FANS OF THE ANCIENTS
EGYPT
[Illustration]
The word fan, or van, is derived from the Latin _vannus_, the Roman
instrument for winnowing grain. This winnowing-fan, held sacred by all
the peoples of the ancient world, together with the fire-fan (bellows),
also a sacred instrument, and used by the priestesses of Isis to fan
the flame of their altars—these must be accounted amongst the earliest
of the ancient and prolific fan-family. To the first named are several
references in Holy Writ. Isaiah, xxx. 24, speaks of the oxen and young
asses that shall eat clean provender which hath been winnowed with the
shovel and with the fan. Jeremiah, xv. 6-7, lamenting the backsliding
of Jerusalem, exclaims, ‘I am weary with repenting; and I will fan them
with a fan in the gates of the land’; and again in li. 2, ‘Send unto
Babylon fanners that shall fan her, and shall empty her land.’
In Matt. iii. 12, and Luke iii. 17, John the Baptist, announcing the
coming of ‘one mightier than I’—‘He shall baptize you with the Holy
Ghost and with fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly
purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner.’
Both these instruments appear on a bas-relief from a tomb at Sakkarah,
of the twelfth Pharaonic dynasty, _circa_ B.C. 2366-2266, sixteen
hundred years before Isaiah wrote. In this some shepherds are roasting
trussed and spitted ducks over fires which are being kept alive by the
plaited, wedge-shaped hand-fan; the winnowing-fan appearing in the same
picture.
Servius, in commenting on Virgil’s mystical fan of Bacchus, (‘mystica
vannus Iacchi,’ _Georg._ i. 166) affirms that the sacred rites of
Bacchus pertained to the purification of souls; in Assyria, also,
it was introduced in the ceremonies connected with the worship of
Bacchus and became a sacred emblem.[10] This instrument, carried at the
Dionysia or festivals in honour of Bacchus, was called Lichnon
(Λίχνον), and was so essential to the solemnities of this god, that
they could not be duly celebrated without it. So also Osiris, when
judge of Amenti, holds in his crossed hands the crook and flagellum,
the mystical _vannus_—‘whose fan is in his hand,’[11] each of these
instances having reference to the generative principle, and the
improvement of the world by tillage.
The passage in Jeremiah xiii. 24, ‘Therefore will I scatter them as the
stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness,’ suggested the
proud motto of the Kentish family of Septvans (Setvans):
‘Dissipabo inimicos Regis mei ut paleam.’
‘The enemies of my king will I disperse like chaff.’[12]
On the brass of Sir Robert de Septvans, 1306, Chartham, Kent, the
knight’s shield and aillettes upon the shoulders are charged with
the winnowing-fans from which he takes his name, and small fans are
embroidered upon his surcoat. In the Lansdowne MSS. 855 B.M., the arms
are thus given: ‘Sir robt de sevens dazur e iij vans dor.’
The Greeks named ῥιπίς the large flat instrument which was used to fan
the fire: the diminutive ῥιπίδιον was applied to objects of similar
form in ordinary use amongst both sexes for the purpose of fanning as
well as to drive away the flies. Indeed the use of the fan as bellows
appears to have been practically universal, and to have dated from a
very early period of the world’s history.
[Illustration]
The employment of these instruments, as well as the forms which they
assumed, is continued even to the present day:[13] in the Republic
of Colombia, where fans are employed as much by men as by women, the
kitchen of every hut and house throughout the country is provided with
a fan in lieu of bellows, rectangular in form, albeit broader at the
outside than at the short handle, and about 12 inches by 9 inches in
size: These are formed of the young inside leaf of the cabbage-palm,
the handle and back being the rib of the leaf, the fan portion being
the fronds of the leaf plaited.
[Illustration]
The Portuguese fire-fans (Abano) made in the south of Portugal, and in
universal use in that country, are round in shape, coarsely plaited in
straw or rush, and fixed in a rough wooden handle.
These, representing the two simplest elemental forms, are the primeval
fans which have come down to us from the remotest periods of history,
have endured through the centuries, and, like the fans in use in India
at present, identical as a matter of fact with these in form, are as
modern as they are ancient.
These two fans, the winnowing-fan and the fire-fan, minister to the
two most pressing of man’s necessities—to the first of his physical
necessities, his daily bread, and to his chief mental necessity, the
attainment of the bread of life; the fire-fan keeping alive the flame
sacred to the great goddess who is the mother of all things, mistress
of the elements, giver of the golden grain, which, when ripened, is
separated from the chaff by the winnowing-fan; the one instrument,
therefore, being the complement and counterpart of the other.
The Egyptian plaited hand-fan, used for fanning the fire, as well as
for other domestic purposes, was made in a precisely similar way to
the Portuguese ‘Abano’ above referred to, except that instead of being
a complete circle, it assumed the form of a rather full crescent.
In the painted decoration of a tomb at Eileithyia, representing the
interior of a storeroom, a workman is cooling, by means of one of
these hand-fans, the liquid which is contained in a number of vases or
amphoræ.
[Illustration]
In a great funeral procession of a royal scribe at Thebes, servants
carry, among other offerings, similar crescent-shaped matted fans,
together with, in three instances, the more ornamental semicircular
feather hand-fan used by ladies for the purpose of fanning themselves,
and also, with a somewhat longer handle, waved by servitors in
attendance upon great personages of both sexes.
[Illustration]
On an Egyptian tablet or stele of the twelfth dynasty, in the British
Museum, the lady Khu is seated with her husbands, receiving offerings
from their children; a hand-fan of semicircular form rests against the
seat; this evidently not of feathers, but rigid, since the construction
is suggested in the representation, and obviously used by the lady
herself rather than by attendants.
[Illustration]
The handles of these fans were of ivory, of wood painted, or of
sandalwood, which latter, when warmed by the fingers, exhaled a
delicious perfume.
A few fan-handles exist in the various public museums; two occur in
the British Museum, together with a portion of a handle inscribed with
the name of Nebseni, inspector of the goldsmiths of Amen, eighteenth
dynasty, illustrated opposite.
A primitive fly-whisk, of the type seen on the Assyrian monuments,
appears in the Louvre, under Egypt, but undated and undescribed; it is
formed of grassy reeds of a buff ochre colour, bent backwards at the
handle, and rudely tied with the same substance, the length being about
2 feet 6 inches.
[Illustration]
The standard, banner, and processional fans are usually formed of
the feathers of the larger birds, fixed in a long wooden handle, the
feathers, as well as the handle, being painted or dyed in brilliant
colours. These, as will be seen by a reference to the examples from
Rosellini, are designed with the consummate sense of proportion
distinguishing all Egyptian work. In both the examples given, the tips
of the feathers are surmounted by a tuft of small fluffy feathers,
this being a device common to many countries, and is seen in the North
American Indian fan illustrated, page 82.
[Illustration: Two Fan Handles.
Portion of a Fan Handle, inscribed with the name of Nebseni.
Egyptian, 18th Dynasty.
British Museum.]
Many of these standard and processional fans, doubtless, were formed of
some material stretched upon a semicircular frame, the fan decorated
in various ways. They were in attendance on the king wherever he went;
they were also used as standards in war, the king’s chariot being
always accompanied by at least two. The fact that they were dedicated
to the service of the gods is evidenced by a stele in the museum at
Boulak, on which is represented Osiris enthroned with a flabellifer
behind, waving the long-handled fan. The radiate fans, writes Professor
Flinders Petrie, were used as sunshades, appearing in hieroglyphs as
the determination of _Khaib_, _i.e._ shadow.
[Illustration: CEREMONIAL FANS
(From Rosellini.)]
In the temple of Rameses XII., B.C. 1135, a tablet represents the
departure of the Khonsu from Thebes to the land of Bakhatana. A
standard fan of ostrich feathers of the Indian _murchal_ type is fixed
in the bow of the boat bearing the god in his ark, and a semicircular
standard fan in the stern; both being inclined so as to meet above, and
overshadow the ark.[14] In the temple of Derri in Nubia, the sacred
barque of the god Phré is solemnly borne by twelve priests, the king
accompanying in military costume; a flabellifer waves the long-handled
fan.
Numerous representations of these long-handled, semicircular, standard
fans occur on the monuments. At Thebes (Rhamessium) is figured a
reception of the military chiefs and foreign envoys by Rameses III. Two
servitors behind the king carry these fans, and two fan-bearers wave
the ostrich-feather emblem.
[Illustration: CEREMONIAL FANS
(From Rosellini.)]
At Medinet Abu, the same king is seated in his chariot with three
servitors waving the long-handled, semicircular fans.
The tall, single ostrich plume was probably in the first instance a
fly-whisk. It was the principal ensign of the office of fan-bearer,
which was one of great distinction, and one of the highest in the gift
of the monarch, none but royal princes or scions of the first nobility
being permitted to hold it. The ceremony of investiture took place
in the presence of the king seated upon his throne, and was usually
performed after a victory, and granted for some distinguished service
in the field. Two priests invest the holder with the robe, chain, and
other insignia of his office, the fortunate recipient of the honour
raising aloft the flabellum and crook, thus expressing his fidelity to
his king and master. This was the usual formula of investiture of high
office; its resemblance to the biblical account of Joseph’s advancement
will at once be apparent.
‘And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand and put it upon Joseph’s
hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain
about his neck.’
Upon the field of battle the fan-bearers either attended the monarch on
foot or took command of a division with the rank of general. During
the heat of battle, whether mounted in cars or engaged on foot, they
either carried the emblem of their office in their hand, or slung it
behind them. Their privileges were many, amongst them being the right
of presenting prisoners to the king after a victory. The office was
divided into two grades—those who served upon the right and left of
the king respectively, the most honourable post being always conferred
upon those of the highest rank, or for the most distinguished services.
A certain number were always on duty, and were required to carry the
monarch in the palanquin or chair of state, and to attend during the
grand solemnities of the temple and upon all occasions of high state
ceremonial.
[Illustration: INVESTITURE OF THE OFFICE OF FAN-BEARER
(From Wilkinson.)]
The monuments bear eloquent testimony to the importance and
significance of this object. At Thebes (palace of Medinet Abu), Rameses
Méiamoun appears in a magnificent palanquin, surrounded by no less than
twenty bearers of the fan emblem, amongst whom are the sons of the king.
In the same palace the ten sons of Rameses appear in the order of their
precedence, bearing the emblem; the hieroglyphics, by their side,
indicating their name and functions.
On an occasion when the king (Rameses IV.) receives the homage of the
chiefs of the army, two servitors with the long semicircular fans, and
two bearers of the fan emblem, are in attendance.
The highest significance of the fan emblem is when it is grasped by
the talons of the sacred vulture, guardian and protectress of the
monarchs. This figure occurs repeatedly on the monuments; at Medinet
Abu, Rameses-Méiamoun is seen subduing an army of Asiatics, the vulture
waving the fan emblem over the head of the king.
In the temple of Beit Oually in Nubia, Rameses II., helmeted, is
striding over a fallen barbarian; the vulture of protection hovers
around the head of the hero. On the same monument Rameses seizes by the
hair a barbarian with broken bow, the vulture again in attendance. Upon
the completion of the victory, four fan-bearers, each with crook and
flabellum, offer the spoils of conquest to the king.
On a bas-relief at Thebes, Seti I. is seen in his war-chariot subduing
the barbarians, also accompanied by the vulture.
At Philæ, Ptolemy Philometor appears with a group of vanquished
Asiatics, the vulture once more in attendance.
In the papyrus of Hunefer (Book of the Dead) a winged Utchat, with Eye
of Horus, waves the fan emblem over the head of Osiris.
In the papyrus of Anhai, over the Standard of the West, which crowns
the Solar Mount and supports the hawk Rā-Harmachis, two winged Hori
appear as the protecting principle.
This symbol of the vulture forms a motif for surface decoration on the
ceiling of the hypostyle hall of the Rhamessium. Above the great bell
capital, the vulture, grasping in each talon a fan emblem, is treated
as a repeated ornamental pattern; it also appears as decoration of the
umbrella or canopy of the chariot of Rameses III. (Sesostris).
We are thus enabled to realise the great part played by the fan alike
in the military, civil, and religious life of Egypt. As an instrument
in the hands of private persons, or even of slaves in attendance on
individuals, it is less in evidence on the monuments, although we
may naturally assume that in a climate such as Egypt this instrument
would be in constant requisition. We strain the eye of imagination to
the very earliest period of the history of this mystic land, and see
in fancy the Queen of Menes the Thinite, surrounded by slaves only a
little less fair than herself, waving the fan of square form actually
appearing on a cylinder in the Louvre; we see, also in fancy, the famed
and beautiful Queen Nitôcris, the handsomest woman of her time, builder
of the third Pyramid, reclining upon her couch, the air being rendered
less oppressive by the waving of the soft feather fan with which the
monuments have made us familiar. Lastly, have we not Shakespeare’s
glowing picture of the fanning of the voluptuous ‘serpent of old Nile,’
Cleopatra?
[Illustration: UMBRELLA OR CANOPY OF THE CHARIOT OF RAMESES III.]
‘For her owne person,
It begger’d all description: she did lye
In her Pavillion, Cloth of Gold, of tissue,
O’er-picturing that Venus, where we see
The fancie out-worke nature; on each side her
Stood pretty-Dimpled boyes, like smiling Cupids,
With divers-colour’d fannes whose winde did seem
To glowe the delicate cheekes which they did coole,
And what they undid, did.’
FANS OF THE ANCIENTS—_Continued_
ASSYRIA
[Illustration]
The employment of the fan in the religious ceremonies of Assyria has
already been hinted at. There can be no possibility of doubt that
the ceremonies and customs, both sacred and secular, connected with
the fan, were common to all the countries of the East, these being
the offspring of similar conditions and necessities. Thus we have in
Assyrian sculpture frequent representations of the fly-whisk. On a
bas-relief from Nimroud King Sennacherib is standing in his chariot
superintending the moving of a colossal figure at the building of
his palace at Kouyunjik, two attendants behind the chariot bearing
an umbrella and fly-whisk; on another relief we see Assur-bani-pal
standing, bow and arrow in hand, pouring out a libation over four dead
lions before an altar, his umbrella-bearer and fly-flapper being in
attendance. We are also introduced to the garden or palm-grove of
Assur-bani-pal’s palace, wherein the king is being entertained by
his queen at a banquet; the queen holding in her left hand what is
evidently a small fan and of the shape and general appearance of the
pleated fan, but probably rigid.
The royal fan-bearers were two in number, invariably eunuchs, their
usual place being behind the monarch. The long-tasselled scarf appears
to be the badge of the office, which was one of great dignity. Its
holder was privileged to leave his station behind the throne and hand
his master the sacred cup, the royal scent-bottle, or handkerchief,
which latter article invariably appears in the left hand. The usage
of this office seems to have been very similar to that of Egypt; in
the absence of the vizier, or in subordination to him, he introduced
captives to the king, reading out their names from a scroll or tablet
in his left hand.[15]
[Illustration: ASSYRIA]
[Illustration: PERSIA]
The matter of the ‘handkerchief’ opens up an important question.
Sir George Birdwood, in a masterly address before the Society of
Arts on the subject of ancient fans, says: ‘On a “marble” in the
British Museum, from Kouyunjik (near Mossul, _i.e._ Nineveh),
representing Sennacherib, B.C. 681-705, enthroned before Lachish,
two attendants stand behind the throne, each waving in his right
hand, over the monarch’s head, a _murchal_ (fly-whisk) of undoubted
peacocks’ feathers, and each bearing in his left hand what I identify
as the _cover of the murchal_. It is absurd to take it to be a
pocket-handkerchief.’
[Illustration]
On the other hand, Mr. S. W. Bushell, in his _Handbook of Chinese Art_,
refers to the _fan- and towel-bearers_ in the Chinese sculptures of the
Han dynasty; these, although somewhat differing in shape from those of
the Assyrian reliefs, evidently served a similar purpose.
It is an extremely difficult point to determine; in the reliefs of
Assur-bani-pal at Susiana, of Sennacherib at Kouyunjik, and others,
two flabelliferæ walk behind the king’s chariot bearing in their right
hands the fly-whisks, their left hands not being seen. Standing in the
umbrella-covered chariot, immediately behind the king and charioteer,
a figure bears a smaller handkerchief or cover in his _right_ hand,
but no evidence of a fly-whisk. The left hand in this instance also
does not appear in the relief. In a representation of Assur-bani-pal in
the Louvre (Layard, _Monuments_, Series II. Plate 51), the king holds
in his right hand a small fan; an attendant behind holds the cover or
handkerchief in his right hand, but no fly-whisk. These objects are in
most instances fringed, and in some cases embroidered with a narrow
border.
Assyrian fly-whisks were usually of feathers, set in a short handle
of ivory, wood, or other material, carved or otherwise ornamented.
There were two kinds, a smaller one which was a kind of brush, made of
horse-hair or vegetable fibre, and a larger one of feathers; the short
brush fan belongs to the earlier period, the long feathered form to the
later.[16]
The two forms, however, appear at the same time. In the bas-relief of
the banquet above referred to, attendants bear dishes of fruits and
meats, each being provided with the small fly-whisk, evidently for the
purpose of driving away insects from the royal dishes.
The ceremonies and usages connected with the fly-whisk open up a vast
field of inquiry, far too involved to be adequately dealt with here;
some few aspects may, however, be touched upon.
Baal-zebub, Beel-zebub, Beel-zebut, Bel-zebub, the Philistine god of
Ekron, whom the Jews represented as Prince of Devils, was literally
Lord Fly, or Lord of the Flies. When Ahaziah was sick he sent to
consult the Lord Fly’s oracle.[17]
The word Baal simply means owner, master, or lord. In Phœnicia and
Carthage it was the custom of kings and great men to unite their names
with that of their god, as Hannibal, ‘grace of Baal,’ Hasdrubal, ‘help
of Baal.’ Amongst the Jews also many names of cities were compounded
with Baal; as Baal-Gad, Baal-Hammon, Baal-Thamar. In the ‘authorised
version’ the name is Baal-zebub, afterwards changed to Beel-zebub; the
original conception is, however, one of great difficulty and obscurity,
unless, indeed, we may directly connect the worship of Baal with that
of the sun. Josephus declares that the Assyrians erected the first
statue of Mars, and worshipped him as a God, calling him Baal. We read
in the book of Kings how Josiah destroyed the altars which had been
reared by Manasseh, and ‘put down the idolatrous priests, ... them also
that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun and to the moon, and to the
planets, and to all the host of heaven’; these instances suggesting
that Baal and the sun were two separate deities. On the other hand,
Baal-Hammon is represented on a Carthaginian monument with a crown of
rays. Baalbek was called by the Greeks Heliopolis (sun-city) and at
Baal-Shemeh (house of the sun) there was a temple to Baal.
If, therefore, we may regard Baal and the sun as synonymous, the matter
is at once simplified, since the sun is the bringer of flies, and is in
actual fact Lord of the Flies.
According to Pliny, the Cyrenians offered sacrifices to the
fly-catching god Achor, because the flies bred pestilence, and this
author remarks that no sooner is the sacrifice offered, than the flies
perish.
The Greeks had their Jupiter Myiodes, or fly-hunter, to whom a bull
was sacrificed in order to propitiate him in driving away the flies
which infested the Olympic Games. There was also a Hercules Myiodes,
the origin of whose worship Pausanias declares to have been the
following:—Hercules, being molested by swarms of flies while he was
about to offer sacrifice to Olympian Jupiter in the temple, offered
a victim to that god under the name of Myagron, upon which all the
flies flew away beyond the river Alpheus. Pausanias further refers to
the festival of Athena at Aliphera in Arcadia, which was opened with
a sacrifice and prayer to the Fly-catcher, and states that after the
sacrifice, the flies gave no further trouble.
Ælian (_Nat. An._, xi. 8) affirms that at the festival of Apollo in the
island of Leucas, an ox was sacrificed; the flies, glutted with the
blood, gave no further trouble. The same author states that the flies
of Pisa (Olympia) were more virtuous, because they did their duty, not
for a consideration, but out of pure regard for the god.[18]
Scaliger derives the name of Beel-zebub, the false god, from
Baalim-Zebabim, which signifies _lord of sacrifices_. This deity was
worshipped during the time of our Saviour, who is accused by the
Pharisees of casting out devils by Beel-zebub, the prince of the
devils. So Holman Hunt, in his picture of the finding of the Saviour
in the Temple, with fine perception, places a fly-whisk in the hand
of a child.[19] A child is here propounding to his elders a purer and
loftier system of ethics than had heretofore been dreamed of; a child,
likewise, banishes the servants of Belial.
With the Jewish writers of the Middle Ages the worship of Baal
frequently signified the practising of the rites of the Christian
religion; thus Rabbi Joseph Ben Meir in his _Chronicles_ states that
Clovis forsook his God and worshipped Baal, and that a high place
was built at Paris for Baal Dionysius, _i.e._ the Cathedral of St.
Denis.[20]
The Assyrians employed the tall standard and sceptral fans in a
precisely similar way to the Egyptians. In the restoration of the
palace of Sargon (Khorsabad), compiled by Felix Thomas, given by Perrot
and Chipiez, _History of Art in Chaldæa and Assyria_, vol. ii. p. 24,
two enormous frond standards are placed at the entrance to the Harem
Court, these being circular, formed of palm fronds in bronze gilt. ‘In
India, as in Japan,’ to quote again Sir George Birdwood, ‘the standard
is often blazoned with some totemistic, symbolical, or heraldic
device, and it was probably so blazoned in Assyria, for from Assyria
the practice spread to Greece and Rome of using such devices on both
standards and shields. Later this ritual was revived by the Saracens,
and was spread over mediæval Europe by the Crusaders returning from the
Holy Land.’
The Assyrian disc-standards were probably of brass or other metal,
fixed to the inside of the chariot. Two devices appear on the
monuments—the Divine Archer standing on a bull, and two bulls running
in opposite directions. These were enclosed in a circle at the end of a
long staff ornamented with streamers and tassels.[21]
The Assyrians employed the primitive plaited fan, used in Egypt, both
crescent-shaped, square, and triangular. On a relief from Nimroud,
in the British Museum, in a circular arrangement divided into four
compartments, representing the interior of a castle with towers and
battlements, a eunuch is waving in his right hand, over a stand on
which are vases and bowls, a square, flag-shaped fan, certainly of the
plaited variety; in the left hand is what appears to be a fly-whisk.
On a silver dish in the Strogonoff collection illustrated in
_Orientalische Teppiche, Alois Riegl_, a Sassanian monarch is seated,
cross-legged, holding a tazza, and attended by two servitors, one
of whom waves a plaited flag-fan of oblong shape. The dish, which
bears strong traces of Indian influence, is probably of the period of
Varannes II., A.D. 273-277.
The swinging-fan, suspended from the ceiling, and operated by pulling a
cord, is an ancient device for cooling the air of rooms. The testimony
of an Assyrian bas-relief from Nineveh indicates its use at the
period to which these sculptures belong—seventh to tenth century B.C.
Wicquefort, in his translation of the embassy of Garcias de Figueron,
gives the name of fan to a kind of chimney or ventiduct, in use among
the Persians, to furnish air and wind into their houses, without which
the heat would be insupportable.[22]
A variant of this device for ventilating rooms is recorded in Chinese
annals. Under the Han dynasty, B.C. 205-A.D. 25, a skilful workman at
Ch’ang—and named Ting Huan—made a fan of seven large wheels 10 feet in
diameter, the whole turned by a single man.
[Illustration: FROM A BAS-RELIEF. (Nimroud.)]
The luxurious Guez de Balzac, in the twentieth letter, written from
Rome in 1621, to the Cardinal de la Villette, with his customary
extravagant hyperbole, describes his method of guarding against the
heat during the broiling month of July—‘Four servants constantly fan my
apartments; _they raise wind enough to make a tempestuous sea_.’
[Illustration: Sea Nymphs, Italian, 1760, gouache on skin; horn stick,
finely piqué in gold, panaches with crown & fleurs de lys of France.
Mr W. Burdett-Coutts. M.P.]
FANS OF THE ANCIENTS—_Continued_
GREECE AND ROME
[Illustration]
In Greece, as in Egypt, the fan had a sacred as well as a secular
use. M. Uzanne refers to the fan of feathers which those discreet and
irreproachable ladies, the Vestals, made use of to fan the flame of
their sacrifices, and, rather roguishly, seizes the idea of fanning
the flame to suggest that of _inward flames_ kindled by the arrows of
the little god Cupid, in place of the chaste ardours of the sacred
mysteries. The fans of the priests of Isis, when Isis was a Grecian
divinity, were formed of the wings of a bird, attached to the end of a
long wand, and thus made to resemble the caduceus of Mercury.
The Greeks received the fan from Egypt and Assyria through the
Phœnicians, who were the traders between the east and the west. In the
sarcophagus of Amanthus (Cyprio-Phœnician), representing a train of
horsemen, footmen, and chariots, the horses’ heads are adorned with a
pleated fan crest, similar to that which was used by the Persians; the
figure in the first _biga_ carries a parasol. Thus Perrot and Chipiez
in their description of this monument: ‘The parasol which shades the
head of the great person in the first _biga_ is the symbol of Asiatic
royalty: the fan-shaped plume which rises above the heads of all the
chariot horses, is an ornament that one sees in the same position
in Assyria and Lycia, when the sculptor desires to represent horses
magnificently caparisoned.’
This remarkable example is of the highest interest as showing that the
pleated form—in this instance, doubtless, rigid, and fixed to a short
handle, also seen in both Egyptian and Assyrian monuments—has been
employed from a very remote period.[23]
The earliest Greek fans were, doubtless, branches of the myrtle,
acacia, the triple leaves of the Oriental plantain, and also the leaves
of the lotus, which latter, together with the myrtle, were consecrated
to Venus, were symbols of the _dolce far niente_, and therefore
peculiarly appropriate to this instrument of reposeful ease. The myrtle
bough was also used by the Romans, as we learn from Martial, iii. 82,
serving at the same time as fan and fly-flap—
‘Et aestuanti tenue ventilat frigus
Supina prasino concubina flabello;
Fugátque muscas myrteâ puer virgâ.’
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Terra Cotta Statuettes.
British Museum.]
The single leaf or heart-shaped fan occurs constantly in Greek
terra-cottas; a number of examples are to be seen in the British and
other Museums. In the Victoria and Albert Museum is a charming little
winged Amor, draped, tripping gaily along, hiding his face behind
a fan of this shape. Blondel refers to a female figure in the Louvre,
seated at a feast, holding a leaf-fan; also in a fresco at Pompeii
a figure is seen holding a fan which this author mistakes for that
of a different shape, but which is really a perspective view of the
plantain-leaf. We see the triform leaf-fan in the hands of a Tanagra
figure in the collection of Louis Fould, illustrated in the _Gazette
des Beaux-Arts_ for 1860; this, as well as a number of Tanagra figures,
evidently representing priestesses of Venus. It is impossible to
determine with any degree of accuracy the material and construction of
these fans: in some instances they are evidently stretched on a frame,
and adorned with ornament either painted or embroidered; occasionally,
also, the decorative motif is that of the natural veining of the leaf;
the handles being usually very short, in many cases scarcely visible.
The slight vestiges of colour remaining on these statuettes must in no
instance be taken as suggesting the colouring of the original fans.
The business of the Tanagra sculptor was to make a _statuette_ and
not a portrait of any particular fan; the colouring of the fan of the
statuette would therefore be determined by the general colour scheme of
which it formed a part.
The circular fan of peacocks’ feathers appears as early as the fifth
century B.C., and even at this date had already been used in Asia Minor.
References to the feather-fan are of constant occurrence in the
writings of Greek authors. A slave in the _Orestes_ of Euripides
exclaims: ‘After the Phrygian fashion I chanced with the close circle
of feathers to be fanning the gale, that sported in the ringlets of
Helen.’
Instances of the feather-fan are common on Greek vases,—on the
Campanian Hydra (F. 212), British Museum, the shape in this instance
being that of the reversed heart. In the fourth vase room, on an
oil-flask, with Aphrodite seated in the lap of Adonis, a figure
appears holding a very large fan, but similar in shape to the first
mentioned; and on the Apulian Hydra, F. 352, a fan appears which is
evidently a conventional representation of the peacock feather-fan. The
long-handled fan was also adopted by the Greeks, these being waved by
servants or attendants, as in Egypt.
The Etruscans, amongst whom the luxury of the fan is early seen, and
who transmitted it later to the Romans, used the peacock feathers, of
different lengths, in a semicircle: such a fan appears on a large vase
in the Louvre.
[Illustration: FROM AN APULIAN HYDRA. (British Museum.)]
On an Etruscan crater, representing Heracles strangling the serpents,
surrounded by the greater gods, a fan of plain feathers is held in
the hand of one of the attendants. On a sarcophagus at Vulci, found
in the winter of 1845-6, a female figure appears waving a large fan,
ῥιπίς, identical in shape with fans used in India at the present
day. In the Grotta del Sole e della Luna (tomb of the Sun and Moon)
at Vulci, discovered in 1830, one of the ceilings has a singular
fan-pattern, given in _Mon. Ined. Inst._, i. tav. xli., the counterpart
of which is found in two tombs at Cervetri, whence we may conclude it
was no uncommon decoration in Etruscan houses.[24]
In the Museo Gregorio, Rome, are half-a-dozen handles of fans, with
holes for threads or wire, to tie in feathers or leaves.
[Illustration: The Rape of Helen. ‘Vernis Martin.’
Lady Lindsay.]
‘The fashion of the fan,’ says M. de Linas,[25] ‘was probably
introduced into Italy in the sixth century B.C. We learn from
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, that Aristodemus, tyrant of Cumæ, and
ally of Porsenna, corrupted the youths of this town by making them
effeminate buffoons, accompanied by followers who carried the flabellum
and umbrella.’
The fan, although perhaps in less constant use by the Romans, was still
an article of very general employment. In the _Eunuchus_ of Terence we
are introduced to a pretty scene in which the fan plays an important
part. Chaerea is relating to Antipho his good fortune with the fair
Thais:
CHAEREA. While I was revolving these things in my mind, the virgin
meanwhile was called away to bathe; she goes, bathes, and returns,
after which they laid her on a couch; I stand waiting to see if they
had any orders for me. At last, one came up and said—‘Here, Dorus,
take this fan, and, while we are bathing, fan her thus. When we have
done you may bathe too, if you have a mind.’ I take it very demurely.
ANTIPHO. I could have then wished to see that impudent face of thine,
and the awkward figure so great a booby must make holding a fan.
CHAEREA. Scarce had she done speaking, when in a moment they all
hurried out of the room, and ran to the bath in a noisy manner, as is
usual when masters are absent. Meantime, the virgin falls asleep. I
steal a private glance thus, with the corner of my eye, through the
fan; at the same time look round everywhere, to see if the coast was
quite clear....
The Romans employed the fly-flap (_muscarium_) formed of peacocks’
feathers, which was often provided with a long handle, so that the fan
could be waved by a servant (_flabellifer_), who protected his mistress
from the insects during sleep.
Plautus, _Trinummus_, II. i., refers to these _flabilliferae_, but in
this instance the term is obviously applied to female fan-bearers.
Propertius, II. xxiv. 11, speaks of _flabella_ of the tail feathers of
the peacock.
The peacock fly-flap is also referred to by Martial, xiv. 67:
‘What, from thy food, repels profaning flies,
Strutted, a gorgeous train, with Gemmy eyes.’
‘Lambere quae turpes prohibet tua prandia muscas,
Alitis eximiae cauda superba fuit.’
The same author, III. lxxii. 10-11, says of Zoilus that when overcome
by the heat, a pleasant coolness is wafted about him with a leek-green
flabellum.
The Romans also adopted the tail of the yak, but this last, which
appears to have been imported from India, was not so commonly used as
the tabellæ, a species of fan of square or circular shape, formed of
precious wood or very finely cut ivory, referred to by Ovid in the
third book of his _Amores_. ‘Wouldst thou,’ he exclaims, ‘have an
agreeable zephyr to refresh thy face? This tablet agitated by my hand
will give you this pleasure.’ Those also were the fans the young Roman
exquisites carried when accompanying their mistresses along the Via
Sacra, fanning them gallantly, representations of which appear on vases
in the Louvre.[26]
Propertius, also, in the fourth book of his _Elegies_, represents
Hercules as seated at the feet of Omphale, fan in hand.
[Illustration: FROM AN ETRUSCAN VASE. (British Museum.)]
[Illustration: An Eastern Potentate taking tea. finely painted in
gouache on gold ground, French, c. 1780. stick modern.
Mrs Hungerford Pollen]