292 Ulysses Aldrovandi

and the grass, which lay hidden, buried in the cereal furrows, thrusts its tender tip from the warm earth.

The scepter represents the Sun’s dominion over both Heaven and Earth, while the disk signifies the world, and the wings symbolize the speed with which the Sun traverses the entire sky in twenty-four hours. It is hardly surprising, then, that antiquity incorporated a phallic image into the sacred rites of Bacchus. As Varro wrote, this custom was later adopted because gardens were under the protection of Venus, the goddess of all generation. This same symbol—the male member—was used in the sacred rites of Eleusinian Ceres, where it was kept wrapped in many bandages. Numerous ceremonies were performed before it was finally unveiled; these began with a long wait at the sanctuary doors and included specific rules regarding silence and attire, all of which Apuleius chronicles in detail. More shamefully, even princes, philosophers, and the Roman masters themselves, led by a certain frivolity, would attend just to witness the unveiling of this indecent image.

Antiquity depicted Janus with two heads to symbolize the prudence of one who claims to know the past and foresee the future. Others, however, suggest he was portrayed this way to signify the beginning and end of the year, with Janus standing in the middle looking at both. Some even gave him four heads, either because the beginnings, ends, entrances, and exits of all things were consecrated to him, or to represent the four seasons. Still others assigned him a four-headed form to represent his four daughters, who were driven by grief over their father’s death to end their lives by the noose. This followed an incident where certain peasants, having been given the wine Janus invented and becoming intoxicated, believed they had been poisoned and stoned him to death.

Canopus, the god who was once the pilot of Menelaus’s ship, is depicted by Cartari as a stout, nearly round man with a slanted neck and very short legs. However, in his *Hieroglyphics*, Goropius describes the god Canopus as a boy with a veiled head and large, protruding ears. His arms are crossed beneath his garment so that his right hand appears on his left side and his left on his right; the rest of his body ends in a quadrangular base inscribed with hieroglyphic letters. His right hand appears to hold a letter ‘A’ with a cord, while his left carries a sickle. Thus, he is portrayed at the age when children typically begin to learn their alphabet.

Some of the ancients depicted Harpocrates as a boy with his finger pressed to his mouth to suggest that nothing is more vital to human well-being than having a guide who can instill the principles of life into the unrefined minds of children. Since this gesture signifies silence, the image reminded the wise that wisdom must be acquired through long periods of quietude. Elsewhere, Goropius depicted Harpocrates as a small boy sitting on a circular base, pressing a finger to his lips while holding a lit torch in his left hand. He squeezes the throat of a rooster with his right arm and carries a quiver full of arrows on his left shoulder; furthermore, the top of his head is adorned with the ears of a donkey, and his forehead is decorated with an image of the moon. Among the Egyptians, this image of Harpocrates was very well known, particularly with the index finger pressed to the lips as a sign that silence must be maintained regarding the immortal gods.

The Romans observed a certain figure with a sealed mouth known as Angeronia, signifying that some things must be passed over in silence. This statue was located in the shrine of Volupia and was so named because it was believed to drive away anguish and the anxieties of the soul. Alternatively, for an image of Silence, Cartari depicts a hairless, naked youth with the index finger of his right hand applied to his mouth. Other artists, according to the