Let us here glance for a moment at an older and now decaying form of
superstition. From the darkest period of the Middle Ages, or even from
the days of antiquity, many cities of Italy had kept the remembrance of
the connection of their fate with certain buildings, statues, or other
material objects. The ancients had left records of consecrating priests
or Telestae, who were present at the solemn foundation of cities, and
magically guaranteed their prosperity by erecting certain monuments or
by burying certain objects (Telesmata). Traditions of this sort were
more likely than anything else to live on in the form of popular,
unwritten legend; but in the course of centuries the priest naturally
became transformed into the magician, since the religious side of his
function was no longer understood. In some of the Virgilian miracles at
Naples, the ancient remembrance of one of these Telestae is clearly
preserved, his name being in course of time supplanted by that of
Virgil. The enclosing of the mysterious picture of the city in a vessel
is neither more nor less than a genuine ancient Telesma; and Virgil, as
founder of Naples, is but the officiating priest who took part in the
ceremony, presented in another dress. The popular imagination went on
working at these themes, till Virgil became also responsible for the
brazen horse, for the heads at the Nolan gate, for the brazen fly over
another gate, and even for the Grotto of Posilippo--all of them things
which in one respect or other served to put a magical constraint upon
fate, and the first two of which seemed to determine the whole fortune
of the city.
Pages:
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608