DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0096
The Sky-Pillar in the 'Minoan' area 47
The notion that the sky-god resided in person on the top of a
high pillar might presumably be combined with a belief in the
Milky Way as a road to his residence. Indeed, a remarkable block
of Italian marble, now at Berlin, shows Iupiter enthroned on the
summit of a pillar that rises sheer from earth to heaven, while two
females ascend the arch of the sky and enter his very presence1.
(7) The Sky-Pillar in the 'Minoan' area.
Italy stretches from south-east to north-west. Accordingly the
beliefs and practices here noted find their nearest analogues in the
' Minoan ' and the earl)' Germanic areas. On the one hand, we have
sufficient evidence to be tolerably sure that the ' Minoan ' sky-god
Fig. 18.
was associated both with the Milky Way and with a high pillar. The
great gold ring from Mykenai (fig. 18)2 exhibits a deity, armed with
populo ostenclit, Iul. Obs. 61 M. Cicerone C. Antonio coss....inter alia relatu<cm>,
biennio ante in Capitolio lupam Remi et Romuli fulmine ictam, signumque Iovis cum
columna disiectum, aruspicum responso in foro repositum (where in foro is inexact),
Arnob. adv. nat. 7. 40 sed neque hoc nostram conscientiam fugit lectum et positum, ictum
cum esset Capitolium fulmine multaque in hoc alia, Iovis etiam simulacrum, sublimi quod
in culmine stabat, suis esse ab sedibus provolutum. responsum deinde ab haruspicibus
editum res saevas (Meursius cj. scaevas) tristissimasque portendi ab incendiis, caedibus,
ab legum interitu et ab iuris occasu, maxime tamen ab domesticis hostibus atque ab impia
coniuratorum manu. sed flecti haec posse (Meursius om. posse), immo aliter publicari
scelerata non posse consilia, nisi Iuppiter rursus altiore in culmine figeretur, orientalem
conversus ad. cardinem radiisque oppositus solis. adfuisse dicto fidem : nam subrecto
culmine conversoque ad solem signo patuisse res abditas et reserata in maleficia vindicatum.
1 Supra i. 62 fig. 38.
2 Supra i. 623. I reduce to a scale of f the careful drawing (scale f) given by Sir
A. J. Evans in the Journ. Hell. Stud. 1901 xxi. 108 fig. 4.
The notion that the sky-god resided in person on the top of a
high pillar might presumably be combined with a belief in the
Milky Way as a road to his residence. Indeed, a remarkable block
of Italian marble, now at Berlin, shows Iupiter enthroned on the
summit of a pillar that rises sheer from earth to heaven, while two
females ascend the arch of the sky and enter his very presence1.
(7) The Sky-Pillar in the 'Minoan' area.
Italy stretches from south-east to north-west. Accordingly the
beliefs and practices here noted find their nearest analogues in the
' Minoan ' and the earl)' Germanic areas. On the one hand, we have
sufficient evidence to be tolerably sure that the ' Minoan ' sky-god
Fig. 18.
was associated both with the Milky Way and with a high pillar. The
great gold ring from Mykenai (fig. 18)2 exhibits a deity, armed with
populo ostenclit, Iul. Obs. 61 M. Cicerone C. Antonio coss....inter alia relatu<cm>,
biennio ante in Capitolio lupam Remi et Romuli fulmine ictam, signumque Iovis cum
columna disiectum, aruspicum responso in foro repositum (where in foro is inexact),
Arnob. adv. nat. 7. 40 sed neque hoc nostram conscientiam fugit lectum et positum, ictum
cum esset Capitolium fulmine multaque in hoc alia, Iovis etiam simulacrum, sublimi quod
in culmine stabat, suis esse ab sedibus provolutum. responsum deinde ab haruspicibus
editum res saevas (Meursius cj. scaevas) tristissimasque portendi ab incendiis, caedibus,
ab legum interitu et ab iuris occasu, maxime tamen ab domesticis hostibus atque ab impia
coniuratorum manu. sed flecti haec posse (Meursius om. posse), immo aliter publicari
scelerata non posse consilia, nisi Iuppiter rursus altiore in culmine figeretur, orientalem
conversus ad. cardinem radiisque oppositus solis. adfuisse dicto fidem : nam subrecto
culmine conversoque ad solem signo patuisse res abditas et reserata in maleficia vindicatum.
1 Supra i. 62 fig. 38.
2 Supra i. 623. I reduce to a scale of f the careful drawing (scale f) given by Sir
A. J. Evans in the Journ. Hell. Stud. 1901 xxi. 108 fig. 4.