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

302
family sanctities
C
FlG -
81-
t/\ (**
Daimon and Hero [CH.
The great fertility-snake in front, all sur-
rounded by herbage and ap-
proaching a small altar, is the
genius of the house in animal
form 1 . Above
is the head of the
house himself, the human genius,
to either side of him a dancing
Lar holding a cornucopia.
Similar in feeling is the design
in Fig. 81, from a relief in the
Villa Medici 2 . The snake genius
this time is twined actually
round the household altar and
the head of the house himself
holds the cornucopia. The snake
") is omnipresent. It is not till Rome falls under Greek influence
that we get the family daimon abstracted from the hearth and
fully anthropomorphic. The Bonus Eventus of the blue glass
cameo plaque 3 in Fig. 82 is a Greek for all his name 4 , a goodly
human youth with no hint of divinity but his patera and corn
ears, a /xejLaTooni Eventus dextra pateram, sinistra spicam ac
papaverem teuens.
5 Cf. the lectus genialis. Paul the Dea on
nuptiis sternitur in honorem genii, unde et
says (p. 94), Lectus genialis qui
appellatus, a statement which,
reversed, just hits the mark.