Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

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Here in truth was the
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0m
pii
The Trophy
uphill path' of ancient faith* convincingly
filled with modern meaning. In the case of
the Trajanic column— the first of its kind
and the pattern for posterity—this celestial
track led up and up to a plinth shaped like a
hemisphere, on the top of which stood the
figure of the divinised emperor (fig. 70''^). His
position recalls that of the immortals in the
Phaidros, who 'go outside when they are
come to the topmost height, and stand on
the outer surface of heaven^' there to witness
sights of unspeakable splendour. What the
effect of this great pillar must have been on
the popular mind, it is not hard to guess :
They climbed the steep ascent of heaven
Through peril, toil and pain.
O God, to us may grace be given
To follow in their train.
id) The Trophy.
But if the Germanic IrminsM contri-
buted something to the monumental art of
Rome, it had points of contact also with the
religious life of Greece. 'Jupiter-columns'
were found as far south as the confines of
Thrace. C. JuUian^ quotes a passage of
Valerius Flaccus, in which they are ascribed
to the Coralli, a blonde"' Sarmatian" tribe
settled at the foot of Mount Haimos". The
poet is describing the hosts led by Perses
against his brother Aietes :
Next Phalces drives his bronze cloud o'er the plain
With echoing cries, and the Corallians all
Uplift their banners, who for ensigns bear
Barbaric wheels and boars of jaggy back
1 Supra p. 36 ff.
* After C. Chipiez in Daremherg— Saglio Diet. Ant. i.
135' fig- 1788. ^ Supra p. 44.
* C. JuUian in G. Gassies ' Cavalier et anguipede sur
un monument de Meaux '
in the Revue des iludes anciennes
1902 iv. 290 n. I. 5 Qy_ gj. Pont. 4. 1. 37.
'" Appian. Mithr. 69. C. Jullian loc. cil. says: ' Peut-
etre les Coralli etaient-ils celtiques (Reinach, Revue celtique,
t. XX, 1899, p. 127 et s.).' But F. Hertlein Die Juppiter-
giganiensiiulen Stuttgart 1910 p. 78 n. 3 is not improbably
right in regarding them as a Germanic tribe.
'' Strab. 318.