Note 81 — Chapter I · THE KING OF THE WOOD

Servius on Virgil, Aen. vii. 776. Helbig proposed to identify as Virbius some bronze statuettes found at Nemi, which represent a young man naked except for a cloak thrown over his left arm, holding in his extended right hand a shallow bowl, while in his raised left hand he seems to have held a spear or staff on which he leaned. See Bulletino dell’ Inst. di Corrisp. Archeologica, 1885, p. 229. But to this it has been objected by Rossbach (op. cit. p. 162) that Virbius appears to have been portrayed as an older, probably bearded man (Ovid, Metam. xv. 538 sqq.).