procured for him at Rome by the painter Barry, who for five years was maintained abroad by Burke to study art.

Hercules and the Stag. One of the labours of Hercules was to bring alive to Eurystheus a stag famous for its incredible swiftness, golden horns, and brazen feet. In this bas-relief the hero is shown in the moment of triumph. He has seized the stag by the antlers, and is forcing it down by the pressure of his left knee. "The treatment of the hair and beard and the general style of the sculpture make it probable that in this relief we have either an archaic work which has been partially retouched in modern times, or such a pseudo-archaic imitation as would be executed in the time of Hadrian" (Newton).

Venus.-Torso of a small statue of Venus stooping to fasten her sandal. This torso, very finely modelled, was purchased at Rome from Cavaceppi, the sculptor, in whose possession it had been for many years. Mr. Townley considered it one of the gems of his collection.

Cupid sleeping, with Attributes of Hercules.--He lies on a lion's skin; in front of him is a club, and behind him, bows and arrows in a bow-case-all attributes of Hercules. Two lizards are crawling on the lion's skin. The introduction of the lizard in compositions of this kind has received various interpretations. Some suggest the supposed efficacy of the lizard in love-charms (to this day there is no commoner form of jewelled ornament); others, the fact that the lizard spends a great part of the year in sleep.

From the far end of the Third Græco-Roman Room, a staircase descends to the Greco-Roman Basement.

CHAPTER VI

THE GRECO-ROMAN BASEMENT

Where dead men hang

Their mute thoughts on the mute walls around.

IN this basement are arranged Etruscan sarcophagi, ancient mosaics, and figures and reliefs of the Græco-Roman period, which are described by the authorities of the Museum as "of inferior merit." Nevertheless many of them are of considerable interest and beauty. The fact is, the British Museum is so rich in Greek and Roman antiquities, and so cramped for space in which properly to exhibit them, that collections which would be the pride of many another museum are here consigned to basements and cellars. The larger part of this

basement is not open to the general public without special permission. In the following notes we deal only with such objects as are accessible to all visitors. Going round the room from left to right, we notice first :

An Ancient Bath-chair.Found in the Antonine Baths at Rome. In the centre of the seat is a hollow space in the form of an extended horse-shoe, serving a double use, either for water to be poured upon the person sitting in it, or to receive steam or vapour from beneath. It is curious that a precise description of this kind of chair, with an explanation of the purposes, medicinal and other, to which it may be put, has come down to us in a letter from King Theodoric to an architect. On each side of the seat a wheel is worked in relief, in imitation no doubt of such wheel-chairs as were at that time executed in wood, resembling in some degree the bath-chairs of to-day (Ellis, The Townley Gallery, ii. 308).

Statue of Venus.-A copy of the Cnidian Aphroditè by Praxiteles (see p. 43). "The present example is in many respects poor, but the torso retains something of the style of

Praxiteles, while the rendering of the hair seems fairly true to the original, as is also the drapery, held out by the left hand and falling over a vase on the ground" (British Museum Return, 1899, p. 60). This figure was found in Athens in 1811, acquired there by Lord Broughton (Hobhouse), and sent home by Lord Byron.

An Altar to Apollo.-On public festivals the Greek and Roman altars were usually hung with wreaths, whence in later times, when they were for the most part made of stone or marble, festoons were often sculptured upon them. Here a raven is resting upon a festoon of laurel, and on each of the sides a laurel, Apollo's tree, is represented.

In the first recess there is a charming head of a youth. The fragment is not in good condition, but exhibits the fine style of the school of Praxiteles.

"Grotta Dipinta."-A dark recess has been fitted up to resemble an Etruscan tomb. The paintings are copies. The sarcophagus is the actual one found in the tomb here represented. The Etruscan tombs were generally hewn in the rock, and sometimes included several chambers connected with each other, as in the famous Tomb of the Volumnii, with which every visitor to Perugia is familiar. In many cases the walls were richly decorated with paintings. In the chambers were placed the sarcophagi and urns containing the remains of the dead, who were accompanied in their resting-place by presents of numerous painted vases, bronzes, and other objects. The vases stood on the floor or were arranged on shelves, and as the Etruscan tombs were spacious and strongly constructed, enormous numbers of vases have come down to us in fairly good preservation. The tomb here represented is one of those excavated by Prince Borghese at Bomarzo, an Etruscan site near Viterbo. It is known as the Grotta Dipinta, and is thus described from personal observation by Dennis :—

"We are in a chamber whose walls, gaily painted, are alive with sea-horses snorting and plunging, water-snakes uprearing their crests and gliding along in slimy folds, dolphins sporting as in their native element. . . These are symbols frequently found in Etruscan tombs, either depicted on the walls or sculptured on sarcophagi and urns. They are generally regarded as emblematic of the passage of the soul from one state of existence to another, an opinion confirmed by the frequent representation of boys riding on their backs. This view is, moreover, borne out by their amphibious character-horse and fish,

snake and fish,-evidently referring to a two-fold state of existence. The dolphins, which form a border round the apartment, painted alternately black and red, are a common sepulchral ornament, and are supposed to have a similar symbolical reference, though they have also been considered as emblematical of the maritime power of the Etruscans, the sea-kings of antiquity. The rolling border beneath them represents the waves in which they are supposed to be sporting " (Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, 1883, i. 168).

On the right are two painted heads. The one nearest to us, with fixed stare and the hair standing out as if electrified, may represent Typhon or the spirit of Destruction. The old man's head on the same wall may be Charun (the minister of Death). The head in the centre of the other wall is probably the portrait of the Etruscan for whom the sarcophagus was constructed. "Next to the Typhon head is a large jar, sketched on the wall, out of which two serpents with forked tongues are rising. The demons or genii of Etruscan mythology are commonly represented brandishing these reptiles in their hands, or with them bound round their brows or waists, or sometimes, as in this case, having them by their side. That snakes were also made use of by the Etruscan priests and soothsayers, as by the Egyptian, to establish their credit for superior powers in the minds of the people may be learned from both history and sepulchral monuments, and it is possible that those used in the service of the temples were kept in such jars as this" (Dennis, ibid. pp. 168-170).

In this tomb was found the curious sarcophagus which we now see before us. It is of temple shape with a pair of serpents in knotted coils on the roof, and "it appears highly probable, from this and other adornments of the sarcophagus, as well as from the serpent-jar painted on the wall, that this was the sepulchre of some augur or aruspex skilled in the mysteries of the Etruscan Discipline and in interpreting the will of heaven. His name, we learn from the sarcophagus, was Vel Urinates, a family name met with in other parts of Etruria" (Dennis, l.c., where also a detailed description of the sarcophagus will be found).

Continuing along the wall, we notice :

Two Small Statues of Fishermen. In one the fisherman carries his bucket of fish on his left arm; he wears a sailor's bonnet; a dolphin serves as a support to the figure. In the other the brawny fisherman rests his bucket on the stem of a

tree. He holds out a small fish in his right hand, and his mouth is open, as if he were calling out his wares. The conception is spirited and the sculpture fairly executed. Statues

of fishermen are often met with. They probably ornamented the banks of fishponds which were a marked feature of Roman luxury.

Next to this fisherman is a comic actor (found at Rome, 1773), probably representing a slave taking refuge at an altar. The actor's face is covered with a comic mask; the mouth was left wide open for the free transmission of the voice.

In the recess here we catch glimpses of Etruscan sarcophagi. There is something very weird in the collections of these old Etruscans lying for ever in their tombs in melancholy rows in all the museums of Europe, where "dead men hang their mute thoughts on the mute walls around " :

"I must say I was almost terrified at the figures when I first saw them, for by the dim light there appeared so much dignity in their attitudes, and severe majesty in their countenances, that I fancied they seemed to reprove our intrusion upon their solemn and sacred rest. There they lay, not with a look of death, but as if they had a tale to tell, if there was any one present willing to listen and worthy to understand. They looked, indeed, as if they felt that they were in a strange country, cold, comfortless, and far from home" (Mrs. Hamilton Gray's Sepulchres of Etruria, pp. 6, 12).

Among the statues which may be discerned in the doubtful gloom beyond is one of a youthful Bacchus, found in the temple of that god at Cyrenè, and remarkable for a certain effeminate beauty. Next to it, also from Cyrenè, is a female figure-probably a portrait of a queen of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Several queens of that dynasty are represented on their coins as wearing diadem and veil, as in this statue. "Though the figure has rather an imposing effect at a distance, near inspection shows that it is very coarsely executed. The proportions are very clumsy. It was found in some ruins on the north side of the Temple of Apollo" (Smith and Porcher, p. 95).

Returning to the walls of the public room, we may next notice a very curious figure of a tumbler. He is of Ethiopian type, with thick lips and woolly hair. He is performing on the back of a tame crocodile. Strabo gives an account of a tame crocodile which he saw at Arsinoe in Egypt. The animal allowed the priests to open his mouth and stuff it full of good