Sicily presents to the ordinary tourist attractions which in number ...

135 ANTIQUITIES IN THE MUSEUM AT PALERMO.
archaic style to the period that approaches perfection, they
stand pre-eminent. 1 Next to them in importance we
may rank the Syracusan Earn, of which a full description
has appeared in the Transactions of the Royal Society of
Literature. 2 Passing by these famous monuments, I
proceed to a bronze Caduceus presented by the Director
of the Museum, Signor Salinas, who is also Professor of
Archaeology in the University. It deserves consideration
for two reasons : it is singular in its form, and it bears an
inscription that throws some light both on philology and
geography.
An account of this Caduceus has been written by
Baldassare Romano in the Giornale di Scienze, Lettere
ed Arti per la Sicilia, and by Salinas for the Istituto
di Correspondenza Archeologica at Rome It was discovered
early in the present century near Nissoria 3 at
Rocca di Serlone, a little below the surface, fixed vertically
between stones and earth, with the serpents uppermost.
According to Salinas, the shaft bears two inscriptions,
IMAXAPAION ΟΣΙΟΝ, and Ρ . . . ΑΜΑ . . .
ION; the former words having been cut over the latter,
which are in fainter characters, and cannot now be read
so as to afford any connected meaning. But I think
Salinas is mistaken in speaking of two inscriptions.
Professor Percy Gardner pointed out to me that the
word ΔΑΜΟΣΙΟΝ is legible here ; it occurs also on the
Caduceus from Longanus in the British Museum. 4 We
ought, therefore, to read IMAXAPAION ΔΑΜΟΣΙΟΝ, i.e.,
the public Caduceus of the Imacharenses. The antiquity
of the inscription is shown by the use of Ο for Ω in the
genitive plural. 5
1 Some of the metopes are engraved in 4 Longanus was a city on the north
C. 0. Muller's " Denkmaler der alten eoast of Sicily, near Mylae. The caduceus
Kunst," edit.Wieseler, vol. i, Plates iv and from this place is in the Bronze Room of
v, Nos. 24—27b. Good photographs of the the British Museum, and in the same
series may be obtained at Palermo from case with the celebrated Elean inscrip-
Giuseppe Incorpora. tion. The words in the shaft appear to
2 " Transactions," June 22,1870. This be Λ0ΓΓΕΝΑΙ02 EMI ΔΗΜ02Ι02. Case
memoir by the Rev. S. S. Lewis was also 44, 45 contains another caduceus, where
published in the " Journal of Philology," the snakes are bearded and crested, but
vol. iv. Compare an article by Heyde- the beard is parallel to the lower jaw, not
mann in the " Archaologische Zeitung," at right angles to it, as in the Palermitan
New Series, 3rd vol., pp. 1, 2, Tafel 25, example. The latter mode of represent-
1870—1871, entitled " Der Bronzewidder ing the beard occurs in a small ornament
im Museum zu Palermo." that seems to have belonged to some
3 Nissoria is marked in Baedeker's larger object, case 49.
Map of Sicily, at a little distance east of 5 Η and Ω were fir st used for public
Leonforte, an important station on the documents at AthenEuc i
railway from Girgenti to Catania. was Archon. B.C. 403.