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

Zeus, Dionysos, and the Goat 709

Dionysos. And the scene is enclosed by two Kouretes ready
to clash their shields and so avert mischief from the babe.

The second slab (pi. xl, 2) commemorates the god's entrance
into Attike. He stands, a comely youth dressed in chiton,
panther-skin, himdtion, and kothornoi, beside his own altar be-
neath a spreading vine. His left hand held a thyrsos, his right
hand probably a phidle. Approaching the altar is Ikarios, who
drags a goat for sacrifice with one hand and dangles a grape-
bunch in the other. The old Attic hero is attended by his hound
Maira and followed by his daughter Erigone, who carries a tray
of cakes and fruit. Her figure is balanced by that of a Satyr
with panther-skin and crook, standing on tip-toe in the pose
known as aposkopeiwn.

On the third slab (pi. xl, 3) we have, if I am not mistaken1,
a scene of great interest—the marriage of Dionysos and the
Basilinna or ' Queen ' of Athens2. A young man of large but
somewhat soft and effeminate build, easily characterised as
Dionysos by means of attributes, stands beside a young woman
draped in a Doric peplos, who pulls forward an ample veil with
a gesture familiar to us as that of a bride. To the right of the
youthful pair is a broad matronal figure, who bears a cornu copiae
in her left hand and most likely held a sceptre in her right. She

pi. 12, 1, Clarac Mus. de Sculpt, pi. 123 fig. 104, Reinach Rep. Stat. i. 22 no. 2, Overbeck
Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus pp. 171, 177 f., 576 f.).

1 F. Matz loc. <:it., followed in the main by J. R. Wheeler toe. cit., held that the
third slab represents, from left to right, Hestia, Theseus, Eirene; the fourth slab, Eirene,
Theseus, Hestia, Dionysos. Eirene and Hestia stood together in the Prytaneion (Paus.
1. 18. 3), and might perhaps have symbolised the public and private happiness of the
citizens; but the Greeks never hit upon a distinctive art-type for Hestia (A. Preuner
in Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 2653), and the younger goddess of the third slab is obviously
conceived as a bride.

J. N. Svoronos loc. cit. thinks that the two slabs show Ptolemy Philometor Soter ii
and his family paying homage to Dionysos, and that the figures, from right to left,
should be identified as follows: (1) his mother Kleopatra ii with sceptre; (2) Ptolemy
Philometor Soter ii with club ; (3) his wife, name unknown, with sceptre and cornu
copiae; (4) his favourite daughter Berenike iii with sceptre and cornu copiae; (5) his
young son Ptolemy king of Kypros; (6) his other daughter Kleopatra Tryphaina ;
(7) his youngest son Ptolemy Auletes, whose, figure may have been cut away either on
political grounds or because he had irreverently assumed the title Dionysos (Loukian.
de calumn. 16). This very ingenious hypothesis rests on the assumption that the reliefs
came from a thymele erected in the orchestra of the theatre, for the performance of such
competitions as had been previously held in the Oideion burnt by Aristion (85 B.C.), at
the expense of Ptolemy Philometor Soter ii—a king who is known to have conferred
many benefits upon the Athenians (Paus. 1. 8. 6ff.). But the existence of such a thymele.,
in spite of Svoronos' long and learned advocacy, is still highly problematic.

2 Supra p. 686. An Attic oinochoe of fifth-century style, now in the British Museum,
has another rendering of the same scene (Farnell Cults of Gk. States v. 260).