DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14695#0415
The Solar Wreath 339
seen that Saint John's bonfire was in all probability a sun-charm1.
If so, the wreath burnt upon it may well have represented the sun
itself—another case of the solar apotropaion being fixed above the
lintel2.
Analogous customs are, of course, common throughout Europe.
Here in Cambridge the children are out early on the first of May
begging all and sundry to ' Remember the May Lady.' They
carry garlands, which vary much in shape. The most complete
form that I have come across consisted in two hoops set at right
angles to each other and decorated with a branch of may : from
the point of intersection dangled a doll (fig. 270, a). Other forms
in use are a single hoop of flowers or coloured tags with crossed
strings and a doll in the centre (fig. 270, b), a hoop without the cross
and doll (fig. 270, c), a cross and doll without the hoop (fig. 270, d),
a mere cross without hoop or doll (fig. 270, e). All alike are
dubbed ' the May Lady.' The several shapes attest a progressive
degradation (globe, wheel, hoop) and ultimate confusion with a
different type (cross). Is it rash to conjecture that the May-
garland once stood for the sun3, the doll in the flowery hoop being
an effigy of the earth-goddess4 blossoming beneath his rays?
The wreath of protomaid hung over the doorway in modern
Greece had its ancient counterpart in the eiresione. This is
commonly described as a branch of olive (or bay) twined with
wool and decked with fruits etc., which was paraded from house
to house, hung over the lintel for a twelvemonth, and ultimately
burnt5. But it is noticeable that the same name was given to 'a
wreath of flowers6'—a May-garland rather than a May-pole. The
festivals with which the eiresione was connected are the Panathenaia,
the Pyanepsia and the Thargelia, i.e. festivals of the greater city
deities. But E. Pfuhl7 and A. Dieterich8 have shown that the
private rite attracted to and absorbed by these public festivals
was performed—as the scholiast on Aristophanes affirms—for
1 Supra p. 286 ff. 2 Supra pp. 205 ff., 292 ff.
3 The first of the shapes here shown (fig. 270, a) can hardly be separated from that
of the intersecting hoops which topped the May-pole, and these appear to have represented
the sun (supra p. 291).
4 Cp. infra ch. i § 6 (g) xviii (the garland of Hellotis).
5 Boetticher Baumkultus pp. 393—-397, S. Reinach in Daremberg—Saglio Diet. Ant.
ii. 497 f. fig. 2616, O. Kern in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. v. 2135 f.
0 Schol. Aristoph. Plut. 1054 eXcui'oi' kX&8oj> 77 arecpavov e£ avQtwv rj kX&8wi> ireirXirja--
fxepwu (cod. 9.), arecpapov, kX&8oi> eXaias (cod. Dorv.), Alkiphr. ep. 3. 37 elpeaiwv-qv e£
avOGiv irXe^aaa k.t.X., cp. Cougny Anth. Pal. Append. 2. 316. 9 f. /ecu yap pC Evjj.[6Xitoio]
durfiroXoL, eipeaubvTjv | [re]v^avres, [pLeydXrjp u!nr]a.crav €VKXeir)v.
7 E. Pfuhl De Atheniensium pompis sacris Berolini 1900 pp. 86—88.
8 A. Dieterich Kleine Schriften Leipzig and Berlin 1911 p. 338 n. 2.
22—2
seen that Saint John's bonfire was in all probability a sun-charm1.
If so, the wreath burnt upon it may well have represented the sun
itself—another case of the solar apotropaion being fixed above the
lintel2.
Analogous customs are, of course, common throughout Europe.
Here in Cambridge the children are out early on the first of May
begging all and sundry to ' Remember the May Lady.' They
carry garlands, which vary much in shape. The most complete
form that I have come across consisted in two hoops set at right
angles to each other and decorated with a branch of may : from
the point of intersection dangled a doll (fig. 270, a). Other forms
in use are a single hoop of flowers or coloured tags with crossed
strings and a doll in the centre (fig. 270, b), a hoop without the cross
and doll (fig. 270, c), a cross and doll without the hoop (fig. 270, d),
a mere cross without hoop or doll (fig. 270, e). All alike are
dubbed ' the May Lady.' The several shapes attest a progressive
degradation (globe, wheel, hoop) and ultimate confusion with a
different type (cross). Is it rash to conjecture that the May-
garland once stood for the sun3, the doll in the flowery hoop being
an effigy of the earth-goddess4 blossoming beneath his rays?
The wreath of protomaid hung over the doorway in modern
Greece had its ancient counterpart in the eiresione. This is
commonly described as a branch of olive (or bay) twined with
wool and decked with fruits etc., which was paraded from house
to house, hung over the lintel for a twelvemonth, and ultimately
burnt5. But it is noticeable that the same name was given to 'a
wreath of flowers6'—a May-garland rather than a May-pole. The
festivals with which the eiresione was connected are the Panathenaia,
the Pyanepsia and the Thargelia, i.e. festivals of the greater city
deities. But E. Pfuhl7 and A. Dieterich8 have shown that the
private rite attracted to and absorbed by these public festivals
was performed—as the scholiast on Aristophanes affirms—for
1 Supra p. 286 ff. 2 Supra pp. 205 ff., 292 ff.
3 The first of the shapes here shown (fig. 270, a) can hardly be separated from that
of the intersecting hoops which topped the May-pole, and these appear to have represented
the sun (supra p. 291).
4 Cp. infra ch. i § 6 (g) xviii (the garland of Hellotis).
5 Boetticher Baumkultus pp. 393—-397, S. Reinach in Daremberg—Saglio Diet. Ant.
ii. 497 f. fig. 2616, O. Kern in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. v. 2135 f.
0 Schol. Aristoph. Plut. 1054 eXcui'oi' kX&8oj> 77 arecpavov e£ avQtwv rj kX&8wi> ireirXirja--
fxepwu (cod. 9.), arecpapov, kX&8oi> eXaias (cod. Dorv.), Alkiphr. ep. 3. 37 elpeaiwv-qv e£
avOGiv irXe^aaa k.t.X., cp. Cougny Anth. Pal. Append. 2. 316. 9 f. /ecu yap pC Evjj.[6Xitoio]
durfiroXoL, eipeaubvTjv | [re]v^avres, [pLeydXrjp u!nr]a.crav €VKXeir)v.
7 E. Pfuhl De Atheniensium pompis sacris Berolini 1900 pp. 86—88.
8 A. Dieterich Kleine Schriften Leipzig and Berlin 1911 p. 338 n. 2.
22—2