Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

i6o Agyieus-ViW'Sir^
tionof the same^ From our present position it seems legitimate to
conjecture that this gateway or arch at first denoted the sky itself
resting on the side-supports. Such a supposition at least helps
us to understand the otherwise puzzling representations of the
Dioskouroi in Etruscan art. Their dokana are seen to be simply
the 'beams' of the world— its pillars and ceiling. And they them-
selves, as figured on Etruscan mirrors, are the humanised side-posts,
which naturally enough have between them a tree or a column
and above them a starry pediment-.
(/") ^^jt'/eus= Pillars.
And here, at the risk of faring worse, we must go further. For
it is impossible to separate the Diana-pillars of Italy from the
Agyieiis-'^iWdiXS of Greece'*, which in form and fashion are their
exact counterpart. Grammarians and lexicographers define the
term Agyietis sometimes as a pointed'* or conical pillar^, sometimes
Paris 1870 iii. 2. 13 ff. pi. 5, Boetticher Baumkultus pp. 156, 541 fig. 36, W. Helbig in
the Arch. Z,eit. 1866 xxiv. 182 f., id. Waiidgem. Camp. p. 274 no. 1279. See further
M. Rostowzew 'Die hellenistisch-romische Architekturlandschaft' in the Rom. Mitth.
191 1 xxvi. 41 fig. 18 — Sogliano Piit. )nur. Ca»ip. p. 141 no. 686, cp. id. ib. p. 52
no. 245.
A base or allar in the Villa Albani (G. Zoega Li hassirilievi aiitichi di Roma Roma
1808 ii. 235—238 pi. 98, Reinach Rep. Reliefs iii. 132 no. i, W. Helbig Fiihrer durch
die offentlichen Sammhingen klassischer Altertiinier in Rom'^ Leipzig 19 13 ii. 409
no. 1847) shows (rt) Apollon, \\ith lyre and //i'/C'/Ao;/, bow-case and quiver, standing beside
his bay-tree, which grows through a Corinthian gateway ; {b) a richly decorated tripod, on
the plinth of which is perched a raven ; (c) a sacrificial ewer and bowl ;
(12') a griffin
looking backwards. The scheme of the rustic tree-shrine is applied to the cult of the
civilised Apollon in virtue of his sacred bay.
• Supra p. 152 fig. 92. - Sup7-a i. 766 ff.
* The main facts and fancies relating to these ^jyw/o-monuments are collected by
Welcker Gr. Gotterl. i. 495 ff., E. Saglio in Daremberg—Saglio Did. Ant. i. 168 f., Overbeck
Gr. Kniistmylh. Apollon p. 3 ff. Miinztaf. i, i—8, G. Wentzel in Pauly—Wissowa
Real-Enc. i. 909
f., E. Reisch ib. i. 910 ff., K.,Wernicke ih. ii. 41 f., De Visser /?(.' Gr.
diis 7ion ref. spec. hum. p. 46 ff. § 22 ff., Sir A. J. Evans in the Journ. Hell. Stud. 1901
xxi. 173, Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. pp. 774 n. 4, 776 n. i f., 1232, Farnell Ctdts of Gr.
States iv. 148 ff., 307f., 371 f. coin-pl. a, 15, J.
p. 406 ff., M. H. Swindler Cretan Elements in the Cults and Ritual of Apollo (Bryn Mawr
E. Harrison Themis Cambridge 1912
College Monographs: Monograph Series xiii) Bryn Mawr 1913 pp. 41 f., 74.
•* Harpokr. J. &. 'A7i;ias = Bekker ««?