Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

Diana's tree at Nemi 417
introduces the fatal trunk into the dekth-scene. The tree thus con-
nected with Hippolytos by Hterature and art very possibly presupposes
the sacred oak of Artemis. In any case Hippolytos and
Artemis Saronis must have borne an obvious resemblance to
Virbius and Diana Neniorensis ; for Virgil and later writers told
how Hippolytos, restored by Asklepios at Artemis' request, lived
again as Virbius in Diana's grove at Nemi\ His tragic death and
triumphant resurrection made him a favourite theme alike on Greek
and on Roman sarcophagi' (fig. 323)^.
(»|r) Diana's tree at Nemi.
It is clear, then, that Diana in Italy and Artemis in Greece were
often conceived as oak-goddesses. But have we any special reason to
think that Diana's tree at Nemi was an oak ? Sir James Frazer, as is
well known, has conjectured that such was the case and has immor-
talised his opinion in that amazing monument of helpful research,
The Golden Bongh^. Nevertheless, with regard to this particular
point, his argument admittedly rests on probabilities, not proofs'^,
Kunstmyth. Apollon pp. 327 no. 57, 330 Atlas pi. 12, 3 (Apollon only), J. H. Huddilston
Greek Tragedy in the light of Vase Paintings London 1898 pp. 108— 112 fig. 15. My
fig. 322 is after Kalkmann loc. cit.
n. 5. See also S. Eitrem in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. viii. 1866.
1 Supra p. 399
^ Robert Sai-k. -Keifs ill. 169—219 pis. 44— 56 and figs, in text.
^ In the death of Hippolytos as carved on one of the smaller sides of a fine Greek
sarcophagus at the Petrograd Hermitage (H. Brunn in the Ann. d. Inst. 1857 xxix. 36 ff.,
Mon. d. Inst, vi pi. 2 = my fig. 323, Robert op. cit. iii. 182 ff. pi. 47— 48 fig. 154 «) the
sculptor has apparently adapted the type of Phaethon's overthrow (Robert op. cit. iii. 170).
He adds a background etc. of oaks and olives.
* Frazer Golden Boitgh'^ : The Magic Art ii. 379, alib.
^ Apart from the general association of the oak with the Aryan thunder-god (Golden
Boitgh'^ : The Magic Art ii. 356 ff.), Sir James Frazer urges the following special con-
siderations: (i) Diana at Nemi was called Vesta (Corp. inscr. Lat. xiv no. 22i3 = Orelli
Inscr. Lat. sel. no. 1455 = Wihnanns Ex. inscr. Lat. no. 1767 = Dessau Inscr. Lat. sel.
no. 3243 Dianae |
Jsemoresi
Vestae |
sacrum,
etc.) and presumably had a perpetual fire
in her sanctuary. The Vestal fire at Rome was fed with oak-wood (Golden Bough'^ : The
Magic Art ii. 185 f., 372, 378). Latin ritual is so uniform that we may assume a like
custom at Nemi : hence ' it becomes probable that the hallowed grove there consisted of
a natural oak-wood, and that therefore the tree which the King of the Wood had to guard
at the peril of his life was itself an oak ' (Goldett Bough^: The Magic Art ii. 379). (2) Verg.
Aen. 6. 203 ff., cp. ib. 136 ff., speaks of the golden bough as growing on an evergreen oak
(opaca I
nice) near Lake Avernus (Golden Bongh'': The Magic Art ii. 379,
ib^^^: Balder
the Beautiful ii. 284 f., 315). Serv. in Verg. Aen. 6. 136 quotes as a popular belief
(piiblica... opinio) the view 'that the Golden Bough was the branch which a candidate
for the priesthood of Diana had to pluck in the sacred grove of Nemi ' (Golden Bough^ :
Balder the Beautiful ii. 284 n. 3). (3) Verg. Aen. 6. 772 represents the old Alban dynasty
of the Silvii as crowned with oak (civili...quercn) (Golden Boiigh^ : The Magic Art ii.
178 ff., 379).
' It is not impossible that the King of the Wood... was the lawful successor
...of this ancient line' (ib. p. 379). (4) The double-headed bust at Nemi, which probably
portrays the old King of the Wood and his younger rival, shows both of them plastered
c. n. 27