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

410 From Daimon to Olympian [ch.
And Bdelycleon, while the Paean is sung, looks up to the
conical pillar of Aguieus who was also Patroos and prays for
his father:
'Aguieus, my neighbour, my hero, my lord ! who dwellest in front of my
vestibule gate,
I pray thee be graciously pleased to accept
father create.'
the rite that we new for my
Apollo Aguieus is often interpreted as a sun-pillar and with
some measure of truth. In front of the ordinary Athenian house
there stood not only an Aguieus but a Hekateion. Philocleon 1 is
filled with the bright hope that the oracles will come true and
each Athenian will someday build
Before his own door in the porch a Courtlet,
A dear little Courtlet like a Hekateion.
Aguieus the sun will guard and guide him by day, Hekate the
Moon by night. So the scholiast on Plato 2 understands Apollo
and Hekate. They are both ivoSioi Sal/Aoves ' Way-Gods,' lighting
the wayfarer, the first business of moon and sun to primitive man.
By ' daimon of the ways ' he means Artemis or Selene ; Apollo also is called
Of the AVays (Aguieus), because they both fill the ways with light, the one,
the Sun,
roads.
by day, the other by night. Therefore they set them up in the
The triple Hekateia as we have seen show a pillar surrounded
pillar of life has become a pillar
by three dancing figures 3 . The
of light. Aguieus is Phoibos.
Aguieus the pillar is often confused with the Herm. The wife
of Mnesilochos goes out to met her lover and talks to him, near
the Aguias, under a bay-tree. The scholiast 4 explains Aguieus
as a herm. ' They give this name to a four-square Apollo.' In
intent there is obviously no difference, but the form was unlike
and they were probably developed by different peoples. Hermes
remained in cultus phallic to the end; Aguieus, at least at Delphi,
was by historical times expurgated, possibly because he early took
1 Ar. Vesp. 804.
2 Legg. 914 B evoSlav 8a.LiJ.ova ttjv "Aprepuv ijroi rr\v !L€k-r\vv\v