[Illustration: Sturt sculp. _To M^r George Rolfe Surgeon: Who has been pleas’d to encourage this Work This Plate is humbly dedicated by His most humble Servant_ Tho. Greenhill. ] [Sidenote: A _Description_ of some _Lamps_] The first Figure represents _Serapis_ sitting in a Chair, having a Basket made of Rushes on his Head; he rests his right Hand on a Staff or Scepter, and lays his left on a tripple-headed Monster, such a one as is joyn’d to the Statue of _Serapis_ at _Alexandria_: [Sidenote: and first of _Serapis_.] This _Lamp_ was found between the Walls, near one of the Gates of _Rome_ call’d _Capena_, and is in the Custody of _Pietro Santo Bartoli_, as _Bellori_ informs us, from whom we have taken the three first and the sixth Figures. [Sidenote: _Lamp_ of a tripple-headed _Monster_.] The second Figure shews the tripple-headed monstrous Representation of _Serapis_ at _Alexandria_: It is an Image of Brass with the Heads of three several kinds of Animals, _viz._ In the middle the Head of a Lion, on the right Hand that of a fawning Dog, and on the left that of a rapacious Wolf, which signifie the three Times, the present, past and to come. The Body is environ’d with two Serpents in four Wreaths or Circumvolutions from the Legs to the Neck, perhaps to denote the four Seasons, turn’d about by the Sun; for by the Figure of _Serapis_ the _Egyptians_ denoted the Sun: See a fuller Description of it in _Macrobii Saturnalibus_. This is kept at present in the Royal Collection of the King of _Prussia_, together with the whole _Musæum_ of _Bellori_, which that Prince purchas’d. [Sidenote: Another _Lamp_ of _Serapis_.] The third Figure is the Head of _Serapis_, with a Basket and Crown upon it like the Rays of the Sun: These express the Nature of that God, whom the _Egyptians_ believ’d to be the same with the Sun, _viz._ The Beginning and Ending of all such Things as proceed from and return back to it. The Basket on the top of the Head shows, says _Macrobius_, the height of this Planet and the virtue of its Influence, in that all earthly Things return to it, whilst they are drawn up by the Heat it immits; for which Reason this God is thought to be the same with _Pluto_, and was not rarely added to the _Sepulchral Lamps_, as these two testifie; the latter of which, being of excellent Workmanship, is in the Custody of _Raphael Fabrettus_. Before we proceed to give any farther Description of these _Lamps_, it may be necessary to remark, that some were also kept in the _Egyptian_ Temples and other Places, as well as in the _Caves_ of the Dead; but then, says _Kircher_, they were made in the similitude of that God who was worshipp’d in that Temple. Thus in the Temple of _Anubis_, the _Lamp_ was in the likeness of a Dog’s Head, or else in the shape of his whole Body; in the Temple of _Osiris_ it was in the form of a Hawk’s Head, or of the whole Bird; in the Temple of _Isis_, of a Half Moon, and so of the rest. The _Lamps_