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)

140 The Sky-Pillar in Sardinia

abiding helpfulness is attested by the popularity of Longfellow's
poem The Ladder of Saint Augustine1. J. M. Neale had the experi-

Fig. 82.

ence of centuries at his back, when with regard to life's trials,

sorrows, and temptations he put the wistful question :

What are they but the ladder
Set up to heaven on earth ?

(k) The Sky-Pillar in Sardinia.

The invocation prefixed to the Orphic Hymns is addressed to a
great variety of gods and goddesses including—

1 H. W. Longfellow ('Cambridge Edition') London 1895 p. 186 f. with note on
p. 668: 'The words of St. Augustine are, " De vitiis nostris scalam nobis facimus, si
vitia ipsa calcamus."—Sermon III. De Ascensione.'