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

286 Daimon and Hero [CH.
a certain priest, a Fire-Bearer, by name Tiberius Claudius
C. Xenokles. The god is represented holding a sceptre in his right
* hand,
a cornucopia in his left. A god we must call him, for the
dedication is ayadov deov, of the Good God. Near Megalopolis
Pausanias 1 saw a temple of the Good God; he remarks that 'if
the gods are givers of good things to men and Zeus is the
supreme god, it may logically be inferred that the term is applied
/ to Zeus.' The inference is somewhat rash. As the relief was
found at Epidaurus the epithet is usually explained as a ' title
of Asklepios,' but surely the Agathos Theos is only an Olympianized
form of the old Agathos Daimon. Over his body still crawls the
snake he once was. We follow the snake.
The association of mother, snake, child, and the wealth of
harvest fruits comes out strikingly in the Graeco-Roman relief' 2 in
Fig. 76. We have purposely kept it to the end because it
Fig. 76.
admirably embodies and summarizes the relation of snake, hero
and daimon. The seated figure is Demeter, and we are tempted
to call the young boy who brings the fruits to her Triptolemos.
It is, I think, safer to think of him as the child Ploutos. In Crete
Hesiod 3 tells us
:
Demeter brought forth Ploutos... and kindly was the birth
Of him whose way is on the sea and over all the Earth.
Happy, happy is the mortal who doth meet him as he goes,
For his hands are full of blessings and his treasure overflows,
1 vm. 36. 5.
- Overbeck. Kunst-Mythologie, Atlas Taf.
3 Theog. 969, schol. ad loc. nai -yap i) Trapoifxla ' nvpuv Kai Kpid&v, w vriiru IWovre.'