Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

404
Diana and the Oak
cult of the goddess was that on Mount Tifata some thirty furlongs
north of Capua^ ; and the name Tifata, according to Verrius
Flaccus, meant 'Woods of Evergreen Oak-.' Another of her
homes was Mount Algidus in Latium^, where oaks and holm-oaks
abounded^ And from Mount Algidus it is but a few miles to Nemi.
That being so, we may fairly surmise that at Nemi too Diana had
her favourite oaks.
In passing I may observe that this association of Diana with the
oak has left its mark on the art of the Graeco-Roman age. Land-
er Pass. Crisp.), may have done the same at Tiisculum. In this connexion it must be
remembered, on the one hand that Latinus Silvius, who founded Tuscuhini (Diod. 7. 5
('• '33' 30 ff- Vogel) ap. Euseb. c/^r(7«. vers. Armen. (i. 287, 7 ff. Sclione)) and dedicated
the beech-grove to Diana (Plin loc. cit.), belonged' to a dynasty of woodland kings (see
the Class. Rev. 1904 xviii. 363 f., Folk-Lorc 1905 xvi. 285 ff., Frazer Golden Bough'':
The Magic Art ii. 178 fif., 192, 379) and would be likely enough to institute such a
custom ; on the other hand that Passienus Crispus hailed from Vitellia (in Suet. v. Pass,
Ci-isp. read Vitelliensis for the meaningless Viselliensis codd.), an ancient Latin town,
the home of the Vitellii, descendants of Faunus king of the Aborigines and the goddess
Vitellia (Suet. Vitell. i), and would be likely enough to revive such a custom.
^ E. H. Bunbury in Smith Diet. Geogr. ii. 1207, P. Paris in Daremberg— Saglio Diet.
Ant. ii. 155, G. Wissowa in Pauly— Wissowa Real-Enc. v. 326 ff., id. Rel. Ktilt. R'om."^
pp. 247, 25J.
^ Paul, ex Fest. p. 366, 8 Miiller, p. 503, 14 f. Lindsay Tifata ilicela. Romae autem
Tifata Curia. Tifata etiam locus iuxta Capuam. Cp. Paul, ex Fest. p. 49, 18 Miiller,
p. 43, 13 Lindsay Curia Tifata (so Scaliger for Ciiriati faiia codd.) a Curio dicta est,
qui[a] eo loco domum habueiat, p. 131, i .Miiller, p. 117, i f. Lindsay Mancina Tifata
appellabantur, quod Mancinus habuit insignem domum, quae publicaia est eo interfecto.
Paulus' information is ultimately derived from the dictionary of Verrius Flaccus {infra
Append. N inil.). F. Buecheler in the Rhein. Mus. 1884 xxxix. 421 f. connects tifata
with the Sabine teba, ' hill ' (Varr. rer. rust. 3. i. 6), cp. R. S. Conway The Italic Dialeets
Cambridge 1897 i. 221, 358. And G. Meyer Etymologisches Worterbuch der albanesischen
Sprache Strassburg 1891 p. 430 s.v. ^ timp'' and in the hidogermanische Forschungen
1892 i. 324 would relate teba to the Carian rajSa, 'rock' (Steph. Byz. s.v. Td/Jat). If
so, all these words are probably survivals from a pre-Indo-Europaean language, cp.
Walde Lat. etym. Worttrb.'^ p. 766 s.v. 'teba,' I. Thomopoulos XleKacryiKo. Athens 191 2
pp. 211 f., 419. But Walde op. cit.- p. 778 s.v. 'tibulus' suggests that tifata is akin to
tibulus, a variety of wild pine (Plin. nat. hist. 16. 39), cp. A. Ernout Les i!Uments
dialeetaux du vocabxdaire latin Paris 1909 pp. 27, 75, 237
('C'est done a I'osque que le
latin a emprunte le mot '). We need more light.
The woods of Mt Tifata are mentioned by Sil. It. 13. 219 Tifata umbrifero...monte.
' E. H. Bunbury in Smith Diet. Geogr. i. 103, P. Paris in Daremberg— Saglio Diet.
Ant. ii. 154, C. Hulsen in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Eiie. i. 1476.
* Hor. od. 3. 23. 9 f., 4. 4. 57 f., cp. od. i. 21. 5 f. and Stat. silv. 4. 4. 16. When in
458 B.C. Roman envoys were sent to complain of a treaty broken by the Aequi, they
were bidden to make their complaint to a huge oak-tree on Mt Algidus, under the shade
of whose branches the Aequian commander had his quarters (Liv. 3. 25 eos Aequorum
imperator, quae mandata habeant ab senatu Romano, ad quercum iubet dicere : se alia
interim acturum. quercus ingens arbor praetorio imminebat, cuius umbra opaca sedes
erat. turn ex legatis unus abiens ' et haec ' inquit 'sacrata quercus et quidquid deorum
est audiant foedus a vobis ruptum nostrisque et nunc querellis adsint et mox armis, cum
deorum hominumque simul violata iura exsequemur ').