Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

Apollon and Artemis 469
her days and in due course died. Plouton from love of her bade
a white-poplar {leuke) to spring up in the Elysian fields. It was
from this tree that Herakles on his return from the nether regions
plucked a wreath. Other authorities add a {q\w details^ Herakles,
when he dragged Kerberos from below, saw the white-poplar growing
beside the Acheron, marvelled at its beauty, wreathed himself with
it, brought it to the Upperworld, and showed it to Helios. The myth
was already current in the fourth century B.C., to judge from a
Scopaic type of the hero wearing his poplar-wreath (fig. 363)1
The wreath of white-poplar, thus associated with Herakles^, was
awarded to victors in the Rhodian Tlapolemeia, a festival commemorating
Herakles' son Tlepolemos*, if not Herakles himself^
Some would have it, however, that the festival belonged to Helios";
and natives of the island spoke of the white-poplar as ' Helios'
wreath'.' Virgil, describing the cult of Hercules at the Ara Maxima,
1 Eratosthenes (?) ap. schol. Theokr. 2. 121 (p. 290, 7 ff. Wendel), interp. Serv. in
Verg. Aen. 5. 134, schol. A. B.D. //. 13. 389, Eustath. iti II. p. 938, 63 f. Serv. in Verg.
georg. 2. 66 (cod. G.) has a curious variant: populum significat arborem, quia de populo
fuit corona, quam portavit Hercules circa suum caput in infernum. ipse alibi : Hcrculea
bicolor {Aen. 8. 276). Arnepolis civitas (? cp. Steph. Byz. s.v. 'Apurf ...Tpirr) Mea-ovora/xlai.
7> = A7-neburg (H. Oesterley Historisch-geogi-aphisches Worterbnch des deutschen Mittel-
alters Gotha 1883 p. 27)) a Babyloniis Herculem pro tempore colere dicitur. idcirco
banc arborem ei dedicatam populum dicunt. huius folia noctis et lucis imaginem decla-
rant, nee alia causa clavam ei adsignant, quanquam {leg. quam quod) sit inaequalibus
vulneribus, per quam dierum inaequalitas intelligitur. Cp. Serv. in Verg. Aen. 8. 276
Herculea populus ;
Herculi consecrata, qui, cum ad inferos descendens fatigaretur labore,
unde foliorum pars temporibus cohaerens
dicitur de hac arbore corona facta caput velasse :
et capiti (P. Burnian cj. ex capitis vel capitis) albuit sudore (abluit sudorem cod. Sangall.
alba sudore cod. Guelf. i), pars vero exterior propter inferorum colorem nigra permansit.
^ The best preserved example of the type (on which see B. Graef ' Herakles des
Skopas und Verwandtes' in the Rom. Mittli. 1889 iv. 189—226 with pi. 8 f. and illustra-
tions in text) is the bust from Genzano in the British Museum {Brit. Mus. Cat. Sculpture
iii. 93 no. 173: pi. 5, 2. My fig. 363 is from P. Wolters in \\\& Jahrb. d. kais. deutsch.
arch. Inst. 1886 i. 55 f. pi. 5, 2. Fine Parian marble. Height o'4o"'). To the biblio-
graphy given by Mr A. H. Smith add Overbeck Gr. Plastik^ ii. 24 ff. fig. 142, a—c,
H. Bulle Der schoene Mensch ijn Altertum'^ Muenchen—Leipzig 1912 p. f. 479 pi. 211
(left), Stuart Jones Cat. Sculpt. Mus. Capit. Rome p. 71 Stanze terrene a dritta i. 23
pi. 13, W. Helbig Fiihrer dtirch die bffentlichen Sammlungen klassischer Altertienier in
Rom"^ Leipzig 191 2 i. 257 no. 405, 520 no. 919, 525 no. 926, A. H. Smith British
Museum: Marbles a7id Bronzes London 1914 p. 6 pi. 21.
^ Theokr. 2. 121 with schol. ad loc, Verg. eel. 7. 61, georg. 2. 66, Aen. 8. 276 f with
Serv. ad locc, Ov. her. 9. 64, Plin. nat. hist. 12. 3, Phaedr. 3. 17. 4, Tert. de cor. mil. 7.
* Schol. Pind. 01. 7. 147.
5 Schol. Pind. 01. 7. 145 TX^jTroX^/teta. oi Se 'BpaKXna- k.t.X. But the two festivals
were distinct : see Nilsson Gr. Feste pp. 450
f., 462 f.
6 Schol. Pind. 01. 7. 146 citing Istros/ra^. 60b {Frag. hist. Gr. i. 427 Miiller).
7 Frag. com. adesp. {Frag. com. Gr. ii. 746 ff., v. 52 f. Meineke) ap. Dikaiarch. i. 5
etvai crTe({>avov
{Geogr. Gr. min. i. 100 Miiller) Srac 5e ry]v \eijKT]v tis avrwp Trpa^us j
itirri, irviyofjiaL \
k.t.X.
Large bronze coins issued at Rhodes between 88 and 43 B.C. have
obv. head of Helios, radiate, facing; rev. full-blown rose to front, within a wreath {Brit.
aXiaKov