Vestiges of ancient manners and customs, discoverable in modern Italy and Sicily / By the Rev. John James Blunt.

  • Blunt, John J. (John James), 1794-1855.
Date:
1823
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vestiges of ancient manners and customs, discoverable in modern Italy and Sicily / By the Rev. John James Blunt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    30/318 (page 12)
    of Sa. Rosa at Viterbo, I discovered an altar ‘adorned with such blasphemy as_ the fol- lowing : “ Quis tamen laudes recolat, quis hujus Virginis dotes, sibi quam pudicis Nuptiis junctam voluit superni Numen Olympi ?” But ah! what powers of tongue can paint, The virtues of this virgin saint ? For whom, a chaste, celestial bride, The ruler of Olympus sigh’d. When I witnessed all this, I say, I could not prevent my mind from wandering to- the interviews between Diana and Endymion ; between Bacchus and Ariadne; between Ve- nus and Adonis; between Jupiter, Apollo, in short, half the heathen gods, and as many fa- vored mortals, whose names afterwards be- ~ came emblazoned in the scrolls of mythology. It is remarkable, too, that the sex of the par- ties is as carefully adjusted in the former, as in the latter instances. In the places and things over which the gods