Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Cistophorus

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

CISTOPH'ORUS (κιστοφόρος). One who carried the mystic case (CISTA, 5.) in certain religious processions. In the rites of Ceres and Bacchus, or of the Egyptian deities, Isis and Osiris, this service was performed by women, as represented in the annexed illustration (Cistophorus/1.1) from a Pompeian painting. The wreath of ivy leaves and berries (corymbus) round the head, show her to have been a follower of Bacchus; and the bird's eye observable on the head of the jug indicates a priestess of Osiris, whose symbol amongst the Egyptians was an eye (Winkelm. Cab. Stosch. p. 2.); and as Bacchus and Osiris were the same deity, under different names, it is clear that she is a cistophora, and not a canephora, as the editors of the Museo Borbonico have erroneously termed her, from want of attention to the above particulars. In the ceremonies of Bellona, on the contrary, the cista was carried by men, as proved by an ancient marble discovered on the Monte Mario near Rome, which bears the following inscription: — L. LARTIO . ANTHO . CISTOPHORO . AEDIS . BELLONAE, &c., and a figure of the cistophorus carved upon it. He is draped in a manner closely resembling the preceding figure, with a tunic reaching to the feet, but slightly raised, so as to expose an under one beneath it; a pallium over the shoulder; a chaplet round the head; and an infula hanging down in front of the breast; in the right hand a lustral branch, and in the left two double axes (bipennes), characteristic of the priests of Bellona. Inscript. ap. Don. 62. and 135. Compare Demosth. p. 313. 28. ed. Reiske. Giovanni Lami, Dissertaz. sopra le Ciste Mistiche.

2. A silver coin, worth about four drachmae, which passed current in Asia, whence the expression in cistophoro (Cic. Att. xi. 1.) is equivalent to saying "in Asiatic money." It received the name either from having an impression of the sacred cista upon it, or, as is more probable, of the shrub cistus (κίστος).

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  Cistophorus/1.1