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

IX] ' DaktyVs Monument '
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mound of earth covered in this case by leukoma. The mound is
surmounted by a conical stone painted black and, roughly, fingershaped.
It stands on a basis of black stone. Bury the mound
out of sight in earth, and you have an omphalos on a basis like
those in the vase-paintings. The figures on either side approach
probably of oath-taking.
as though for some solemn ritual ;
We have translated the words Aa/crvXov fMvrjfia as ' Tomb '
Finger's
because they were undoubtedly so understood by Pausanias
and the people who told the aetiological myth about Orestes. But
the true gist of the monument is better realized if we translate
' DaktyTs monument.' In discussing Herakles the nature of the
Daktyls 1 Tomb
became evident. They are fertility-daimones. Daktyl's
monument is mutatis mutandis the same as the '
of Tantalos.'
The funeral mound in Fig. 113 is marked by a great black snake.
A white mound marked by a snake is indeed on vase-paintings
the normal form of a hero's tomb. A good instance is shown in
Fig. 114.
Fig. 114 from a black-figured amphora 2 . Here
Uiili/'
we have the funeral
mound of Patroklos. Above the mound is a pigmy eidolon, the
hero's ghost ; on the mound is the hero-snake whose meaning is
now 3 to us amply clear. To its special significance in relation to
the omphalos we shall return when we come to the myth of the
slaying of Python.
The covering of white stucco served a double purpose. It
preserved the mound from the weather and also made it con-
spicuous. A tomb was necessarily tabu, and the more conspicuous
it was, the safer for the chance passer-by. In Fig. 115 from an Attic
1 Supra, p. 370.
- Gerhard, Auserlesene Vasenbilder, in. Taf. 199.
3 Supra, chapter vm.
Berlin, Cat. 1867, No. 1902.
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