The History of Silk, Cotton, Linen, Wool, and Other Fibrous Substances;: Including Observations on Spinning, Dyeing, and Weaving.Gilroy, Clinton G.
History
The History of Silk, Cotton, Linen, Wool, and Other Fibrous Substances;: Including Observations on Spinning, Dyeing, and Weaving.
Gilroy, Clinton G.
History, Ancient; Textile fabrics -- History
In consequence of this prevailing association of sheep and goats,
they are often represented together in ancient bas-reliefs and other
works of art. Of this we have a beautiful example in the Rev. Robert
Walpole’s collection of “Travels in various countries of the East.” At
the end of the volume is a plate taken from a votive tablet of Pentelic
marble dedicated to Pan, and representing five goats, two sheep, and a
lamb. As the goats are in one group, and the sheep and lamb in another,
the artist probably designed to represent a flock of each. For, though
sometimes mixed in the same flock, the two kinds of animals were
generally kept apart; and to this circumstance our Savior alludes in
his image of the shepherd dividing the sheep from the goats[373].
[373] “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy
angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
and before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate
them one from another, _as a shepherd divides his sheep from the
goats_: and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats
on the left.”--Matt. xxv. 31-33.
A sheep and a goat are seen reposing together in a Roman bas-relief in
the Monumenta Matthæiana, vol. iii. tab. 37. fig. 1.
Rosselini gives two paintings from Egyptian tombs, which exhibit both
sheep and goats[374]; and he mentions an inscription on the tomb of
Ranni, according to which that person had 120 goats, 300 rams, 1500
hogs, and 122 oxen.
[374] Monumenti dell’ Egitto, parte ii. Mon. Civili, tomo i. cap. iii.
§ 2. tavola xxviii. xxix.
In the account given in chapter II. of the Sicilian Daphnis, an epigram
by Callimachus on Astacides, who was a goatherd in Crete, was partially
quoted, probably remarkable for his beauty and his immature death. The
translation of the passage will now be given.
Ἀστακίδην τὸν Κρῆτα, τὸν αἰπόλον, ἥρπασε Νύμφη
Ἐξ ὄρεος· καὶ νῦν ἱερὸς Ἀστακίδης
Οἰκεῖ Δικταίῃσιν ὑπὸ δρυσίν· οὐκέτι Δάφνιν
Ποιμένες, Ἀστακίδην δ’ αἰὲν ἀεισόμεθα.
A nymph has snatch’d Astacides away;
Beneath Dictæan oaks our goatherd lies:
Shepherds! no more your songs to Daphnis pay;
For now with him the sacred Cretan vies.
_Yates’s Translation._
Theocritus (_Idyll._ vii. 12-20.) describes a goatherd of Cydon in
Crete, named Lycidas; and from the account which he gives of his
attire, we may judge of that commonly used in ancient Greece by the
same description of persons. He wore on his shoulders the dun-colored
hide of a shaggy goat, and an old shawl was fastened about his breast
with a broad girdle. In his right hand he held a crook of wild olive.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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