, which was found in 1503
among the ruins of {85} ancient Antium. It was purchased by Pope Julius
II., who removed it to the Belvedere of the Vatican, from whence it takes
its name, and where it has been, for more than three hundred years, the
admiration of the world. When Rome was taken, and plundered by the French,
this celebrated statue was transported to Paris, and placed in the museum
there, but in 1815 it was restored to its former place in the Vatican. The
attitude of the figure, which is more than seven feet high, is inimitable
in its freedom, grace, and majesty. The forehead is noble and intellectual,
and the whole countenance so exquisite in its beauty, that one pauses
spell-bound to gaze on so perfect a conception. The god has a very youthful
appearance, as is usual in all his representations, and with the exception
of a short mantle which falls from his shoulders, is unclothed. He stands
against the trunk of a tree, up which a serpent is creeping, and his left
arm is outstretched, as though about to punish.

HECATE.

Hecate would appear to have been originally a moon-goddess worshipped by
the Thracians. She became confounded, and eventually identified with Selene
and Persephone, and is one of those divinities of whom the ancients had
various conflicting accounts.

Hecate was the daughter of Perses and "gold-wreathed" Astraea (the starry
night[32]), and her sway extended over earth, heaven, and hell, for which
reason she is represented in works of art as a triple divinity, having
three female bodies, all young and beautiful, and united together.

In later times, when this divinity becomes identified with Persephone, she
is supposed to inhabit the lower world as a malignant deity, and
henceforward it is the gloomy, awe-inspiring side of her character which
alone {86} develops itself. She now presides over all practices connected
with witchcraft and enchantments, haunts sepulchres, and the point where
two roads cross, and lonely spots where murders have been committed. She
was supposed to be connected with the appearance of ghosts and spectres, to
possess unlimited influence over the powers of the lower world, and to be
able to lay to rest unearthly apparitions by her magic spells and
incantations.

Hecate appears as a gigantic woman, bearing a torch and a sword. Her feet
and hair are formed of snakes, and her passage is accompanied by voices of
thunder, weird shrieks and yells, and the deep baying and howl