Originally it was not a cult object; the word is found in connection with worship only in Demosthenes and Theocritus. An essential element of the ancient Greek mysteries, it was intended to conceal from the eyes of the uninitiated the sacred and mysterious objects revealed to the initiates during initiation. It is often depicted on monuments and coins, sometimes with a serpent emerging from II.
Bibl.: L. Banti, *Il Museo Archeologico di Firenze*, Florence 1930, p. 112.