DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0185
and the Soul-Ladder
sumably versed in Orphic lore. Again, we can give a shrewd guess
as to the reason why the ladder figures among other amulets on the
terra-cotta cake-moulds of Tarentum1. That city was a stronghold
of the Pythagoreans, who were deeply imbued with Orphism, and
it had moreover its own pillar-cult of Zeus Kataibdtes'1-. Finally, we
obtain the answer to an old conundrum. In 1843 J. Millingen pub-
lished a terra cotta from Italy representing a naked female figure,
who sits on the back of a pig with her legs spread apart and a
small ladder held upright in her hand (fig. 79)3. Millingen rightly
identified this personage as Baubo, but failed to detect the true
significance of the ladder. Baubo was a goddess worshipped in
Faros along with Hera, Demeter Thesmophdros, Kore, and Zeus
Eubonleus : since her name in the Parian inscription4 follows im-
mediately those of the Ionian triad, she too was in all probability a
goddess of chthonian import3. According to Asklepiades of Tragilos
(s. iv. B.C.), she was the wife of the autochthonous Dysaules (whom
we may venture to regard as an appellative of Hades6) and by him
the mother of Protogone and Misa7. And Orphic tradition made
1 (i) Formerly in the possession of Sir W. Temple at Naples (O. Jahn in the Ber.
sacks. Gesettsch. d. Wiss. Phil.-hist. Classe 1854 pp. 52 f., 95 pi. 5, 3, E. Labatut in
Daremberg—Saglio Diet. Ant. i. 256 fig. 306, S. Seligmann Der base Blick und Ver-
wandtcs Berlin 1910 ii. 166 f., 169 fig. 150). (2) At Naples (G. Minervini Toche osser-
vazioni sopra un disco di terracotta, nel Real Museo Borbonico' in the Bull. Arch. Nap.
1857 v. 169—172 pi. 6, 2, S. Seligmann op. cit. ii. 166 f., 171 fig. 151). (3) and (4) At
Oxford (Sir A. J. Evans ' Recent discoveries of Tarentine terra-cottas' in the Journ. Hell.
Stud. 1886 vii. 44—50 no. 2= p. 44 ft- fig- 6 and no. 3 = p. 46). Sir A. J. Evans loc. cit.
was the first to recognize in these circular plates ' Moulds for Sacred Cakes': he thinks
it probable that the specimens published by Jahn and Minervini, like those now at
Oxford, come from Tarentum. In the Comptes rendus de P Acad, des inscr. et belles-
lettres 1916 p. 344 F. Cumont adds two other examples—(5) a disk communicated by him
to the Academy, and (6) a disk in the Louvre. According to him, they date from s. ii or
i B.C. and were probably bogus mirrors used for catoptromancy.
3 Supra pp. 29 ff., 45.
3 J. Millingen 'Baubo' in the Ann. d. Inst. 1843 xv. 72—97 pi. E = my fig. 79. The
terra cotta in question is now in the Antiquarium at Berlin.
4 Supra i. 669 n. 2.
5 On Baubo see F. Lenormant in Daremberg—Saglio Diet. Ant. i. 683, A. Schultz in
Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 752 f., A. Dieterich in Philologus 1893111. 1 ff. =Kleine Schriften
Leipzig and Berlin 1911 p. 1256°., id. Nekyia Leipzig 1893 p. 87 n. 3, O.Kern in Pauly—
Wissowa Real-Eric. iii. 150 f., Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. pp. 50 n. 2, 57 n. 3 f., 233, 771
n. 3, 1437 n. 2, 1542 n. 1, id. Myth. Lit. 1908 p. 431 f., and H. Diels 'Arcana Cerealia'
(estratto dalla Miscellanea di Archeologia di Storia e di Filologia dedicata at Prof.
A. Salinas nel XL anniversario del suo insegnamento—to which Miss Harrison kindly
drew my attention) Palermo 1907 pp. 3—14.
6 Hades is AvaauXrjS, 'He of the sorry Resting Place' (dvcravXia), as lord of theotVi'a...
cr/j.ep3a\e evpwevra, rare arvyeovai deoi wep (fl. 20. 64 f.).
' Harpokr. s.v. AvaavXrjs' ... 'AuKXrjTridSrjs 5' ip TerapTty Tpaywdovfievuu (Asklepiades
of Tragilos frag. 6 (Brag. hist. Gr. iii. 302 Miiller)) tov AvcravX-^v avroxOova elvai 0??cn,
avvoiKrjcravTa de Havf3oi axe^v ?ra'5as TlpuTovorjv (HpuiToyovrjv corr. A. Dieterich in Philo-
9—2
sumably versed in Orphic lore. Again, we can give a shrewd guess
as to the reason why the ladder figures among other amulets on the
terra-cotta cake-moulds of Tarentum1. That city was a stronghold
of the Pythagoreans, who were deeply imbued with Orphism, and
it had moreover its own pillar-cult of Zeus Kataibdtes'1-. Finally, we
obtain the answer to an old conundrum. In 1843 J. Millingen pub-
lished a terra cotta from Italy representing a naked female figure,
who sits on the back of a pig with her legs spread apart and a
small ladder held upright in her hand (fig. 79)3. Millingen rightly
identified this personage as Baubo, but failed to detect the true
significance of the ladder. Baubo was a goddess worshipped in
Faros along with Hera, Demeter Thesmophdros, Kore, and Zeus
Eubonleus : since her name in the Parian inscription4 follows im-
mediately those of the Ionian triad, she too was in all probability a
goddess of chthonian import3. According to Asklepiades of Tragilos
(s. iv. B.C.), she was the wife of the autochthonous Dysaules (whom
we may venture to regard as an appellative of Hades6) and by him
the mother of Protogone and Misa7. And Orphic tradition made
1 (i) Formerly in the possession of Sir W. Temple at Naples (O. Jahn in the Ber.
sacks. Gesettsch. d. Wiss. Phil.-hist. Classe 1854 pp. 52 f., 95 pi. 5, 3, E. Labatut in
Daremberg—Saglio Diet. Ant. i. 256 fig. 306, S. Seligmann Der base Blick und Ver-
wandtcs Berlin 1910 ii. 166 f., 169 fig. 150). (2) At Naples (G. Minervini Toche osser-
vazioni sopra un disco di terracotta, nel Real Museo Borbonico' in the Bull. Arch. Nap.
1857 v. 169—172 pi. 6, 2, S. Seligmann op. cit. ii. 166 f., 171 fig. 151). (3) and (4) At
Oxford (Sir A. J. Evans ' Recent discoveries of Tarentine terra-cottas' in the Journ. Hell.
Stud. 1886 vii. 44—50 no. 2= p. 44 ft- fig- 6 and no. 3 = p. 46). Sir A. J. Evans loc. cit.
was the first to recognize in these circular plates ' Moulds for Sacred Cakes': he thinks
it probable that the specimens published by Jahn and Minervini, like those now at
Oxford, come from Tarentum. In the Comptes rendus de P Acad, des inscr. et belles-
lettres 1916 p. 344 F. Cumont adds two other examples—(5) a disk communicated by him
to the Academy, and (6) a disk in the Louvre. According to him, they date from s. ii or
i B.C. and were probably bogus mirrors used for catoptromancy.
3 Supra pp. 29 ff., 45.
3 J. Millingen 'Baubo' in the Ann. d. Inst. 1843 xv. 72—97 pi. E = my fig. 79. The
terra cotta in question is now in the Antiquarium at Berlin.
4 Supra i. 669 n. 2.
5 On Baubo see F. Lenormant in Daremberg—Saglio Diet. Ant. i. 683, A. Schultz in
Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 752 f., A. Dieterich in Philologus 1893111. 1 ff. =Kleine Schriften
Leipzig and Berlin 1911 p. 1256°., id. Nekyia Leipzig 1893 p. 87 n. 3, O.Kern in Pauly—
Wissowa Real-Eric. iii. 150 f., Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. pp. 50 n. 2, 57 n. 3 f., 233, 771
n. 3, 1437 n. 2, 1542 n. 1, id. Myth. Lit. 1908 p. 431 f., and H. Diels 'Arcana Cerealia'
(estratto dalla Miscellanea di Archeologia di Storia e di Filologia dedicata at Prof.
A. Salinas nel XL anniversario del suo insegnamento—to which Miss Harrison kindly
drew my attention) Palermo 1907 pp. 3—14.
6 Hades is AvaauXrjS, 'He of the sorry Resting Place' (dvcravXia), as lord of theotVi'a...
cr/j.ep3a\e evpwevra, rare arvyeovai deoi wep (fl. 20. 64 f.).
' Harpokr. s.v. AvaavXrjs' ... 'AuKXrjTridSrjs 5' ip TerapTty Tpaywdovfievuu (Asklepiades
of Tragilos frag. 6 (Brag. hist. Gr. iii. 302 Miiller)) tov AvcravX-^v avroxOova elvai 0??cn,
avvoiKrjcravTa de Havf3oi axe^v ?ra'5as TlpuTovorjv (HpuiToyovrjv corr. A. Dieterich in Philo-
9—2