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)

166 Omphalos and Pillar

dence that they were largely represented in Illyria, since the Dorians
were ab origine an lllyrian tribe1. On the whole it seems probable
that we have here to do with an ancient lllyrian pillar-cult2, strictly
comparable with the pillar-cult of Italy. If so, it might be main-
tained that the Agyzetis-pillar was essentially a universe-column, and
that Agyieus himself, 'God of the Way {agyid)' was originally lord
of the road from earth to heaven3. The term agyid is actually used
of the soul-path by Pindar4; and the transition from Agyieus in
this hypothetical sense to Agyietis in its ordinary classical meaning
presents no difficulty. The 'God of the Way' would naturally become
the 'God of the Street,' especially if—as was the case at Tarentum
and elsewhere—his pillar stood ' before the doors' of the houses.

(v) Omphalds and Pillar.

It appears, then, that the Irminsul of the north had a counter-
part on both sides of the Adriatic, the Diana-pillars of Italy being
own cousins to the Agyt'eus-pillavs of Greece. But at this point a
difficulty arises. How comes it that the Italian pillars were asso-
ciated with a goddess, the Greek pillars with a god ? The answer
to this question is to be sought in the belief that the universe-
column was a central prop, originally a central tree, rising from
earth to sky. Such a prop would be connected primarily with the
earth in which it was planted, secondarily with the sky which it

EWtjcwj' <TOLavra ayd\p.ara>' tovtols yap £ttI ttjs crrpaTids <pa.crp.aTos <(pavevros > oi
Awpids dwop.ipovp.evoi tovs 'Ayvids lo-Tacriv en xai vvv t<2 ' AttoWwvi. But ??

1 See Sir W. Ridgeway 'Who were the Dorians?' in Anthropological Essays presented
to Edward Burnett Tylor Oxford 1907 pp. 295—308, C. H. Hawes 'Some Dorian
Descendants?' in the Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1909-1910 xvi. 258—280.

2 Prehistoric tombs in Thessaly have yielded bronze rings, which perhaps attest a
similar pillar-cult (N. I. Giannopoulos QecraaXiKal irpoeW-qviKai
ewiypacpal iirl /3paxow, \idwi', crrppayidcav Kal dyyeiwv Athens 1908
p. 67 fig. 26 from Homolion, id. in the "E<p. 'Apx- 1915 p- 106 f.
no. 16 fig. with pi. 2, 16 and pi. 1, 16 (enlarged = my fig. no),
no. 17 fig. from Homolion with pi. 2, 17).

3 Dr Farnell too is prepared to abandon the orthodox idea
that the name originally designated the deity of the city's
streets : ' to explain 'Ayvieijs,' he says (Cults of Gk. States iv.
150), 'our imagination may turn back to the prehistoric epoch
when the god—or the priest bearing his emblem—marched at
the head of the immigrant tribe down its perilous path of con-
quest.' In fact we are to suppose (ib. iv. 308) ' that the Agyieus-emblem entered with
the wandering deity, and that it was specially consecrated by serving to mark certain
stations along the Sacred Way from the north.' The explanation is ingenious and, no
doubt, possible. But the view proposed in the text is more consonant with the Germanic
and the ' Minoan' evidence.

4 Pind. 01. 9. 50 ff. oi)5"At'5as dKi\yr\r<xv 'iye pd[3Sov, \ (3p6rea crwpad' d Kardyet \ Koihav
Trpbs (v.I. es) dyviav | OvacrKOVTLCv (v.I. dvTjaKOPTUv).