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to be struck with fear, as Jacobonius wrote; or, according to others, so that people might understand from it that they should not be puffed up by the empty persuasion of knowledge and wealth, nor indulge in luxury, since Medusa suffered heavy penalties because of the beauty of her golden hair, as was explained in the section on the *Metamorphoses*.

Similarly, according to the same Jacobonius, the ancients used to carve two human heads on the stones of tombs—one male and the other female. The author wrote that this was done to guard the sepulcher, or to indicate the *larvae*, whom antiquity believed were the guardian spirits of tombs. Manasseh, who reigned among the Hebrews, represented the head with five foreheads; for after he did away with the prophet Isaiah, he wished to be depicted with a fivefold face to indicate that he saw far more than the Prophets, who were called "Seers" by men. Finally, the human skull that is painted at the feet of the image of Christ crucified is said by Nauclerus to be there because Adam is reported to have been buried in the very place where the Cross of Our Lord was situated for the atonement of the human race.

Sometimes the ancients carved the shape of a heart on the stones of tombs, either to indicate that nothing feigned had been uttered from the mouth of the deceased, but that they had only spoken what came from the heart and the sincerity of the soul; or to make it clear to all that their blood relations and kinsmen had performed funeral rites from the heart; or to signify that the buried man had taken away the life of his relatives, which is said to have its proper seat in the heart; or, finally, so that it might be plain to everyone that because of the death of the buried man, the hearts of the living were vexed with cares—at least, this is how Julius Jacobonius explained it. On the other hand, the figure of a heart among chemists, like the name "heart" itself, signifies gold, as one reads in the Lexicon of Paracelsus; though Johannes Garlandius contends that in the chemical art, a depiction of a heart designates fire.

Occasionally, the image of a finger has been seen on a tomb; for between Megalopolis and Messene, in the region called Maonia, a stone finger was placed upon a tomb. Pausanias testifies that this was done for no other reason than that Orestes, driven by the Furies, bit off one finger of his own hand; therefore, they wished to commit the event to memory with such a monument.

Now we must move on to the complete images of man, which, when depicted in various ways, signify almost infinite things. According to Cartari, the Egyptians expressed the Creator of all things in this way: they painted a man of a blue color, holding a circle adorned with stars in his right hand, a scepter decorated with a feather in his left, and with an egg in his mouth from which a boy was emerging. Indeed, by the feather, difficulty is shown; by the scepter, royal majesty; from the motion of the circle, the life of the world is drawn; by the egg, the world is to be understood; and by the boy, Vulcan, the symbol of that heat which imparts life to all things. Again, according to the mind of the same Cartari, to express God as the author of all things, they drew a boy sitting in the branches of a Lotus tree, since the round leaves and fruit of this tree designate the fiery empire of God, as the action of the mind is completed in a circular motion.

Even before the coming of Christ, the truth of the mystical Trinity in God was suggested to the pagans; for they painted the God of the Sabipori—called the Holy Son and the Half-Father—with a triple face, and they carried him into the city, testifying that he was triple in name and one in reality. They held this triple image in such high regard that it obtained the highest authority in the swearing of oaths; under its face, the triune God was understood to have a single power. Others report that on a very ancient marble among the Romans, an image of Fidius was seen with a beardless face but of mature age, with the title HONOR. This image offered its hand to Truth, who had a virginal countenance; in the middle stood a boy representing Love. Faith was described by these three images, for it surely rests upon truth, faith, and love.

The vain idols of the pagans, which they once called divine, were represented by various human figures; nevertheless, since they depart from every path of truth, we may sing thus:

Jupiter, the Sea-born, Bacchus, Saturn, Apollo, Mercury, Pallas, Juno, Diana, Ceres, Neptune, Pluto, Janus, Mars, and Cupid— these deities are to be numbered among the false gods.

Nevertheless, it will be permitted to weigh their images for a moment, so that we may contemplate the various human figures which antiquity used to signify them. First, to represent the icon of Saturn, they painted an old man with his head bare, a scythe in his right hand, and something or other wrapped in cloth in his left; however, the image of four small children at his fee