Themis, a study of the social origins of Greek ... - Warburg Institute

vm] Charites and Eumenides with Snakes 281
vineyard. On the one side, heraldically grouped, are a herd of
mischievous goats, the enemies of the vine, bent on destruction,
nibbling at the vines. On the other, as though to mark the
contrast, under a great spreading vine, are four maiden-snakes.
Two hold a basket of net or wicker in which the grapes will be
gathered ; a third holds a great cup for the grape juice, a fourth
plays gladly on the double flute.
It might perhaps be rash to name these gentle snake-bodied
vintage nymphs Agathoi Daimones, though Agathoi Daimones
they are in form and function. Any Athenian child would have
known by what name they best loved to be called. Old Cecrops
would not have blushed to own them for his daughters. The
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Fig. 72.
Charites so early got them wholly human form they might have
looked askance. Anyhow the snake-maidens are own sisters to
the three staid matronly women figures on the relief in Fig. 72,
the Eumenides of Argos 1
, who hold pomegranates in one hand
1 For the Eumenides and their relation to the Semnae and to the Erinyes see
Prolegomena, pp. 217—256. I have there fully discussed the snake form of the
angry ghost, the Erinys, pp. 232—237. See Belphika, J. H. S. xix. 1899, p. 230.