Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

Diana-Pillars 157
making the sky-column on its plinth within a ring of pillars or
pilasters pretty much as the Sardinians had done at the beginning
of the bronze age, though quite possibly the meaning of the custom
had long been forgotten. Secondly, we note that the central shaft
or sky-prop was of wood, a sacred log, in short an Italian Irmmsiil^
modified by art into a tapering column of peculiar form^ Further,
we may suspect (though we can hardly prove the point) that its
most peculiar feature, the flat disk serving as capital, had come to
be taken for a representation of the round sky resting on the sky-
derived. And arguments more or less specious are not wanting. On the one hand, a very
similar pillar, with cylindrical base, discoid capital, and tapering shaft, occurs as part of
ihe relief-decoration on blue porcelain jugs inscribed with the names of Ptolemaic kings
and queens (E. Beule ' Le Vase de la Reine Berenice' in \}c\t. Journal des savants 1862
pp. 163— 172 with pi. =my fig. 95, F. Lenormant ' Rev. Atch. 1863 i. 259-—266 pi.
Le vase de la reine Cleopatre ' in the
7 — my fig. 96, T. Schreiber Die alexandrinische Toreiitik
Leipzig 1894 p. 433 n. 47, id. 'Die hellenistischen Reliefbilder und die augusteische
Kunst' in ihe Jahrb. d. kais. dentsch. arch. Inst. 1896 xi. 100 n. i, H. B. Walters
History of Ancient Pottery London 1905 i. 129, and especially E. Breccia in the Bulletin
de la Society Archeologique d''Alexandria 1910 xii. 93— 98). On the other hand, a sherd
of Pergamene relief- ware (not later than
,f. iii B.C.), found at Pergamon and now
in the Antiquarium at Berlin, repre-
sents a sacred pillar, which resembles
that of the Romans even more closely
(M. Rostovvzew 'Die hellenistisch-
romische Architekturlandschaft ' in the
RojH. Mitth. 191 1 xxvi. 114— 116, 130
pi. II, 3 = my fig. 97): on a garlanded
cylindrical base stands a club-like pillar
with disk and finial ;
propped against the
base are a double flute (?), a bucraniiim,
and a lagobohm, the other end of which
seems to rest on a tree-stem ; a syrinx is
and
fastened to the pillar by a riband ;
Pan leans against it playing on the lyre.
But there is much more to be said for
the view that in the pillar-worship of
Italian art we should recognise a local
survival of a cult once common to the
whole Mediterranean area (Sir A. J.
Evans ' Mycenaean Tree and Pillar
Cult and its Mediterranean Relations' in ihtjourn. Hell. Stud. 1901 xxi. 128).
1 For a sacred tree conventionalised into a pillar of this shape see an interesting series
of Cypriote terra-cotta agalinata published by Ohnefalsch-Richter Kypi-os pp. 127 fif., 413
pi. 76, 8, I, 6, ]o=my fig. 98. Of these Ohnefalsch-Richter pi. 76, i came from the
sanctuary of Artemis at Achna, half-way between Kition and Salamis, the rest from that
of Astarte at Chytroi. They warrant the inference that a tree might degenerate into a
tapering baluster, its branches being reduced to a mere crown or ring. If that is so, we
may fairly explain the disk-like capital of the Diana-pillar as a vestige of the original
branches or foliage. The pendants hanging from the disk would, on this showing, be
a reminiscence of offerings etc. suspended from the boughs.
Fig- 97