is evident that the horse could signify
nothing but a ship; for the two things in which that region excelled
being ships and olive-trees, it was thought politic by this means to
bring the citizens over from too great a fondness for sea affairs, to
the cultivation of their country, by showing that Pallas was preferable
to Neptune, or, in other words, _husbandry to sailing_, which, without
some further meaning, the production of a horse could never have done.
It notwithstanding appears that Neptune had brought the management of
the horse, as likewise the art of building ships, to very great
perfection; insomuch that Pamphus, who was the most ancient writer of
hymns to the gods, calls him the benefactor of mankind, in bestowing
upon them horses and ships which had stems and decks that resembled
towers.

If Neptune created the horse, he was likewise the inventor of
chariot-races; hence Mithrid{=a}tes, king of Pontus, threw chariots,
drawn by four horses, into the sea, in honor of Neptune: and the Romans
instituted horse-races in the circus during his festival, at which time
all horses ceased from working, and the mules were adorned with wreaths
of flowers.

Neptune, represented as a god of the sea, makes a considerable figure:
he is described with black or dark hair, his garment of an azure or
sea-green color, seated in a large shell drawn by whales, or sea-horses,
with his trident in his hand, attended by the sea-gods Palaemon, Glaucus,
and Phorcys; the sea-goddesses Thetis, Melita, and Panop{=e}a, and a
long train of Tritons and sea-nymphs.

The inferior artists represent him sometimes with an angry and disturbed
air; and we may observe the same difference in this particular between
the great and inferior poets as there is between the bad and the good
artists. Thus Ovid describes Neptune with a sullen look, whereas Virgil
expressly tells us that he has a mild face, even where he is
representing him in a passion. Even at the time that he is provoked, and
might be expected to have appeared disturbed, and in a passion, there is
serenity and majesty in his face.

On some medals he treads on the beak of a ship, to show that he presided
over the seas, or more particularly over the Mediterranean sea, which
was the great, and almost the only scene for navigation among the old
Greeks and Romans. He is standing, as he generally was represented; he
most commonly, too, has his trident in his right hand: this was his
peculiar sce