The Garden of Cyrus

This common picture seems to place the crown too upright and forward upon the head of Aaron. Such crowns were worn sometimes singly or doubly by princes, according to their kingdoms, and no more than two crowns at once were to be expected upon the head of Ptolemy Ptolemy VI Philometor (c. 186–145 BCE) was the first to wear the two crowns of Egypt and Asia simultaneously. This is easily understood when historians tell us that some bound up wounds and others even hanged themselves with these diadems original: "diadems"; in antiquity, these were flexible silk or linen headbands, not rigid metal crowns.

The beds of the ancients were corded somewhat in this fashion; that is, not straight across as ours are today, but diagonally from side to side in the manner of a network. By doing so, they strengthened the bed-sides original: spondæ and used less cord in the work, as is demonstrated by Blancanus Giuseppe Biancani (1566–1624), an Italian Jesuit mathematician and astronomer.

And as they lay in beds with crossed cords, they also sat upon seats that appeared to have crossed legs. The noblest of these were built in this form, as seen in the triumphal seats—the curule chair original: sella curulis; a folding seat used by high-ranking Roman magistrates or the Aedile chair Aedile: a Roman official in charge of public maintenance and festivals—shown on the coins of Cestius, Sulla, and Julius Caesar. Many noble drawings declare that they also sat cross-legged, and the sitting gods and goddesses are depicted in this figure on medals and medallions. Besides this kind of network in hanging fabrics original: "tectures", embroideries, and excellent needlework, the same pattern is obvious to every eye in glass windows—not only in glass designs, but also in the lattice and stone-work envisioned in the Temple of Solomon. In that temple, the windows are called net-like windows original: fenestræ reticulatæ, or lights framed like nets. This agrees with the Greek expression concerning Christ in the Song of Solomon original: "the Canticles", "looking through the nets," which our translation has rendered as, "He looks forth at the windows, showing himself through the lattice." This implies he is partly seen and partly unseen, according to the visible and invisible sides of his nature. I will omit the noble network on the capitals original: "chapiters" of the pillars of Solomon, which featured lilies and pomegranates upon a network background, as well as the grate original: craticula through which the ashes fell in the altar of burnt offerings.

That the networks and nets of antiquity were little different in form from our own is confirmed by the nets in the hands of the net-fighters original: retiarie; a type of gladiator who fought with a net and trident, who were the specific opponents of the "followers" original: secutores; gladiators armed with a sword and shield. I will omit the ancient gnat-net original: conopeion; the source of the modern word "canopy" of the Egyptians, who invented that device; the rush-woven labyrinths mentioned by Theocritus; the nosegay-nets which hung from the head under the nostrils of princes; and that uneasy metaphor of the "net of the liver" original: reticulum jecoris, which some explain as the lobe, but we define as the caul caul: the omentum, a fatty membrane covering the internal organs above the liver. As for that famous network of Vulcan, which trapped Mars and...