Cosmas Indicopleustes, Christian Topography (1897) pp. 389-392. Explanation of the plates
Plate I.----The picture on the left represents the City of Adulê----that on the right an Ethiopian travelling from Adulê to Axômê. The lower picture on the left is the tablet with the Greek inscription copied by Cosmas. It is surmounted by the figure of Ptolemy Euergetês, standing in a warlike attitude. The throne represented on the right is ascribed to the same Ptolemy by Cosmas, but erroneously. It was placed at Adulê by an Axumite conqueror. The writing on the right of it is
Plate 2.----The figure of the earth and the heaven, as Cosmas and the ancient Fathers conceived it. The cross-bar represents the firmament.
Plate 3.----A picture of the waters above the firmament.
Plate 4.----A representation of the conical mountain, and also of the sun and the moon under the firmament. The inscription along the pillars is: of
Plate 5.----A tracing of the inhabited world (γη̃ οἰκουμένη).
Plate 6.----A representation of the oblong rectangular figure of the earth which we inhabit, with its surrounding ocean, which is itself surrounded by the other earth which was the seat of Paradise and the abode of man before the Flood. The four gulfs which penetrate into our earth from the ocean, and the rivers which flow into it from Paradise, are also depicted. Above the ocean in the outer earth is this inscription· Φη̃ πέραν του̃ ὠκεανου̃ ἔνθα πρὸ του̃ κατακλυσμου̃ κατώκουν οἱ ἄνθρωποι , the earth beyond the ocean where men dwelt before the Flood. The lateral inscription is· Φη̃ πέραν του̃ ὠκεανου̃, the earth beyond the ocean. The inscription in the figure of the great gulf coming from the west isie., the Mediterranean. The gulf coming from the north Cosmas calls|390
Plate 7.----A representation of the earth with the walls which come down to it from heaven. The four gulfs are shown, and the conical mountain in the north-west whence the earth slopes downward to the south.
Plate 8.----A picture of the conical mountain with three circling lines to show the paths of the sun as he moves round it at different altitudes, thus making the nights shorter or longer. The words written here are μικρὰ νὺξ, μέση νὺξ, μεγάλη νὺξ, short night, night of medium length, long night.
Plate 9.----The figure of the world according to the Ptolemaic system. The twelve signs of the Zodiac are shown, and the names are given of the Roman and Egyptian months. The earth, in the form which Cosmas so much abhorred, is in the centre, encircled by the orbits in succession of the Moon, Σελήνης? of Mercury, Ἑρμου̃? of Venus (u = v
Plate 10.----Antipodes drawn to deride the idea of their possibility.
Plate 11.----A delineation of the figure and dress of the pagan inhabitants of Attica, οἱ ἔξωθεν ̕Αττικοί, as seen in the time of Cosmas. These figures are meant for those of Hyperides and Menander, mentioned in p. 147.
Plate 12.----A representation of the outward form of the Tabernacle, ἡ Σκηνή. The words written outside indicate the directions
Plate 14.----A delineation of the coverings of the Tabernacle|391
Plate 15. ---- A picture of the table of the Tabernacle turned by the lathe, τράπεζα τορνευτός, and another of the candlestick with its seven lamp-wicks, λυχνία ἑπτάμυχος? its shaft, καυλός? its ball
Plate 1 6. ---- The Ark of the Testimony
Plate 17. ---- A delineation of the Court of the Tabernacle
Plate 18. ---- The upper figures represent the celestials; the middle, the terrestrials; and those below, the subterraneans or the buried. See pp. 300-303.
Plate 19. ---- A delineation of the order in which the contents of the outer Tabernacle were arranged. On the left is the table (τράπεζα) of shew-bread, with three loaves at each of its four corners, to represent the fruits of each of the four seasons (see p. 152); then follow the candlestick
Plate 20. ---- Melchisedek arrayed in his royal robes. See p. 175.
Plate 21. ---- A front and back view of Aaron wearing his priestly robes
Plate 22. ---- A delineation of the circle of the twelve months and the fruits produced in each month. Outside the circle are written the names of the Egyptian months|392 word to be a mistake for
The remaining plates are pictures of the animals and plants which Cosmas has described in the earlier portion of the eleventh book.