The evil eye. An account of this ancient and wide spread superstition

364 THE EVIL EYE chap.
Such a chain of evidence, connecting in the most
obvious manner the beHefs of to-day with the myth-
ology of perhaps thirty centuries ago, is not often
to be found ;
and again, judging from the known to
the unknown, it is reasonable to maintain that most
of the habits and customs now persistently upheld
by the people would, if they could be thus traced, be
found to have their beginnings in the same dim ages
of obscure antiquity. Conversely, there is hardly a
custom or occult practice of the ancients which may
not be traced somewhere or somehow amongst their
modern descendants. The statuette (Fig. 175),
well known to the writer, is now in the Museum of
the Collegio Romano. The others are in private
collections. It is strange that not one of these four
seems to have been known to Montfaucon, or to his
authorities. He has, however, the more typical
statue of the Ephesian goddess (Fig. 69), in which
she appears as the patroness of maternity. Those
which have the attribute of Proserpine so promi-
nent, appeal more to the Roman ideal, although
they are matronly in appearance.
It is difficult satisfactorily to interpret the various
attributes upon the four statues from Bellori. In
general type they are strikingly alike, though each
one is different in detail. Every one has the corona
hirrita, by which the author of Symbolica says
vertex insignitur. This is usually the attribute of
the Phrygian Cybele as well as of Diana. The two
Farnesian statues have wreaths or floral crowns ; in
the centre of each is no doubt her own flower—but
which ? The rose, chrysanthemum, heliochrysum,
lotus, were all sacred to Diana. One has the sun
upon her crown, while every one wears a half-moon