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

VIIl] Dead Man as Hero 313
is not only Epiteleios, he is also Philios 1
. Philios the friendly,
sociable one, is the very incarnation of the dais, the communal
meal, he is always ready for the Theoxenia, based as it was on
the old service of the Agathos Daimon. His mother Philia is but
the feminine counterpart of his name. It is his wife who unmasks
his Olympian pretensions, and shows him for the earth-born divinity
that he is, his wife and his great cornucopia, for, if his wife be
Agathe Tyche, who is he but the ancient Agathos Daimon ?
We have dwelt long on the daimon character of the banqueter,
because that is apt to be neglected, but it must not be forgotten
that he has another aspect, that of actual dead man. On one 2 of
the Sparta grave-reliefs, in Fig. 91 this is certain. A seated man
holds in the right hand a great
kantharos, in the left a pomegranate.
A large snake in the left-hand corner
marks his daimon character, but he
is an actual dead man ; against him
his name is clearly written, Timokles.
These Sparta reliefs were actual
tomb-stones over particular graves
the later ' Hero-feast ' type with
the reclining banqueter were rather
adjuncts to tomb-stones, set up in
family precincts. They are how-
ever frequently inscribed, sometimes
simply with the name of the dead
man or dead woman, sometimes with the additional statement
that he or she is hero or heroine. Thus a hero-feast in Leyden :!
is dedicated ' to Kudrogenes, Hero' (KuBpoyevei "Hpou). On another
in Samos 4 is inscribed 'Lais daughter of Phoenix, Heroine, hail !'
(Aai?