Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

lupiter-Columns 69
possibly it symbolises the sky itself. On the third side (fig. 27 cY
there is a design of exceptional, indeed of unique, character. A
draped female sitting with uplifted hand occupies the foreground.
Her sleeveless arm and the hound at her feet make it probable
that she is Diana, goddess of the chase-. Her gesture and the
upward glance of the hound direct attention to a singular figure
in the background—Mercurius, who rushes from left to right with
upturned face and wind-blown chlamys, both hands grasping a
caduceus and one foot planted on the top of a pillar^. Now
Mercurius, as we have seen, stands for Wodan ;
and
Wodan
was the leader of the Wild Hunt or Furious Host, which on
windy nights in autumn might be heard sweeping along the Milky
Way*. I should therefore conjecture that this relief gives us an
autumnal scene, the huntress Diana and the Wild Huntsman
himself
Above the Viergotterstein, at least in the case of large and
important columns, came the Wochengotterstein—a block, usually
octagonal or cylindrical, more rarely quadrangular hexagonal or
heptagonal, which was decorated with the deities representing the
days of the week^ These deities, arranged in a series from left to
Venus Cadestis and luno Caelestis were forms of the Carthaginian goddess Tanit, whose
worship spread far and wide over the Roman world (see De Vit Otio7nasiicoii i. "29, iii. 722,
F. Cumont in I'auly—Wissowa Real-Enc. iii. 1247— 1250, A. von Domaszewski Abliand-
htitgen zitr loinischoi Religion Leipzig and Berlin 1909 pp. 148— 150, W. W. Baudissia
Adonis tind Esmiin Leipzig 191 1 p. 268 ff., Wissowa Rel. Ktilt. Row.^ \)p. 373— 37S):
they must not hastily be connected with lupiter Caelestis (Corp. inscr. Lot. iii no. 1948
Salonae, ib. iii Suppl. no. 8668= Dessau Inscr. Lat. sel. no. 3041 Salonae, Corp. inscr.
Lai. X no. 4852 Venafruni) or with other deities bearing the same cult-epithet (Wissowa
Rel. Kult. Rom.- p. 374 n. 7).
' A drawing of this plinth made for B. de Montfaucon and preserved in the Bibliotheque
Nationale (nouv. fonds lat., 11917, f° 12, cp. i° 11) shows the third scene as it
appeared when its details were somewhat fresher and sharper than now. Accordingly
I have used the drawing to supplement the photograph of the scene. F. Cumont Catalogue
des sculptures df inscriptions antiques [inoniiments lapidaires) dcs Mtisees Royaux
du Cinquantenaire- Bruxelles 1913 p. 212 publishes the two side by side.
-' For Diana in sleeveless attire accompanied by her hound see Haug ' Die Viergotter-
steine' in the Westdeutsche Zeitschrift 1891 x. 315 f.
•* Mercurius as a runner appears in Roman paintings {e.g. Helbig Wandgem. Camp.
p. 7 no. 15, p. 8 no. i9, — Real Museo Borbonico Napoli 1830 vi pi. 2 = Daremberg—Saglio
Diet. Ant. iii. 1819 fig. 4960), gems [e.g. Furtwangler Geschnitt. Steine Berlin p. 126
no. 2736 pi. 24, cp. L. Stephani in the Cotnpte-rendu St. Pet. 1861 p. 17 n. 3), and
bronzes {e.g. Babelon—Blanchet Cat. Bronzes de la Bibl. Nat. p. 158 no. 359 fig.).
A statue of this sort (cp. the famous Mercury by Giovanni da Bologna in the Bargello at
Florence) mounted on a high pedestal has presumably furnished the sculptor of our relief
with a classical type for his Germanic thenle.
* Supra p. 62 n. I.
^ See L. Lersch ' Der planetarische Gotterkreis ' in \}a& Jahrb. d. Vereins z. Alter-
thumsjreund. im Rheinl. 1844 iv. 147— 176, 1844 v—vi. 299—314, 1846 viii. 145— 152,
J. de Witte ' Les divinites des sept jours de la semaine' in the Gaz. Arch. 1877 ii'- 5°— S7>