Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

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Fig- 31-
lupiter-Columns 73
Fig- 3 2- »
ration was suggestive of a tree-stem' and thus served
to bring the hard stone of the Roman monument
between Maubeuge and Avesnes, and now at Brussels (F. Cumont
Catalogue des scidpHires &' inscriptioiis antiques [monuments lapidaires)
des Musees Royaiix dii Cinquantenaire'' Bruxelles 1913 p- si.^ ff. no. 173,
Espeiandieu Bas-reliefs de la Gaiile Rom. v. 192 f. no. 3985). The
surface is covered with a tangle of vine-leaves. Against these is seen
a nude Bacchant, who bounds along with streaming hair : she holds
a thyrsos in her left hand, and with her right pours the contents of a
horn or rhytoii into her mouth. Behind her flies a winged Cupid, vv^ho
with his right hand steadies a basket of grapes on his head, and in his
left carries some indistinct object: beneath his feet is a small quadruped
(rabbit?) nibbling a grape-bunch. When first discovered, this relief
was in better condition and showed other animals half-hidden in the
vine-shoots. F. Cumont thinlcs it certain that the drum and the
Viergotterstein found on the same site {stipra p. 67 ff. fig. -27) belong to
one monument, and F. Hertlein [op. cit. p. 84) regards the combina-
tion as possible.
On the vine-leaf column as a Syrian motif 'Cnz.t made its way through-
out the Mediterranean area see S. Gsell in the Atti del II Congr. di
arch, crist. p. 203 ff., C. M. Kaufmann Handlnuh derchristlichen Archd-
ologie'^ Paderborn 1913 p. 483 f.
' Durm Baiikunst d. Rom."^ p. 388 f. fig. 426, cp. M. Meurer Ver-
gleichende Formenleltre des Ornamentes und der PJlanze Dresden 1909
p. 572 ff.