Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

154
Diana-Pillars
bronze shrines from Mandas^, enable us to reach certain tentative
conclusions. In the first place, it would seem that the cosmological
belief expressed in the cult-monuments of Sardinia was common to
Italy alsol Italian rustics at the close of the republic were still
bound to the pillar, and a likiion full of fruits including a phalloid gherkin or small
cucumber placed upon the disk. Adjoining the pillar-shrine on the right is a gateway,
with pine-cone as finial, built over an old oak-tree, the trunk of which disappears behind
a wall to the right ; on the left, a low wall with narrow openings left in it, a vase set upon
it, and a ihyrsos and two torches leaning against it. The background to the left shows an
aediciila of Priapos with an arched entry and a windowed side.
Fig. 93, the three-sided base of a candelabrtwi in the Vatican (Gerhard Ant. Bildw.
p. 322 pi. 83, Boetticher Baiimkiiltus p. 77
f. figs, gf., E. Saglio in Daremberg—Saglio
Diet. Ant. i. 413 fig. 499, Helbig Guide Class. Ant. Rome i. 259 f. no. 369, ih.'^ i. 229
no. 356, Baumeister Denkm. i. 297 fig. 313), represents (a) a quiver, bow, and hunting-
spear hung from the branch of a bay-tree, {b) a Diana-pillar with a stag's antlers and a
garland bound to it and a votive tablet leaning against it, (c) a rustic altar decked with a
garland : on the altar are ofiferings—a pine-cone etc. ; against it leans a blazing torch,
while a deer bites playfully at the riband hanging from the torch.
Fig. 94, a silver box-lid obtained from the Roman dealer Capranesi by E. Gerhard
and now at Berlin (O. Jahn in the Arch. Zeit. 1858 xvi. 229 ff. pi. 118, i=my fig-),
renders in high relief an altar-top with a group of votive or sacred objects lying upon it.
Fi" 94-
These include a filleted ox-head, a sheep's head, a goat's head, a kid with folded legs, a
bird with bound wings, a bunch of grapes, an ear of maize, a fig, an almond, etc. Among
them is a club-shaped Diana-pillar (Jahn describes it with hesitation as ' eine Spindel ')
of the sort already familiar to us.
1 Supra p. 141 f.
- This may be disputed. Some archaeologists have looked to Egypt, others to Asia
Minor or Syria, as the source from which the pillar-worship of Graeco-Roman art was