Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

Apollon and Artemis 471
names derived from the light-coloured under-surface of its leaves
The striking effect of light combined with dark was, at least in part,
the reason why the tree was assigned to the limbo between the
Upperworld and the Underworld. As having no fruit, also, it was
appropriate to the realm beyond'^. It was 'chthonian^' 'sacred to
HadesV 'dedicate to the dead\' Hence, according to Harpokration^
(s. ii (?)' A.D.), its use in the rites of the chthonian Dionysos*. A similar
explanation might be given of the fact that, at Olympia, persons
wishing to sacrifice to Pelops had to obtain wood of the white-
poplar from the ' ' woodman
{xylejisy attached to the cult of Zeus^".
When Idmon, son of Apollon and seer of the Argonauts, died, his
brows were bound with its white leafage". Aquites the Colchian,
' consecrated to the waters of the land and priest of the mighty
Phasis,' wore a wreath of white-poplar^-, perhaps because poplars
fringed the river where it flowed past Phrixos' tomb to the sea^^
Finally, Polyphemos, son of the Lapith Elatos, who married
^ O. Hoffmann Die Makedonen, ihre Sprache and ihr Volkstum Gottingen 1906 p. 42 :
'Die "Silberpappel" fUhrteim Griechischen ihren Namen nachder "weiss schimmernden"
Farbe ihrer Blatter: sie hiess XeuKtj, d\