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

338
Daimon and Hero
[CH.
Just m front of the horse is a low altar, an eschara, the kind in
use for heroes ' : a
worshipper approaches. Moreover the figures
in the background show clearly to what company Hippolytos
belongs. Asklepios who, as we shall see in the next chapter, was
but a daimon half crystallized into a god. Aphrodite Pandemos
to the left, and between them the temple of Themis 1 .
In the case of Hippolytos we know precisely where was his
local cult, and from his ritual we can partly see how the tragedy
of Euripides arose from his annual muthos. More often the con-
Fig. 96.
nection escapes us. We have the record of a local cult and we
have the finished dramatic figure but the links are lost Ihe
relief in Fig. 96 presents us with the two factors baldly and
blankly juxtaposed without attempt at reconciliation. To the
left we have a warrior like Hippolytos leading a horse to the
right the daimon-snake. The artist himself was probably at
a loss to establish a connection; anyhow he does not attempt it.
The horseman takes no notice of the snake; the snake, serenely
p. 354.
. For these local divinities of the south slope of the Acropolis see Prolegomen