Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

124
The Pillar of Light
century repeatedly introduce a ladder into scenes of mystic incense-
gathering (?)\ such as that on a fine polychrome hydria from
Kyrenaike, now in the British Museum (pi. vi)-, or those on a
couple of aryballoi from Apollonia in Thrace, which passed from
the Van Branteghem collection to the Hermitage and Berlin
respectively (pi. \\\f. It is therefore permissible to conjecture that
the Orphic initiate actually mounted a ladder in order to ensure his
entrance upon the Elysian soul-path'*.
Reallex. p. 851 f., H. Hepding v4//zV seine Mythen iind sein Kiilt Gieszen 1903 p. 163
n. 2, W. Dennison in i\i& Am. Jotu-n. Arch. 1905 ix. 37, and the monograph of W. Jost
Tdtowiren, Narbenzeichnen, luid Korperbefnalen Berlin 1887 pp. 43
f., 102 f.
^ See the materials collected by F. Wieseler Covimoitatio de scala synibolo apiid Graecos
aliosqiie populos veteres Gottingae 1863 pp. 3— 17. The list of vase-paintings ib. p. 3 f
must, however, be used with caution, since Wieseler appears to have included certain
representations of a musical instrument resembling a dulcimer in shape (G. Nicole in
Daremberg—Saglio Did. Ant. iv. iio8f.). The subject has been handled with more
discretion by Furtwangler— Reichhold Gr. Vasenmakrei n. 98
f. pi. 78, i ('eine festliche,
von Aphrodite und Eros vorgenommene Weihratichernte ') and by G. Nicole iMeidias et
le style Jleuri dans la ceraniique attiqiie Geneve 1908 Append, ii ' Sur le motif de I'echelle
dans les scenes de gynecee ' with fig. 43 and pi. 8, i— 6, pi. 9 (' une recolte mystique de
I'encens, fete religieuse accompagnee de melodies et de danses sacrees'). Not improbably
the gatherer mounted the ladder to symbolise the celestial nature of the harvesting.
^ Bnt. MiiS. Cat. Vases iii. 186 no. E 241, G. Nicole Meidias et le style Jleiiri dans la
ch'atniqne attiqiie Geneve 1908 p. i.^o fig. 43. My pi. vi is from a photograph taken by
Mr C. O. Waterhouse. In the centre is a long ladder, and beside it a tall plant with berries
(gilded) in clusters of three. Aphrodite (?), bare to the waist, descends the ladder and
scatters something into a two-handled vase held by a woman (drapery blue)—hardly
Adonis, as Furtwangler op. cit. ii. 99 asserts. On the right another woman closely
wrapped in a himdtion (pink), which passes over her mouth, dances to the flutes of a
hovering Eros (wings gilded). Further to the right is a second dancing woman, who
plays the castanets. On the left are a third dancing woman, a woman playing the flutes,
and a small bearded Pan, with goat's legs and horns (gilded ?), also dancing. Height
i5i ins.
'^ W. Froehner Collection van Branteghem Bruxelles 1892 nos. 98 and 99 pi. 31—34
( = my pi. vii), G. Nicole op. cit. p. i5of. pi. 8, 5 and 6. Variations of the same scene,
marked by the presence of a thymiath'ion, which on a polychrome aldbastron from
Naukratis (E. A. Gardner— P'. LI. Griffith Naukratis Part ii London 1888 p. 28 pi. 16,
20, Brit. Mus. Cat. Vases iii. 355 no. E 721, G. Nicole op. cit. p. 150 fif. pi. 8, i) is held
by Eros as he descends the ladder.
* In an elegiac epitaph from Doxato near Philippoi the soul that has entered the
Elysian fields is brought into connexion with the tattooed mystics of Dionysos (L. Heuzey
H. Daumet Mission Archeologique de Macedoine Paris 1876 Texte p. 128 ff. no. 61, Corp.
inset. Lat. iii no. 686, 11 ff., F. Biicheler Carmina Latina epigraphica Lipsiae 1897 ii.
577 |
ff. no. 1233, II ff. [tu placidus, dum nos crjuciamur volnere victi,
vivis in Elysiis. |
sic
placitum est divis a[e]terna vivere form[a] |
florigero
[njumine sit meritus :
j quae tibi castifico promisit munera cursu |
citas facilis. | nunc seu te Bromio signatae mystidis aise |
Satyrum | sive canistriferae poscunt sibi Naides aequ[e] |
trahas, | sis quodcumque, puer, quo te tua protulit aetas, |
qui
et
reparatus item
qui bene de supero
olim iussa deo simpli-
in prato congregi in
ducibus taedis agmina festa
dum
modo [ ]. The
meaning of mystidis aise is doubtful. Biicheler ad loc. takes mystidis to be for mystides,
adding ' an nomen pueri hie fuit ut Aesi ? ' E.G. Wick in Studi italiani di filologia
classi'ca 1909 xvii. 198 f. (a reference for which I am indebted to Mr A. D. Nock of