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moulds, and then baked by fire ; s"o that the number of them might be increased to any extent. Of the great variety and exquisite beauty of the workmanship, the reader may best form an idea by inspecting the collection of them in the British Museum.
The two imperfect antefixa, here represented, are among those found at Velletri, and described by Carloni. (Roma, 1785.)
The first of them must have formed part of the upper border of the frieze, or rather of the cornice. It contains a panther’s head, designed to serve as a spout for the rain-water to pass through in descending from the roof. Similar antefixa, but with comic masks instead of animals’ heads, adorned the temple of Isis at Pompeii. . The second of the above specimens represents two men who have a dispute, and who come before the sceptre-bearing kings, or judges, to have their cause decided. The style of this bas-relief indicates its higb antiquity, and, at the same time, proves that the Volsci had attained to considerable taste in their architecture. Their antefixa are remarkable for being painted : the ground of that here represented is blue ; the hair of the six men is black, or browm .; their flesh red ; their garments white, yellow, an^d red : the chairs are white. The two holes -may be observed, by which this slab was fixed upon the building.
Cato the Censor complained that the Romans of his time began to despise ornaments of this description, and to prefer the marble frieaes of Athens and Corinth. (Liv. xxxiv. 4.) The rising taste which Cato deplored may account for the su-
ANTIDOSIS.
perior beauty of the antefixa preserved in the British Museum, which were discovered at Rome. A specimen of them is given at the foot of the preceding column It represents Athena superintending the construction of the ship Argo. The man with the hammer and chisel is Argus, who built the vessel under her direction. The pilot Tiphys is .assisted by her in attaching the sail to the yard. Another specimen of the antefixa is given under the article antyx.
ANTENNA. [navis.]
ANTEPAGMENTA, doorposts, the jambs of a door. Vitruvius (iv. 6.) gives minute instruc tions respecting the form and proportions of the antepagmenta in the doors of temples ; and these are found in general to correspond with the ex amples preserved among ,the remains of Grecian architecture. (See Hirt, Baukunsi naeh den Grund- satzen der Alt&n, xvi.) [JANUA.] [J. Y.]
ANTEPILANI. [exercitus.]
ANTESIGNANI. [exercitus.]
ANTESTARI. [AcTio.]
ANTHESPHORIA (aj/0e<rc^p<a), a flower- festival, principally celebrated in Sicily, in honour of Demeter and Persephone, in commemoration of the return of Persephone to her mother in the be ginning of spring. It consisted in gathering flowers and twining garlands, because Persephone had been carried off by Pluto while engaged in this occupation. (Pollux, i. 37.) Strabo (vi. p. 256) relates that at Hipponiurn the women celebrated a similar festival in honour of Demeter, which was probably called anthesphoria, since it was derived from Sicily. The women themselves gathered the flowers for the garlands which they wore on the ocqasion, and it would have been a disgrace to buy the flowers for that purpose. Anthesphoria were also solemnized in honour of other deities, especi ally in honour of Hera, surnamed ‘Az/fleia, at Argos (Pans. ii. 22. § 1), where maidens, carrying baskets filled with flowers, went in procession, whilst a tune called ItpaKiov was played on the flute. (Conip. Eiym. Gud. p. 57.) Aphrodite, too, was wor shipped at Cnossus, under the name ”AvOsia. (Hesych. s. v.), and has therefore been compared with Flora, the Roman deity, as the anthesphoria have been with the Roman festival of the Flori- fertum, or Floralia. [L. S.]
ANTHESThVRIA. [dionysia.] ANTI’DOSIS (azm’Sotm), in its literal and general meaning, "an exchange," was, in the language of the Attic courts, peculiarly applied to proceedings under a law which is said to have originated with Solon. (Demosth. c. Phaenipp. init.) By this, a citizen nominated to perform a leiturgia, such as a trierarchy or choregia, or to rank among the property-tax payers in a class disproportioned to his means, was empowered to call upon any qualified person not so charged to take the office in his stead, or submit to a complete exchange of property — the charge in question, of course, attaching to the first party, if the exchange were finally effected. For these proceedings the courts were opened at a stated time every year by the magistrates .that had official cognizance of the particular subject ; such as the strategi in cases of trierarchy and rating to the property-taxes, and the archon in those of choregia ; and to the tribunal of such an officer, it was the first step of the challenger to summon his opponent. (Dem. •«. Phaenipp. p. 1040 j Meier, Att. Process, p. 471 j
