Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

ApoUon and Artemis 479
On the left we see Phaethon standing- before the seated Helios to
prefer his request. In front of Helios four youths, the Heliadai\
hold in readiness the solar steeds. At his back are four maidens,
the Horai, characterised as the seasons of the year. The central
space is reserved for the central incident, the fall of Phaethon,
conceived as on the cameo, except that Helios on horse-back is
replaced by the Dioskouroi^ riding up from left and right, while
Kyknos below appears both as an aged man leaning on a staff and
as a swan. At his back sits Moira^ conning the roll of fate. Phaethon
falls headlong towards Eridanos, who reclines with a branch over
his shoulder and a snake'* at his side. Beyond him is another
reclining male, who holds a large wheel and is best regarded as a
personification of the Coursed An anchor visible between the two
hints at Okeanos. Above sits Helios, his head resting on his hand
in a pose of deep dejection, while Hermes brings him the sad news''.
Behind Helios stands Klymene (?) with a look of grave concern.
Behind Hermes are the Heliades, two standing, one seated, in
attitudes expressive of their grief'. Their transformation is still to
come : as mourners they must not anticipate the change.
Secondly, the Milky Way is sometimes viewed as a celes-
tial river, and that not only in Australia*, Annam^, China^",
' So P. Hartwig in Philologiis 1899 Iviii. 489. G. Lippold loc. cit. is content with
'quatre serviteurs.' Above them are remains of the chariot-pole, and the mantle of Caelus
{supra i. 59).
'^ See A. Baumeister in his Denkm. iii. 1305 f.
^ Nonn. Dion. 38. 166 and 218.
* See F. Wieseler in the Ann. d. Inst. 1869 xli. 137.
* Cp. supra i. 260 n. 3. G. Knaack in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 2197 ' Auf dem
Himmelsgewolbe (vgl. Matz, bull. delV hist. 1869, 67) sitzt Helios...' is on the wrong
track. So too is G. Lippold loc. cit., who (after F. Wieseler loc. cit.) sees in the two
reclining male figures ' des personnifications de la Terre et de la Mer.'
* His type is ultimately derived from that of Hermes in the east pediment of the
Parthenon (w/ra § 9 (h) ii {Q)).
"^ All three are modifications of figures F (Hippodameia) and O (the handmaid) in the
east pediment of the temple of Zeus at Olympia (Overbeck Gr. Plastik* i fig. 77).
® R. Andree Ethnographische Parallelen ttnd Vergleiche Stuttgart 1878 p. no (the
Gingis of New South Wales, tribes on the Darling River).
" H. Gaidoz and E. Rolland in Mdusine Paris 1884-85 ii. 154.
'" Eid. ib. ii. 154. Prof. H. A. Giles has kindly supplied me Qan. 18, 1919) with the
following detailed information: 'The Milky Way is mentioned three times in the Odes
edited by Confucius about B.C. 500, but only as a celestial phenomenon.
'The famous traveller, Chang Ch'ien, who brought the grape from Fergana to China,
and visited Bactria (B.C. 138), was sent by the Emperor to discover the source of the
Yellow River, which was supposed to flow from heaven and to be a continuation of the
Milky Way. He sailed up stream for many days until he reached a city where he saw a
girl weaving. On his asking what place this was, the girl gave him her shuttle, telling
him to show it on his return to a certain astrologer, who would know where he had been.
He did so, and the astrologer at once recognized the shuttle as that of the Weaving