120
Medea : Ancient Vapor Baths.
[Book I.
of rapid streams, bearing some resembance at a distance, to the lowingand bellowing of these animals; and the branches of rivers were com-pared to their horns; thus, the small branch of the Bosphorus , whichforrns the harbor of Constantinople , still retains its ancient name of the‘ Golden Horn ;’ and in some of our dictionaries, ‘ winding streams' isgiven as one of the definitions of horns. The bull which is common onsome Greek coins is supposed to have been the symbol of a river, per-haps from the overflow of some, when the sun passed through the zodiacalsign Taurus. According to the Greek Version, one of the branches of theriver Achelous in Epirus, was diverted or broken off by Hercules, to irri-gate some parched land in its vieinity. This, like other labors of thathero, was allegorized by representing him engaged in eonflict with a bull,(Achelous ) whom he overcame, and broke off one of Ms horns; and thishorn being fiiied with fruits and flowers, was emblematical of the subse-quent, fertility of the soll. Ovid describes the contest, when that hero
.’twixt rage and scorn,
From his raaimed front, he tore the stubborn horn,
This, heap’d with flowers and fruits, the Naiads bear,
Sacred to plenty, and the bounteous year,
* £ * * * *
Deep hides his brow deform’d, and rustic head,
No real wound the victor’s triumph show’d,
But his lost honors griev'd the watery god. Met. ix.
Thus river gods were sometimes represented with a cornucopia in onehand, and the other resting on a vase of flowing water.
Another interesting allegory of the ancients has reference to water:the fable of Medea, who it was said, by boiling old people, made themyoung again, referred to warm or vapor baths, which she invented, and intowhich she infused fragrant herbs—in other words, the ‘patent medicatedvapor baths’ of the present day. She also possessed the art of changingthe color of the hair. When therefore, by her fomentations, persons ap-peared more active and improved in health, and their grey hairs changedinto ringlets of jet, the belief in her magic powers became irresistible—and when at length, her apparatus, i. e. the cauldrons, wood and fcre, Sfc.were discovered, (which she had sedulously concealed,) it was supposedthat her patients were in reality boiled. From Ovid , it seems she had themodern sulpJmr bath also, and used it in the eure of rEson, the father of herhusband Jason;
.the sleeping sire,
She lustrates thrice with sulphur, water, fire.
* * * * *
His feeble frame resumes a youthful air,
A glossy brown, his hoary beard and hair.
The meagre paleness from his aspect fledAnd in its room sprang up a florid red. Met. vii.
This lady was the great patroness of herb and steam doctors of old ; andmay be considered the ancient representative of modern manufacturers ofspecifics, which, as they allege, (and often truly) remove all diseases. Thefable of her slaying her own children in the presence of Jason, is easilyexplained by her administering to them the wrong medicine, or too largea dose of the right one; the latter was certainly the case with old Pehaswho expired under it.
Having noticed in this chapter the supposed origin of cog-wheels, wemay as well introduce here an ancient mechanic, to whom we shall haveoccasion hereafter to allude; one, whose name is intimately associatedwith the mo st valuable machines for raising water, and with several im-