The Remains of Hesiod the Ascræan, Including the Shield of Hercules: Translated into English rhyme and blank verse; with a dissertation on the life and æra, the poems and mythology of Hesiod, and copious notes.Hesiod
General
The Remains of Hesiod the Ascræan, Including the Shield of Hercules: Translated into English rhyme and blank verse; with a dissertation on the life and æra, the poems and mythology of Hesiod, and copious notes.
Hesiod
Heracles (Greek mythological character) -- Poetry; Hesiod -- Translations into English
[182] _Tethys to Ocean brought the rivers forth._] When towers were
situated upon eminences fashioned very round, they were by the Amonians
called Tith, answering to Titthos in Greek. They were so denominated
from their resemblance to a woman’s breast, and were particularly sacred
to Orus and Osiris, the deities of light, who by the Grecians were
represented under the title of Apollo. Tethys, the ancient goddess of
the sea, was nothing else but an old tower upon a mount. On this account
it was called Tith-is, the mount of fire. Thetis seems to have been a
transposition of the same name, and was probably a Pharos, or fire-tower,
near the sea. BRYANT.
[183] _Claim the shorn locks._] It was the custom of the Greeks for adult
youths to poll their hair as an offering to Apollo and the Rivers.
[184] _And Ploto, with the bright dilated eyes._] Βοωπις, ox-eyed: that
is, with eyes artificially enlarged. Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxiii. 6, speaks
of the _stibium_ or antimony as an astringent, especially as to the
eye-lid: and mentions that it was called _platyophthalmum_, eye-opener:
from its forming an ingredient in the washes of women, as it had the
effect of opening or dilating the eye by contracting the lid. The modern
Greek women retain the custom. “Of the few that I have seen with an open
veil or without one, the faces were remarkable for symmetry and brilliant
complexion: with the nose straight and small: the eyes vivacious: either
black or dark-blue: having the eyebrows, partly from nature, and as much
from art, very full, and joining over the nose. They have a custom,
too, of drawing a black line with a mixture of powder of antimony and
oil above and under the eye-lashes in order to give the eye more fire.”
DALLAWAY, Constantinople Ancient and Modern.
Strutt, in the general introduction to his “View of the Dress and Habits
of the People of England,” observes that the Moorish ladies in Barbary,
the women in Arabia Felix, and those about Aleppo continue the same
traditional custom of tinging the inside of the eye-lid. Dr. Russel
describes the operation as effected “by means of a short smooth probe of
ivory, wood, or silver; charged with a powder named the black Kohol. This
substance is a kind of lead-ore brought from Persia: and is prepared by
roasting it in a quince, an apple, or a truffle; then, adding a few drops
of oil of almonds, it is ground to a subtile powder on a marble. The
probe being first dipped in water, a little of the powder is sprinkled
on it. The middle part is then applied horizontally to the eye, and the
eye-lids being shut upon it, the probe is drawn through between them,
leaving the inside tinged, and a black rim all round the edge. The Kohol
is used likewise by the men: but not so generally by way of ornament
merely: the practice being deemed rather effeminate. It is supposed to
strengthen the sight and prevent various disorders of the eye.” NATURAL
HISTORY OF ALEPPO, vol. i. iii. 22.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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