DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0166
and the Soul-Ladder 115
blaze or shaft of light. Similarly in the Bakchai of Euripides the
voice of Dionysos is heard from the upper air addressing his
Maenads:
So spake he, and between the heaven and earth
Set up a standing light of holy fire1.
This Dionysiac pillar of light is presumably a genuine Thracian
touch. Again, Thrasyboulos in his nocturnal march from Phyle to
Mounychia (403 B.C.) was guided by a pillar of fire and, where it
vanished, built an altar to PJtosphdros, the 'Light-bearing' goddess2.
Since at Mounychia his troops occupied the precincts of Artemis
and of the Thracian Bendis3, it is very possible that here too
Thracian influence was at work.
In view of the kinship between Thracians and Phrygians it
should be noticed that the pillar of fire reappears in a Phrygian
miracle. The pagans of Laodikeia, wishing to flood the prayer-
house and holy well of Saint Michael, made a new bed for the
neighbouring streams- Kouphos and Lykokapros. Thereupon, in
answer to the prayers of the hermit Archippos, the archangel mani-
fested himself, with a crash of thunder, in the form of a fiery pillar
stretching from earth to heaven. Extending his right hand he split
a gigantic rock, and bade the waters flow through the cleft of
Chonai with renewed powers of healing4.
drrb irb\eu>s /xtas ovtu KaXovfxevrjs. On Thracian tribes in this district see O. Hoffmann
Die Makedonen, Hire Sprache unci ihr Volkstum Gottingen 1906 p. 117.
1 Eur. Bacch. 1082 f. /cat ravd' dp, rjyopeve nai rrpbs ovpavbv | /cat yalav euTripi^e (sic
cod. P : icrrripL^e ed. Aid.) c/>tDs aepLvov Trvpos. Cp. Christ, pat. 2255 f. Tavrr) 6' ct'ju'
efipovTr/ae teal irpbs rbv irohov | /cat -yaiav ear-rjpL^e (pQs aep.vov Trvpos (when the stone was
rolled away from the tomb).
2 Clem. Al. strom. 1. 24 p. 102, 3 ff. dXXci /cat Qpacrvj3ov\ip robs eKireaovras oltto 't'vXrjs
KarayayovTL (L. Dindorf cj. Kardyovn) /cat fiov\op.evu> Xadeiv arv\os 65r)ybs yiverai Ota. rQv
aTpi^uiv ibvTi. tco QpaffvfiovXu) vvKTiop dae\r)uov /cat 8vaxeLlJ^P0V T°v KaracrTrj/xaros yeyovbros
wvp ewpdro Trporjyovp.evoi', otrep avrovs dTrraiarios Trpoivep.\pav Kara rrjv ~S\.ovvvx'lo-v etjeXtwev,
evda vvv 6 ttjs Quxrcpbpov j3ufj,6s ecrrt. The context compares the pillar of fire, which led
the Hebrews through the wilderness (Ex. 13. 21 f., 14. 19 f, 24, 33. 9f., Num. 12. 5,
14. 14, Deut. 31. 15, Neh. 9. 12, 19, Ps. 99. 7 : B. Stade Biblische Theologie des Alten
Testaments Tubingen 1905 i. 41 f.). For Artemis Qwacpbpos at Athens and elsewhere see
O. Hofer in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 2441 ff., cp. H. W. Stoll id. ii. 3227, K. Wernicke in
Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. ii. 1401, Farnell Cults of Gk. States ii. 458 f., Gruppe Gr.
Myth. Rel. pp. 40 n. 7, 125 n. 13, 263 n. 8, 1298 n. 1. Anth. Pal. 7. 266. 1 ff. (Hegesip-
pos) tells how Hagelocheia, daughter of Damaretos (sc. Damaratos, king of Sparta c.
500 B.C.), dedicated an Artemis by the cross-ways because the goddess had appeared to
her at the loom cos avyd Trvpos.
'■' Xen. Hell. 2. 4. 11 f. Topographical discussion by A. Wilhelm in the Jahresh. d.
oest. arch. Inst. 1902 v. 127 ff., W. Judeich Topographie von Athen Munchen 1905
p. 398 f.
4 M. Bonnet narratio de miraculo a Michaele Archangelo Chonis patrato adjecto
Symeonis Metaphrastae de eadem re libello in the Analecta Bollandiana I'aris-Bruxelles
8—2
blaze or shaft of light. Similarly in the Bakchai of Euripides the
voice of Dionysos is heard from the upper air addressing his
Maenads:
So spake he, and between the heaven and earth
Set up a standing light of holy fire1.
This Dionysiac pillar of light is presumably a genuine Thracian
touch. Again, Thrasyboulos in his nocturnal march from Phyle to
Mounychia (403 B.C.) was guided by a pillar of fire and, where it
vanished, built an altar to PJtosphdros, the 'Light-bearing' goddess2.
Since at Mounychia his troops occupied the precincts of Artemis
and of the Thracian Bendis3, it is very possible that here too
Thracian influence was at work.
In view of the kinship between Thracians and Phrygians it
should be noticed that the pillar of fire reappears in a Phrygian
miracle. The pagans of Laodikeia, wishing to flood the prayer-
house and holy well of Saint Michael, made a new bed for the
neighbouring streams- Kouphos and Lykokapros. Thereupon, in
answer to the prayers of the hermit Archippos, the archangel mani-
fested himself, with a crash of thunder, in the form of a fiery pillar
stretching from earth to heaven. Extending his right hand he split
a gigantic rock, and bade the waters flow through the cleft of
Chonai with renewed powers of healing4.
drrb irb\eu>s /xtas ovtu KaXovfxevrjs. On Thracian tribes in this district see O. Hoffmann
Die Makedonen, Hire Sprache unci ihr Volkstum Gottingen 1906 p. 117.
1 Eur. Bacch. 1082 f. /cat ravd' dp, rjyopeve nai rrpbs ovpavbv | /cat yalav euTripi^e (sic
cod. P : icrrripL^e ed. Aid.) c/>tDs aepLvov Trvpos. Cp. Christ, pat. 2255 f. Tavrr) 6' ct'ju'
efipovTr/ae teal irpbs rbv irohov | /cat -yaiav ear-rjpL^e (pQs aep.vov Trvpos (when the stone was
rolled away from the tomb).
2 Clem. Al. strom. 1. 24 p. 102, 3 ff. dXXci /cat Qpacrvj3ov\ip robs eKireaovras oltto 't'vXrjs
KarayayovTL (L. Dindorf cj. Kardyovn) /cat fiov\op.evu> Xadeiv arv\os 65r)ybs yiverai Ota. rQv
aTpi^uiv ibvTi. tco QpaffvfiovXu) vvKTiop dae\r)uov /cat 8vaxeLlJ^P0V T°v KaracrTrj/xaros yeyovbros
wvp ewpdro Trporjyovp.evoi', otrep avrovs dTrraiarios Trpoivep.\pav Kara rrjv ~S\.ovvvx'lo-v etjeXtwev,
evda vvv 6 ttjs Quxrcpbpov j3ufj,6s ecrrt. The context compares the pillar of fire, which led
the Hebrews through the wilderness (Ex. 13. 21 f., 14. 19 f, 24, 33. 9f., Num. 12. 5,
14. 14, Deut. 31. 15, Neh. 9. 12, 19, Ps. 99. 7 : B. Stade Biblische Theologie des Alten
Testaments Tubingen 1905 i. 41 f.). For Artemis Qwacpbpos at Athens and elsewhere see
O. Hofer in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 2441 ff., cp. H. W. Stoll id. ii. 3227, K. Wernicke in
Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. ii. 1401, Farnell Cults of Gk. States ii. 458 f., Gruppe Gr.
Myth. Rel. pp. 40 n. 7, 125 n. 13, 263 n. 8, 1298 n. 1. Anth. Pal. 7. 266. 1 ff. (Hegesip-
pos) tells how Hagelocheia, daughter of Damaretos (sc. Damaratos, king of Sparta c.
500 B.C.), dedicated an Artemis by the cross-ways because the goddess had appeared to
her at the loom cos avyd Trvpos.
'■' Xen. Hell. 2. 4. 11 f. Topographical discussion by A. Wilhelm in the Jahresh. d.
oest. arch. Inst. 1902 v. 127 ff., W. Judeich Topographie von Athen Munchen 1905
p. 398 f.
4 M. Bonnet narratio de miraculo a Michaele Archangelo Chonis patrato adjecto
Symeonis Metaphrastae de eadem re libello in the Analecta Bollandiana I'aris-Bruxelles
8—2