Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

298 The Mother-goddess and \\tr pdredros
flowers. His head, twined with a garland of pine-cones, ahnonds,
pomegranates, poppy-heads, and flowers, wears a Phrygian cap,
which is encircled below by five rays (restored in their ancient
holes) and embellished above by a crescent moon and two up-
standing ears of corn. The whole figure with its air of pensive
melancholy, not to say unmanly slackness, aptly embodies the
Graeco-Roman conception of Attis. Particular traits and adjuncts
recall other deities. The crescent is that of Men. The hair, with
its long side-curls and a ribbon across the brow, is reminiscent of
Fig. 190.
Dionysos. The attitude of graceful repose would suit Adonis^ And,
lest the lines should degenerate into weakness, we have a rigid
framework formed by the bearded bust and the underlying rock
a reminder that Attis after all was akin to the great powers of
nature, Zeus and Kybele, the sky-father and the mountain-mother.
Zeus, as husband of Kybele^ appears on other monuments of
the same cult. From the Metroion at Ostia came also a votive
marble basket (fig. 190)^ the lid of which has a handle shaped like
a cock in obvious reference to the Galliis or emasculated priest of
^ Cp. Theokr. 15. 84 ff., 127 ff.
- lovil. or. 5 p. 166 A f. Ti'j ovv i) M.TjTrip twv dewv ;...tj kuI reKovca. kclI uvvoLKOvffa T(f
fieyaXu) Ad ^e6s inrofTTacra fieyoKf] fj-era tov fxeyav Kai (ji)u ti^ fxeyoKui drjuiovpyw, 7/ TrdcT^s
ixei> Kvpla fco^s, Trdtrijs 8e yeviaeios airia, ij paara /xeu (TnTeXovaa to. iroiovneva, yevvdbcra 5e
dlxa Trddovs Kai 5rifj.iovpyovcra to. ovra /xera rod warpos- avrr) Kai wapdivo's d/xriTOjp Kai Aids
aivBuKOS Kai ix-qr-qp 6(wv ovtujs ovaa irdvTU)v.
2 C. L. Visconli in the Afin. ci. Inst. 1869 xli. 240 fF., Mon. d. Inst, ix pi. i^, i«, i**
( = my fig. 190), P. Decharme in Daremberg— Saglio Diet. Ant. i. i688 fig. 2249, Frazer