History of Monsters. 293

standing, he was shown with a trophy in his left hand and a club in his right. However, others have believed Hercules to be represented as a naked man with a club and a lion's skin in his left hand and a laurel branch in his right. Some depicted Hercules as a naked man with three javelins in his right hand and a club in his left; others imagined him as a naked man with a club and a lion's skin in his left hand, while goading two bulls with his right. When a figure of a robust man is seen striking a youth who offers him a cup, it signifies Hercules, who killed the youth Cyathus when he performed his duties as a cupbearer indecorously. Similarly, when an icon of a large, robust man carrying a goblet is seen, Cartari interprets this as "Hercules the Drinker," since he received such a drinking vessel as a gift from Apollo. But when a large man appears armed with a club and a quiver, Hercules is shown about to fight against the Minyans on behalf of the Thebans.

Furthermore, one might see an image containing the following figures: a man dressed in a lion's skin with a club in his left hand, attempting to pull a tripod toward himself with his right, while a beardless youth on the other side strives to snatch it away. Nearby are images of women: the first is armed with a bow and quiver; the second appears to be a matron; and the third is helmeted and armored, carrying a spear and a shield emblazoned with the head of the Gorgon. The armed woman signifies Pallas, the one with the quiver and bow represents Diana, and the matron denotes Latona. The man in the lion skin pulling the tripod represents Hercules taking the tripod from the temple of Apollo when he could not hear an oracle that favored his wishes. In a different tradition, they say there was once a statue among the Gauls of an old man whom they understood to be Hercules because of his lion-skin trophy and club. This figure’s face appeared to be turned back toward a great crowd of people following him, but the ears of all these people were linked by individual golden chains, which were gathered into a bundle and inserted through the statue's pierced tongue; indeed, they sought to express the power of eloquence through this image. Finally, a robust man lifting a giant off the ground and crushing him represents Hercules, who killed Antaeus, the son of the Earth, by squeezing him.

If he is painted as a lame, ugly man with a dark face, usually naked or semi-naked and wearing a blue cap—sometimes with a hammer and anvil—Cartari identifies him as the god Vulcan. A man cast from every kind of metal and wood, so large that his outstretched hands reach both sides of a temple, is described by Cartari as the god Serapis of the Egyptian Alexandrians. Elsewhere in the same author, a man with a dog's head, carrying a caduceus in his left hand and a green palm branch in his right, denotes the god Anubis; the dog's head signifies the sagacity of Mercury, whom Anubis represents. Truly, if one sees an image of a stooped, pale old man with an open mouth, striking the ground with a staff, Cartari says it manifests the god Momus. But when a youth is painted crowned with flowers, with a ruddy face, a spear in his left hand and a burning torch in his right, with a lyre almost falling from his hands as he peers through the cracks of a bedroom door, he represents the god Comus.

Furthermore, a naked youth with long hair around his forehead but a bald back of the head, holding a razor in his hand and with winged sandals on his feet, standing upon a round stone, represents the god Caerus, whom the Latins call Opportunity. For this reason, the poet sang: "Opportunity has hair on her brow, but is bald behind."

If an image of a Genius is desired, one must turn to the people of Elis, who, to represent the god Sosipolis (or the Genius), painted a boy dressed in a garment of various colors adorned with stars, holding out a cornucopia. Alternatively, Cartari shows a "Good Genius" as a youth with a cord in his left hand and a patera in his right, which he pours over an altar decorated with flowers. Conversely, the figure of a dark man, horrific in appearance and dressed in a wolf skin, signifies an "Evil Genius." Among the statues of the pagans, two youths dressed in armor with javelins in their right hands were seen, representing the gods who guard the inner chambers of the house. After the Penates come the Lares, who were expressed by an icon of two youths dressed in dog skins with the figure of a dog at their feet. According to Cartari’s view, they were also painted differently: as two youths dressed in cloths hanging under the right armpit and knotted over the left shoulder.

If we consider the images of women, first there is an armed woman with a spear in