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

228 The Solar Wheel in Greece

observes1, 'a genuine variant of the Phaethon legend,' and supports
our contention that Triptolemos' car was of solar origin.

Triptolemos was said to have received his car from Demeter2—
a statement which cannot be traced back beyond the second
century B.C.3 It must, however, have been commonly accepted in
Roman times, for a cameo at Paris (fig. 167)4 shows Claudius and
Messalina in the guise of Triptolemos and Demeter; the former
scatters the grain from his paliidamentiim, the latter leans forward
with corn-ears and poppies in her left hand, a roll in her right.

Fig. 167.

Moreover, later literature makes Demeter travel in a snake-drawn
chariot when in search of her daughter Persephone. In this way

1 Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 544 n. 5.

Possibly Demeter IIorrjpicxpopos of Antheia (Athen. 460 d) was a figure analogous to
the drink-bearing Demeter of the Triptolemos vases {supra p. 217 f.).

2 Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p.'807 n. 2.

3 Apollod. 1. 5. 2 is our earliest authority.

4 Babelon Cat. Camees de la Bibl. Nat. p. 144 f. no. 276 Album pi. 30. Miiller—
Wieseler Denktn. d. alt. Kunst'x. 92 f. pi. 69, 380 identify the divinised pair as Germanicus
and Agrippina, arguing that Germanicus appears again as a Roman Triptolemos on the
silver patera from Aquileia at Vienna (A/on. d. Inst, iii pi. 4, Ann. d. Inst. 1839 7^—
84). In the middle ages this cameo was thought to represent the triumph of Joseph in
Egypt !