The daily press. (Cincinnati [Ohio) 1859-1859, 1859-04-01

ANCIENT FIeuREs OF DEATH.--We copy from |
m article in the Atlantic Monthly for March |
the following highly interesting extract:
The figure Of death in these strange re-
ligious works Of art, dances of Death)-
for they were as purely religious in their
origin as tho holy Families and Madonnas
Of the same and q subsequent periods not
always o skeleton. It is SO in but one Of the
forty groups In the picture Of the Dance Of
Death at Basle, which was the germ of Hol-
bein's picture, and which, indeed, until very
recently, was attributed to him, although 1t
was painted more than half century before
he was born. 1t is generally assumed that
skeleton has always been the representative Of
death, but erroneousy; for, in fact, Holbein
was the frstt fX upon mere skeleton for the
embodiment of that idea.
The Hebrew Scripture, which furnishes US
with the earliest extant allusion to Death az
parsonage, designates him as IN angel or mes
| senger of God-as, for instance, in the record
Of the destruction Of the Assyrian host in the
I'd Book of Kings, xix. 95). The ancient
| Egyptians, too, in whose strange system of
| symbolism may be found the germ, at least, of
| most Of the types used in the religion and arts
Of moro modern nations, had no representa-
ton of death as an individual agent. They
expressed the extinction Of life very naturally
1 and simply by the figure Of o mummy. Such
o figure Il was their custom to pass round
among the guests at their feasts; and the Greeks
and Romans initiated them, with slight modi-
hoations, in the form Of the image and the
manner Of the ceremony. Some scholars have
found in this custom deep moral and religious
| significance, akin to that which certainly
attached to the custom Of placing slave in
the chariot Of Roman conquering general
| to say to him at intervals, IS his triumphal
procession moved with the pomp and splendor
| through the swarming streets, Remember
that thou art 8 man." But this 10 too subtle q
conjecture. The ceremony was but a silent
way Of saying, "Let us eat and drink, for to-
morrow we dio," which, as Paul's solemn irony
makes but too plain, must be the philosophy Of
life to those who believe that the dead rise not,
which was the case with the Egyptians and the
Greeks, and the Hebrews also. An old French
epitaph (of which the following is translation
expresses to the full this philosophy;
What ate,
What What dissips..d, ddiisa
frSst. which iisn
The figure of the sad youth leaning upon ar
inverted torch, In which the Greeks embodied
their idea Of Death, 10 familiar to all who hav,
. examined ancient Art. The Etrusoan Dealt
Q was female, with wings upon the shoulders
head and feet, hideous oountenance, terribl
r fangs and talons, and O black skin. No OK
Q ample Of the form attributed to him by th
Y early Christians has come down to us that
can discover; but we know that they, as we
a as the later Hebrews, considered Death as tn
- emissary of the Evil One, if not identical wit
e him, and called him impious, unholy. 1t wa
- in tho Dark Ages that the figure Of dea
body or a skull was first used as a symbol
3 Death; but even then its Office appears to hay
e , been purely symbolic, and not representative
that Is, these figures served to remind men
their mortality, or to mark place of sepulturt
0 and were not the embodiment Of an idea, nc
% the creation of personage-Death. It is nc
e till the thirteenth or fourteenth century tbs
70 we fnd this embodiment clearly defined an
generally recognized, and even then the fgul
a, used was not a skeleton, but oadaverous ar
a emaciated body. Among the remains Of Gree
f. and Roman Art only two groups are known
Z. which a skeleton appears, and 1t is remarkab
that In both Of these the skeletons are danoin