea," &c. Rejecting this heathen symbol altogether,the painters and engravers of the middle ages have sub-stituted a small human figure escaping from the mouths ofdying persons, as it were, breathing out their souls.

We have, however, the authority of Herodotus, that inthe banquets of the Egyptians a person was introducedwho carried round the table at which the guests were seatedthe figure of a dead body, placed on a coffin, exclaimingat the same time, " Behold this image of what your-selves will be ; eat and drink therefore, and be happy." 3Montfaucon has referred to an ancient manuscript toprove that this sentiment was conveyed in a Lacedaemonianproverb, 4 and it occurs also in the beautiful poem of Coppa,ascribed to Virgil, in which he is supposed to invite

1 Iliad, and after him Virgil, JEn. vi. 278.

2 Iliad IX. On an ancient gem likewise in Ficoroni's Gemmae An-tique Litteratae, Tab. viii. No. 1, a human skull typifies mortality, anda butterfly immortality. 3 Lib. ii. 78. 4 Diariurm p. 212.

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5 Lib. :