Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

lupiter-Columns 59
Seasons, the quartet corresponding with the fourfold division of
the Juhan calendar, and the trio with the threefold division re-
cognised by the Germani in the time of Tacitus'. He supposes
that luno, who often carries a torch or torches (fig. 23)^, is the
Romanised form of Frija, conceived as the light-bearing goddess
of spring^; that Mercurius is Wodan, here for some reason obscure
Minerva (from right to left), i has luno, Mercurius, Minerva (from left to right) ; i has
Apollo, Hercules, Minerva (from left to right), i has Victoria, Hercules, Minerva (from
left to right); i has luno, Hercules, Victoria (from right to left), i has luno, Apollo,
Victoria (from left to right), i has Apollo, Hercules, Diana (from left to right), i has
Mars, Volcanus, Victoria (from right to left), i has Fortuna, Volcanus, Victoria (from left
to right), I has Mars, Fortuna, Victoria (from left to right), i has Fortuna, Luna, Sol
(from left to right), i has Mars, Victoria, Mercurius (from left to right). Hertlein op. at.
p. i34f. points out that the first three series are merely excerpts from the full quartet
luno, Mercurius, Hercules, Minerva ; that the fourth and fifth series are excerpts from
the same quartet with one name varied ; and that the remaining groups are less nearly
related to the original set.
1 Tac. Germ. 26 hiems et ver et aestas intellectum ac vocabula habent, autumni
perinde nomen ac bona ignorantur. On this passage see the sensible and cogent remarks
of Hertlein op. cit. p. 137 ff.
- Fig. 23 is from a block probably found at Orolaunum {Arloii), a town of the Treveri
= Haug '
Die Viergottersteine' in the Westdeiitsche
Zcitschrift 1891 x. 146 no. i8r ^pl. 4, Esperandieu
Bas-reliefs de la Gaule Rom. v. 355
f. no. 4238.
^ Hertlein op. cit. p. 143 ff. argues that the
torches of luno {ih. p. 94
ff.) are presumably a
Germanic attribute of the ' Himmelsgottin, die im
Friihjahr das helle Himmelslicht wieder herauf-
fiihrt,' recalling the Fnnkensonntag, a fire-festival
of the German peasantry celebrated on the First
Sunday in Lent (W. Mannhardt Wald- tind Feld-
kulte'^ Berlin 1904 i. 500 ff., Frazer Golden Boitgh^:
Balder the Beautiful i. 106 ff.). He thinks too that
the fluttering robe sometimes worn by the goddess
(Hertlein op. cit. pp. 95, 97) betokens horizontal
flight such as would suit the partner of the ad-
vancing Germanic lupiter. Lastly, he remarks
that the title Regina frequently attached to the
luno of the Viergottersteine {ib. p. 81 f.) means
much the same as the Norse Freyja, the ' Mistress,'
who 'ist hauptsjichlich die Gottin der im Friihjahr
wiedergeborenen Sonne und Natur, die GoUin des
lichten Friihlings, der Zeit neuen Sprossens und
der Liebe.'
It should, however, be noted, on the one hand
that the title Regina is not found in the district of
the Treveri (ib. p. 81), on the other hand that the
torch-bearing goddess is particularly frequent in
that region (Haug in the Westdeutsche Zeitschrift
1 89 1 X. 300 f.). This fact makes it at least possible
that in the torch-bearer we should recognise, not
luno Regina, but luno Liicina, whose worship was widely spread in western Europe