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

340 Daimon and Hero [ch. vm
strength to the kouroi who approach him with offerings, only stiff
and somewhat xoanon-like as becomes one who is a daimon not
a man. Over his forehead hangs a long single curl which may
well characterize him as ephebos 1
. Near him is his holy tree, sign
and symbol of the life and function of an Agathos Daimon. To
him, as Eniautos-daimon, are brought offerings of young bulls
and a new-moon boat, not a service of do ut des, not as gifts to
persuade, but rather magically to induce- him :
and,
in his honour
with like intent, is played out the renouveau of bird and tree,
the mimic drama of the Dithyramb.
We have watched the making of a daimon-hero out of vaguer
sanctities ; in the next chapter we shall see the daimon-hero
crystallize, individualize into a god.
1 See supra, p. 337, note 1.
2 Even, perhaps, magically to bring him to life. The figure of the Kouros, as
noted above, has a htiff, half-lifeless look. We may compare the figure of Pandora
the Earth-Goddess as she appears on the Bayle cylix in the British Museum (see
my Myth, and Mom. of Anc. Athens, p. 450, Fig. 50). The 'Birth' and 'Making'
of Pandora are but mythological presentations of the renouveau of earth in the
spring. For the analogous Anodos vases see infra, p. 418.