Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

212 The Pythia and the
Arkas", Melikertes^, Peleus' sons^, Dionysos' attendants'', and the
Aristophanic conception of Demos ^". Nay more, it survives to this
hour in the folk-tales of Sicily and Walachia", Germany and Scan-
dinavia, Poland and Finland ^l I am therefore inclined to conjecture
Wien 1890 p. 130 ff., pursuing a hint of P. Wolters ib. p. 130 n. i), or even, since some
copies at least are appreciably narrower above than below, the three sides of a triangular
base on which, as on the Chigi base (supra p. 199 n. 2 pi. xii), stood a choragic tripod
(L. Mariani loc. cit. p. 46 f., H. Bulle Der schoene Mensch- Muenchen— Leipzig 1912
p. 587). If so, the significance of the whole design is not hard to guess. Pelias was the
subject of an attempted, liut unsuccessful, resurrection. So was Eurydike. So was
Peirithoos. Nothing could be more appropriate than the representing of these myths on
the base of a Xxv^odi-libes, the very caldron of apotheosis.
Other monuments of the Pelias-story are noted by K. Seeliger in Roscher Lex. Myth.
ii. 2505 f. , O.
Hofer ib. iii. 1846 f. To the vases there given must be added a red-figured
hydrta of early fine style (c. 465 B.C.), formerly in the Hamilton collection (Tischbein
Hamilton Vases i. 60 ff. pi. 7), which on the dispersal of the Deepdene treasures {Hope
Sale Catalogue igi-j p. 16 no. 81 wrongly described) was acquired by the Fiizwilliam
Museum, Cambridge. This magnificent vase (height ii^ ins.) has been attributed by
Mr J. D. Beazley to the hand of 'the Villa Giulia painter' (Hoppin Red-fig. Vases ii.
/^64ff.) and is in faultless condition. It represents the three Peliades about to carry out
the instructions of Medeia, though Medeia herself is absent. On the left the eldest sister,
in Ionic chitSn and himdtion tucked round her waist, grips a short sword in one hand and
raises the other with a gesture of amazement; she is aghast, but resolved. The second
sister, in a Doric p^plos girt over its long apdptygma, bears high a phidle containing the
fateful decoction, but betrays her inward misgivings by the nervous pressure of her hand
against her cheek. On the right the third and youngest, in a Doric pjplos with sliort
ap6ptygma and kolpos, turns to flee from the spot in a horror of expostulation. Her
chignon in profile, despite the all but full-face features, is a lingering trace of earlier
style. PI. xiii is from a photograph taken for me by Mr VV. H. Hayles.
•* Nostoifirag. 6 Kinkel ap. schol. Eur. Med. argum. i and schol. Aristoph. eq. 1321,
Ov. 7net. 7. 159 ff. O. Jahn Archdologische Beitrdge Berlin 1847 P- '57 "• '55 (following
the Due de Luynes in Noiiv. Ann. 1839 ii. 251) sees on a late black-figured l^^kythos now
at Leyden (Gerhard Auserl. Vasenb. i pi. 69— 70, 5 (=my fig. 148) and 6, Reinach Rep.
Vases ii. 42, 6 and 7) 'die Darstellung des Verjiingungsprocesses..., welchen Medeia mit
Jason oder Aison vornahm.' K. Wernicke in the Jahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch. Inst.
1889 iv Arch. Anz. p. 149 and in Pauly— VVissowa Real-Enc. i. 1087 decides for Aison.
* Simonid.y>-ao. 204 Bergk'* and Pherekyd. frag. 74 {Frag. hist. Gr. i. 89 Midler) ap.
schol. Eur. Aled. argum. i and schol. Aristoph. eq. 1321. This version of the myth is
illustrated by a red-figured hydrta from Vulci now in the British Museum [Brit. Mus.
Cat. Vases iii. 148 f. no. E 163. My pi. xiv is from a photograph by Mr R. B. Fleming);
for we need not with H. Heydemann Iaso>i in Kolchis {Winckel/nanns/est-Pro^r. Halle
1886) p. 19 n. 48 regard the inscription I A50N as a mistake for Al>ON.
^ Supra i. 419 n. 10, 679. A mirror at Paris (Gerhard ^/r. Spiegel'w. loi ff. pi. 352,
I ( = my fig. 149), Babelon— Blanche! Cat. Bronzes de la Bibl. Nat. p. 537 ff. no. 1329) is
best explained as representing Pelops, who emerges from the caldron in the presence of
Tantalos, Ganymedes (cp. Mnaseas _/raj^. 30 {Fiag. hist. Gr. iii. 154 Muller) ap. schol.
//. 20. 234, Herodian. i. 11. 2, Aug. de civ. Dei 18. 13, lo. Malal. chron. 4 p. 80 f.
Dindorf, Souid. s.v. "IXtoi', Kedren. hist. comp. 120 fif. (i. 211 Bekker)), Klotho, and
Demeter. The dog is probably the golden hound of Tantalos {supra i. 720 n. 4).
^ Infra^. 228 n. 5.
' Supra i. 674, 674 n. 4, 679.
* Supra i. 419 n. 10.
** Supra i. 785. 10 Supra i. 785. " Supra i. 7^6.
1^ W. Mannhardt Germanische Mythen Berlin 1858 pp. 64— 75, O. Dahnhardt Natur-