DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0201
146
Diana-Pillars
Steps give access to a bridge across a stream, along which three
ducks are swimming. Above the bridge is a broad but low marble
plinth. Over this trails a fillet. On it are a bucranium, a sacrificial
bowl from which incense-smoke (?) curls upward, and a goat whose
hind legs appear on a detached piece of plaster. From the plinth
rises the club-like pillar with its disk. The shaft, yellowish brown
in colour, seems to be of timber1: to it are attached the heads of
several woodland animals—stag, boar, and goat. Below the discoid
capital hang pendants (tassels?); and above it project other small
accessories (a row of deer-heads ?)2. The finial, which doubtless
topped all, is not preserved. Partially encircling the pillar is a
curved wall, over which woollen fillets are slung. The wall is pierced
with a series of narrow openings and surmounted by three archaistic
statues of females3, each with a metal spike on her head and a pair
of torches in her hands. To the right are several indistinct archi-
tectural features, apparently two large smooth pillars on a base.
Upon one of these pillars a parrot is perched. And upon the base
lies a great golden crown, set with red and green jewels and
adorned with a row of deer-heads (?)4 precisely resembling those of
the disk. In the foreground a rude stone altar5 is burning (?). In
the background a huge tree, perhaps meant for a pine, spreads abroad
its branches surrounded by the foliage of a dim-lit forest. The
whole scene almost certainly depicts a shrine of Diana Ncmorensis
decked with spoils of the chase. It is on record that this goddess
was worshipped in the form of 'a log' {lignum)6. And the ring of
deer-heads (?) on the upper part of the pillar recalls the 'crown
decorated with stags' worn by Nemesis, the Greek counterpart of
Diana Nemorcnsis". Finally, in the great golden crown tricked out
gemalde Berlin 1909 p. 38, M. Rostowzew ' Die hellenistisch-romische Architekturland-
schaft ' in the Rom. Mitth. 1911 xxvi. 6 f. fig. 2 (which I have used to correct Mau's
colour-plate). Height 2*53m. Breadth [*44m. The painting is of the second or 'archi-
tectural' style (c. 80-10 B.C.).
1 M. Rostowzew loc. cit. regards the pillar as made of bronze : but how then were the
heads of the slain beasts fastened to it ?
2 For M. Rostowzew these are ' Greifonkopfe? They are not particularly like deer, or
griffins either. Cp. the ornaments of the crown surmounting a sacred pillar, flanked by
Aphrodite and Hermes, in a wall-painting from Pompeii (B. Quaranta in the Real Museo
Borbonico Napoli 1824 i. 1—9 pi. 32, Helbig Wandgem. Camp. p. 8 no. 20, R. Engel-
mann Bildcr-Atlas zum Honer Leipzig 1889 Odyssee p. 4 no. 24 pi. 4).
3 ' Bronzebilder der Hekate' (Rostowzew loc. cit.).
4 M. Rostowzew again says ' mit...Greifenkdpferi?
5 Cp. Gratt. cyneg. 483 ff. (cited supra i. 274).
6 Commod. instructiones t. 19. 2 (cited supra i. 281 n. 5).
7 Supra i. 275. If Rostowzew's interpretation of the upstanding ornaments as griffin-
heads is correct, we must comfort ourselves with the reflection that the griffin was a more
frequent attribute of Nemesis than the stag (supra i. 270, 276, 281).
Diana-Pillars
Steps give access to a bridge across a stream, along which three
ducks are swimming. Above the bridge is a broad but low marble
plinth. Over this trails a fillet. On it are a bucranium, a sacrificial
bowl from which incense-smoke (?) curls upward, and a goat whose
hind legs appear on a detached piece of plaster. From the plinth
rises the club-like pillar with its disk. The shaft, yellowish brown
in colour, seems to be of timber1: to it are attached the heads of
several woodland animals—stag, boar, and goat. Below the discoid
capital hang pendants (tassels?); and above it project other small
accessories (a row of deer-heads ?)2. The finial, which doubtless
topped all, is not preserved. Partially encircling the pillar is a
curved wall, over which woollen fillets are slung. The wall is pierced
with a series of narrow openings and surmounted by three archaistic
statues of females3, each with a metal spike on her head and a pair
of torches in her hands. To the right are several indistinct archi-
tectural features, apparently two large smooth pillars on a base.
Upon one of these pillars a parrot is perched. And upon the base
lies a great golden crown, set with red and green jewels and
adorned with a row of deer-heads (?)4 precisely resembling those of
the disk. In the foreground a rude stone altar5 is burning (?). In
the background a huge tree, perhaps meant for a pine, spreads abroad
its branches surrounded by the foliage of a dim-lit forest. The
whole scene almost certainly depicts a shrine of Diana Ncmorensis
decked with spoils of the chase. It is on record that this goddess
was worshipped in the form of 'a log' {lignum)6. And the ring of
deer-heads (?) on the upper part of the pillar recalls the 'crown
decorated with stags' worn by Nemesis, the Greek counterpart of
Diana Nemorcnsis". Finally, in the great golden crown tricked out
gemalde Berlin 1909 p. 38, M. Rostowzew ' Die hellenistisch-romische Architekturland-
schaft ' in the Rom. Mitth. 1911 xxvi. 6 f. fig. 2 (which I have used to correct Mau's
colour-plate). Height 2*53m. Breadth [*44m. The painting is of the second or 'archi-
tectural' style (c. 80-10 B.C.).
1 M. Rostowzew loc. cit. regards the pillar as made of bronze : but how then were the
heads of the slain beasts fastened to it ?
2 For M. Rostowzew these are ' Greifonkopfe? They are not particularly like deer, or
griffins either. Cp. the ornaments of the crown surmounting a sacred pillar, flanked by
Aphrodite and Hermes, in a wall-painting from Pompeii (B. Quaranta in the Real Museo
Borbonico Napoli 1824 i. 1—9 pi. 32, Helbig Wandgem. Camp. p. 8 no. 20, R. Engel-
mann Bildcr-Atlas zum Honer Leipzig 1889 Odyssee p. 4 no. 24 pi. 4).
3 ' Bronzebilder der Hekate' (Rostowzew loc. cit.).
4 M. Rostowzew again says ' mit...Greifenkdpferi?
5 Cp. Gratt. cyneg. 483 ff. (cited supra i. 274).
6 Commod. instructiones t. 19. 2 (cited supra i. 281 n. 5).
7 Supra i. 275. If Rostowzew's interpretation of the upstanding ornaments as griffin-
heads is correct, we must comfort ourselves with the reflection that the griffin was a more
frequent attribute of Nemesis than the stag (supra i. 270, 276, 281).