IN Pausanias we find an account of a goddess represented in
the very attitude of the Apocalyptic "Woman."
"But of this stone [Parian marble] Phidias," says
he, "made a statue of Nemesis; and on the head of the
goddess there is a crown adorned with stags, and images of
victory of no great magnitude. In her left hand, too, she holds a
branch of an ash tree, and in her right A CUP, in which
Ethiopians are carved."--(PAUSANIAS, lib. i., Attica,
cap. 33, p. 81.) Pausanias declares himself unable to assign any
reason why "the Ethiopians" were carved on the
cup; but the meaning of the Ethiopians and the stags too will be
apparent to all who read pp. 48, 49, and 50, etc., ante. We find,
however, from statements made in the same chapter, that though
Nemesis is commonly represented as the goddess of revenge, she
must have been also known in represented as the goddess of
revenge, she must have been also known in quite a different
character. Thus Pausanias proceeds, commenting on the statue: "But
neither has this statue of the goddess wings. Among the
Smyrneans, however, who possess the most holy images of Nemesis,
I perceived afterwards that these statues had wings. For, as this
goddess principally pertains to lovers, on this account they may
be supposed to have given wings to Nemesis, as well as to
love," i.e., Cupid.--(Ibid.) The giving of wings to
Nemesis, the goddess who "principally pertained to
lovers," because Cupid, the god of love, bore them, implies
that, in the opinion of Pausanias, she was the counterpart of
Cupid, or the goddess of love--that is, Venus. While this is the
inference naturally to be deduced from the words of Pausanias, we
find it confirmed by an express statement of Photius, speaking of
the statue of Rhamnusian Nemesis: "She was at first
erected in the form of Venus, and therefore bore also the branch
of an apple tree."--(PHOTII, Lexicon, pars. ii. p.
482.) Though a goddess of love and a goddess of revenge might
seem very remote in their characters from one another, yet it is
not difficult to see how this must have come about. The goddess
who was revealed to the initiated in the Mysteries, in the most
alluring manner, was also known to be most unmerciful and
unrelenting in taking vengeance upon those who revealed these
Mysteries; for every such one who was discovered was unsparingly
put to death. - (POTTER'S Antiquities, vol. i., "Eleusinia,"
p. 354.) Thus, then, the cup-bearing goddess was at once Venus,
the goddess of licentiousness, and Nemesis, the stern and
unmerciful one to all who rebelled against her authority. How
remarkable a type of the woman, whom John saw, described in one
aspect as the "Mother of harlots," and in
another as "Drunken with the blood of the saints."!
[ Back ] [ Up ] [ Next ]
|
