Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

lupiter-Columns 57
vehicle of the sky-god and even to be embellished with his form
and features \
(e) lupiter-Columns.
Far and wide over the territory once occupied by Germanic
tribes^ are remains of isolated columns, dating from the close of
the second to the middle of the third century A.D., that is to say,
from the period when Rhenic Germany witnessed a Romanised
revival of its national cultsl These columns, usually termed /;//>pitcrsdiilen
or Gigantensduleii*, consist of the following parts. The
lowest member, exclusive of the base, is a quadrangular plinth
known as the Viergotterstein^, which is adorned by reliefs of four
deities—commonly luno, Mercurius, Hercules, Minerva (fig. 22)"
^ A. Olrik ' Irminsul og gudest0tter ' in Maal og viinne 1910 pp. i— 9, summarised in
the Zeit:chrifl des Vereins filr Volkskiinde 1910 xx. 348 (' Die Saulen mit dem Gotternagel,
die im Hause der altnordischen Hauptlinge neben dem Ehrensitze standen hatten, wie
aus einem Vergleiche der altdeutschen Irminsaulen...und der noch im 18. Jahrhundert
bei den Finnen veiehrten " Weltpfeiler " erhellt, die zweifaclie Bedeutung einer die Welt
tragenden Sauie und eines rohgeschnitzten Gotterbildes 'j. On the high-seat pillars of
the old Norsemen and on the world-pillars of the Lapps, with their sacred nails, see infra
§ 3 (a) vi (a), § 3 (c) i (7).
^ For detailed proof of this limitation see the admirable monograph of F. Hertlein
Die Inppitcrgiganteiisdulen Stuttgart 1910 p. 51 ff.
•' A. Riese ' Zur Geschichte des Gotterkultus im rheinischen Germanien ' in the West-
deutsche Zeitschrift 1898 xvii. i if. says (p. 13) :
' Um
die Zeit nach dem Tode des Marc
Aurel geschah eine wunderbare Veranderung, die meines Wissens in diesem Sinne noch
nicht erwahnt ist : der Romanisierung der Religion folgte eine neue Nationalisierung, und
gallische und audi germanische Gotter erhalten Votivinschriften.' He goes on to quote
inscriptions ranging from 187 A.D. (Corp. inscr. Lat. xiii no. 8i85 = Dessau Inscr. Lat.
sel. no. 4743 deae Hariasae etc. found at Cologne) to 259—268 A.D. (Cohen Alonn. emp.
roDi.- vi. 24 ff. no. 88 f. her devsoniens, nos. 90— 100 HERC
• devsoniensi, nos.
115 — 118 HERCVLI DEVSONIENSI, ib. vi. 29f. nO. I 29 f. HERCVLI MAGVSANO on CoinS of
Postumus: for these deities see R. Peter in Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 3017—3020 and Haug
in Paul)'—Wissowa Real-Etic. viii. 6n).
* A bibliography of the 'Jupiter-columns' is given supra i. 178 n.
'' Haug 'Die Viergottersteine' in the Westdeutscke Zeitschrift 1891 x. 9—62, 125— 161,
295— 340, F. Hertlein Die Juppitergigantensduleii Stuttgart 1910 pp. 94— 164 ('Die
Viergottersteine ').
^ Of 83 plinths decorated with four deities 48 exhibit the series luno, Mercurius,
Hercules, Minerva (42 from left to right, 6 from right to left), 79 replace Mercurius by
another deity (2 by lupiter with a wheel, 2 by Mars with a wheel, 2 by Mars without a
wheel, 7 by Apollo, 4 by Volcanus, 2 by Victoria (fig. 22, ^b Kreuznach no. 137 Haug)),
2 replace Minerva (i by Fortuna (fig. 22, zd Kreuznach no. 136 Haug), i by Mars),
4 replace two deities (1 substituting Fortuna vcith a wheel and Apollo for luno and
Mercurius, i Victoria and Mars for Mercurius and Minerva (fig. 22, 3 b and 3 d Kreuznach
no. 137 Haug), i Apollo and Volcanus for Mercurius and Hercules, i Minerva and
Mars for Hercules and Minerva), ro are quite irregular. See the summaries in Hertlein
op. cit. pp. Ill, 127.
Fig. 22, \a—d (after E. Schmidt in \.\\e Jahrb. d. Vereins v. Alterthumsfreitnd. ini
Rheinl. 1869 xlvii. 92 pi. 14, 3 a, c, d, b) shows the reliefs of a sandstone block,
0-90'" high X o"4i broad and deep, found in 1858 A.D. built into the north-west angle of