Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

158
Diana-Pillars
pillar : the pendants that dangle from it are not without analogy in
the cosmic notions of other races ^ Finally, we observe that side by
side with these pillar-shrines there persisted the more primitive
tree-cult, in which the living tree was enclosed by a gateway con-
sisting of side-posts and lintel (fig. 99)- or by some later elabora-
Fig. 98.
^ See e.g. Sir G. Maspero The Dawn of Civilization* London 1901 p. 16 n. 7 :
variants of the sign for night— Fy^,
to wliich the star is attached passes over the sky, \, 0,and
' The
i=^p=i —are most significant. The end of the rope
falls free, as though arranged
for drawing a lamp up and down when lighting or extinguishing it. And furthermore, the
name of the stars kkabisu—is the same word as that used to designate an ordinary lamp.'
Cp. the sun suspended by cords on a Babylonian tablet (supra i. 262 ff.)-
J. Grimm
Teutonic Mythology trans. J. S. Stallybrass London 1883 ii. 722: 'The Lithuanians
beautifully weave shooting stars into the fate-mythus : the verpeya (spinneress) begins to
spin the thread of the new-born on the sky, and each thread ends in a star ;
is dying, his thread snaps, and the star turns pale and drops (Narbutt, i, 71).'
when a man
Traces of such beliefs can be found here and there among the Greeks. Thus at the
Boeotian Daphnephoria the kopo was a staff of olive-wood with a bronze ball at the top
to denote the sun, a smaller ball below to denote the moon, a number of little balls
hanging from the topmost ball to denote the stars and planets (Nilsson Gr. Teste p. 164 f.
I have discussed the rite in Folk-Lore 1904 xv. 409 ff., supra i. 291 n. 5).
- Fig. 99 is a stucco-relief from one of the vaulted rooms of a Roman town-house dis-
covered in 1878 in the garden of the Villa Farnesina {Mon. d. Inst. Suppl. pi. 35,
J. Le$sing—A. Mau Wand- tmd Deckenschinuck eines roemischen Hauses aiis der Zeit des
Augustus Berlin 1891 p. 14 pi. 15, M. Collignon 'Le styl decoratif a Rome' in the Jievue
de Part ancien et moderne 1897 i. p. 104 with pi., M. Rostowzew 'Die hellenistisch-
romische Architekturlandschaft ' in the Kbm. Mitth. 191 1 xxvi. 34 ff. fig. 13 f. (after
Anderson's photograph no. 25o6 = my fig. 99), H. Bulle Der schone Metisch im Altertum'^
Miinchen und Leipzig 1912 p. 601 f. pi. 298, Helbig Gtiide Class. Ant. Kovie\\. 220 ff.,
233 no. 1059, ib.^ ii. 117 ff. no. 1330). This relief, which is now in tlie Museo delle
Terme, represents a rocky landscape with a stream spanned by a bridge. On the bridge
are two women carrying pitchers, of whom the first gives drink to a kneeling beggar (cp.
luv. 4. ii6ff. with J. E. B. Mayor ad loc.). To the left of the bridge a large datepalm
(?) stands in a precinct between a couple of two-storied buildings. Over it is a gateway
consisting of a pillar and a pilaster with an architrave, on which is set a fluted jar.
Adjoining this complex we see a circular walled structure with narrow openings, which is