Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 1): Zeus god of the bright sky (Cambridge, 1914)

2 2 4 The Solar Wheel in Greece

of Boeotian fabric at Berlin, referable to the fifth century or at latest
to the early decades of the fourth century B.C. Triptolemos here
(fig. 165)1 holds the plough himself, while Demeter presents him
with the corn-stalks and Persephone, as before, carries a couple of
torches2. The skyphos thus forms a pendant to the krater. On the
krater the goddess grasped the plough, her protege the corn. On
the skyphos their positions are precisely reversed. But it can
hardly be doubted that both vases alike represent Triptolemos
about to start on his mission. The winged car is absent from the
skyphos, either because this vase depicts a slightly earlier moment

Fig. 165.

than the other, or perhaps merely by way of simplifying a some-
what ambitious design.

However that may be, it is plain that Triptolemos' association
with the plough is not only Hellenistic, but Hellenic too. We
need not, therefore, hesitate to accept the derivation of his name
put forward by Agallis of Korkyra in the third century B.C.3
Triptolemos is indeed the hero of the 'thrice-ploughed' (tripolos)
field4. And Dr P. Giles has argued from the form of his name

e5t5a£e rrjv rod alrov yewpyiav 7rapeV%e 5e aury /ecu dpp.a irT~qv&v dpaKovrcov, ets 6
eiroxov/jLevos 6 TpcrrToXe/Aos irepLjieL irdaav rr\v yrjp, OLodaKWV ttju tov alrov yeiopylav—a
passage well illustrated by our vase.

1 Ath. Mitth. 1899 xxiv. 67 ff. pi. 7.

2 The mother is clearly distinguished from the daughter by her sceptre, her more
imposing head-dress, her richer clothing, and her more matronal form.

3 Schol. //. 18. 483 Tpiirokov 8e rty dpovpdv (prjaiv iwei TptirToXe/j-os 7rpQ>Tos Pairetpe
alrov, ov fiacriXea (pyjaiu. Infra ch. ii § 9 (h) ii (5).

4 Cp. Plout. coniug. praecept. 42 'A.Brjva'ioi rpets dporovs lepovs ayovaf irpCorov eiri