Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

and the Soul-Ladder 125
In support of that conjecture I may point out, not only that
Pindar in a passage already cited speaks of the celestial track as a
'dread stair' or * ladder V but also that Orphic belief thus falls into
line with the beliefs of other peoples. Amulets in the shape of
Fig. 77-
k::y
little bronze ladders (fig. yy)—a magical means of getting to heaven
—have been found in Roman graves-. They recall the Egyptian
amulet of the ladder,
as follows
about which E. A. Wallis Budge writes
'In tombs of the Ancient and Middle Empires small objects of wood and
other substances in the form of ladders have often been found, but the significa-
tion of them is not always apparent. From the texts inscribed upon the walls of
Trinity College, Cambridge) cj. Mystides aere ( = sistro). But H. Daumet op. cit. p. 130
long since suggested alai] ( = atcra), and personally I would rather keep mystidis aise as a
Latinised equivalent of fitjcrTidos aiarj (cp. e.g. Ap. Rhod. 3. 3 KuTrpiSos ataav). Biicheler
retains coiigregi in Satyrnin as meaning 'in the company (adj. for subst.) of the Satyrs
(gen. plur. ).' He had thought of congregium, which might be accepted either as an
irregular gen. plur. of congrex, or as ace. sing, of congregiits, a new formation on the
analogy of cgreghis.
1 Supra p. 37.
2 A small bronze ladder together with many other amulets was found in 1696 a.d.
near Rome within the remains of a bronze kiste, itself enclosed in a jar of coarse pottery
and protected by a tile (Gerhard Etr. Spiegel i. 36—46 pi. 1 2 f. , of which pi. 12,1,4,6 = my
fig. 77, O. Jahn in the Ber. sacks. Gesellsch. d. Wiss. Phil.-hist. Classe 1854 p. 41 n. 44«
pi. 5, I, p. 48 n. 69" pi. 4, 5 f., p. 58 n. 116, p. 94 f. pi. 4, 15, S. Seligmann Der base
Blick und Venvandies Berlin 1910 ii. 296, 365 fig. 214) ; it is now in the Naples Museum
(E. Gerhard— T. Panofka Neapels antike Bildwerke Stuttgart 1828 p. 231 f. Zimmer v
Schrank 8). Two small bronze ladders, found with other amulets and coins of Marcus
Aurelius and Constantine the Great in Roman graves at Cologne, are now in the Museum
at Bonn (J. Overbeck Katalog der konigl. rheinischen Museums vaterldndischer Alter-
thiitner Bonn 1851 p. 146 Karte no. 8f., O. Jahn in the Ber. sacks. Gesellsch. d. Wiss.
Phil.-hist. Classe 1854 p. 41 n. 44'').