Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 2,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (thunder and lightning): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1925)

ioo Commemorative Columns

Honour and Prowess, for whom he forges the weapons of war. And
Vesta is next to Venus, whose scales commemorate the penalty
meted out to unfaithful Vestals1. Moreover, it will be observed that
the back of this column is no less eloquent than the front. Vesta,
Volcanus, Diana, Apollo—what are these but domestic and
elemental fire, moonshine and sunshine, fit denizens for a veritable
' pillar of light'? Indeed, S. Reinach2 points out that on the column
as a whole all the twelve deities recognised by Ennius3 find a place,
dominated by the flashing figure of the sky-god. Our thoughts
travel back to Platon, in whose cosmic scheme ' Zeus, the great
chieftain in heaven,' followed by 'a host of gods and inferior deities,'
comes 'by an uphill path to the summit of the heavenly vault,'
thereby arriving at the apex of that 'straight light like a pillar'
w hich stretches along the axis of the universe4.

(7?) Commemorative Columns.

The earlier type of 'Jupiter-column' was not without its influ-
ence on the great commemorative pillars of Rome and Constanti-
nople. These masterpieces of columnar art were indeed no longer
dedicated to the sky-god. But it must be remembered that latterly
the emperor had stepped into the sky-god's shoes3. Trajan6 and

u>id Stadtgeschichte Mtincken 1904 p. 67 ff., id. Rel. Knit. Rom? p. 158, W. Warde
Fowler The Roman Festivals London 1911 p. ijfi,Journ. Hell. Stud. 1894 xiv. 92).

1 Wissowa Rel. Kult. Rom.'1 p. 290.

- S. Reinach in the Rev. Arch. 1913 i. 29.

3 Ennius frag. 79 Baehrens ap. Ap. dc deo Socr. 2 and Mart. Cap. 42 Iuno Vesta
Minerva Ceres Diana Venus Mars | Mercurius Iovis Neptunus Volcanus Apollo.

A. von Domaszewski 'Die Iuppitersaule in Mainz' in the Archiv f. Rel. 1906 ix.
303—311 supposes that the column of Mogontiacum was a copy of one at Massilia erected
between 17 and 12 B.C. He would recognise on it the twelve deities of the Massiliotes,
viz. Zeus, Athena, Herakles, Hera, Apollon, Poseidon, Artemis, Ares, Hephaistos,
Demeter, Persephone, Dionysos. This whimsical idea is brushed aside by E. Maass in
the Jahresh. d. oest. arch. Inst. 1907 x. 85 and need not detain us.

4 Supra pp. 43—45-

6 Folk-lore 1905 xvi. 308 ff.

8 Corp. inscr. Gr. i no. I2\$=lnscr. Gr. Pelop. i no. 701 (cited infra Append. N

med.) speaks of Trajan as Zeus 'E/i/SarTjptos—a god to
whom vows would be made by travellers going on board
their vessel. Corp. inscr. lat.-xi no. 1 j47 = Wilmanns Ex.
inscr. lat. no. 2845 = Dessau Lnscr. Lat. sel. no. 6675 a
tabula alimentaria from Veleia ex indulgentia Optimi
Maximique principis imp. Caes. Ncrvae \ Traiani Aug.
Germanici Dacici applies to Trajan the cult-epithet of
lupiter Optimus Maximus, and numerous inscriptions in-
clude Optimus among the emperor's titles (Dessau Fiscr.
lat. sel. iii. 1. 274 Index), e.g. the dedication of the arch
at Beneventum (on which see infra Append. N med.).
Greek inscriptions render this Optimus by "Apiaros (Ditten-
berger Orient. Gr. inscr. sel. no. 677, 1 f. virep rrjs rod KvpLov AvroKpdropos Kaiaapos