The History of the Crusades (vol. 2 of 3)Michaud, J. Fr. (Joseph Fr.)
History
The History of the Crusades (vol. 2 of 3)
Michaud, J. Fr. (Joseph Fr.)
Crusades
An equestrian statue[137] ornamented the place of Mount Taurus; the
horse appeared to throw up the dust with his feet, and outspeed the
winds in his course. As the horseman had his arm extended towards the
sun, some supposed it to represent Joshua, commanding the star of day
to stand still, on the plains of Gabaon; others believed the artist
meant to describe Bellerophon mounted on Pegasus.[138]
A colossal statue of Hercules,[139] attributed to Lysippus, was one
of the ornaments of the Hippodrome; the demigod had neither his bow
nor his club; he was seated on a bed of osier;[140] his left knee
bent, sustained his elbow; his head reclining on his left hand; his
pensive looks and air expressing the vexation and sorrow caused by
the jealousy of Eurystheus. The shoulders and chest of Hercules were
broad, his hair was curled, and his limbs were large and muscular; his
leg alone exceeded in height the stature of an ordinary man. The skin
of the Nemean lion, exhibited over the shoulders of the son of Alemena,
the erected mane and the head of the animal, which might be fancied
still to roar and terrify the passers by, who stopped to contemplate
the statue.
Not far from the terrible Hercules, was a group of an ass and its
driver, which Augustus placed in his colony of Nicopolis, to perpetuate
the remembrance of a singular circumstance that had foretold the
victory of Actium to him. Near this were the hyena or she-wolf that
suckled Romulus and Remus, a monument from the old nations of the
West;[141] the sphinx, with the face of a woman, dragging frightful
animals behind her; the crocodile, an inhabitant of the Nile, with
his tail covered with horrible scales; a man fighting with a lion; an
elephant with his supple trunk; and the antique Scylla, showing before,
the features of a woman, with large breasts and a deformed figure; and
behind, such monsters as those that pursued Ulysses and his companions.
In the same place was an eagle clutching a serpent in his talons,
and bearing it away towards the azure vault; the bronze beautifully
exhibited the pain of the reptile, and the haughty fierceness of the
bird of Jupiter. When the sun shone on the horizon, the extended wings
of the king of the air denoted, by lines skilfully traced, the twelve
hours of the day.
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