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)

The Delphic Tripod

199

offerings tend to repeat the pattern of the local chose sacree1. Ac-
cordingly the Chigi base at Dresden (pi. xii)2, which itself seems to
have carried a columnar tripod3, represents in one of its three
archaistic panels a Pythian priest and priestess dedicating a similar
tripod on the top of a pillar. Moreover, archaising reliefs of the
imperial age (figs. 140, 141 )\ made in all probability to commemorate

1 On the principle underlying this multiplication see Folk-Lore 1903 xiv. 271.

2 This marble base (height i-3om), which came to the Dresden Museum along with
the Chigi collection, portrays (a) the rape of the Delphic tripod by Herakles, (b) the
dedication of a columnar tripod by the Pythla and the neokdros, (c) the dedication of a
torch by a priest and priestess. Various archaeologists have attempted to combine the
three scenes in a consistent whole. According to K. O. Muller Handbuch der Archaeologie
der Kunstz Stuttgart 1878 p. 78, P. Pervanoglu in the Ann. d. Inst. 1861 xxxiii. 119 ff.,
Friederichs—Wolters Gipsabgiisse p. 169ft". no* 423> tne central panel represents the
struggle between Herakles and Apollon as the mythical prototype of a Pythian contest for
a prize-tripod, the panel to the right shows the consecration of the prize, the panel to the
left that of the torch with which the victor had won his race. The base as a whole sup-
ported the tripod thus gained, which, to judge from the kneeling Sileuoi, the Satyroi with
drinking-cups, etc., was dedicated to Dionysos. Hence the ivy-wreath and ' Sardana-
palos' type (E. Thraemer in Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 1117 ft"., P. Wolters in the Jahrb. d.
kais. deutsch. arch. Inst. 1893 viii. 179 f., K. A. McDowall in the Journ. Hell. Stud.
1904 xxiv. 255 ff., V. Macchioro in the Jahresh. d. oest. arch. Inst. 1909 xii. 189 ff.,
W. Helbig Fi'threr dutch die bjfentlichen Sammlungen klassischer Altertiinier in Rom3
Leipzig 1912 i. 2iof. no. 320) of the neokoros. Avery different and far less probable
explanation was given by C. Boetticher Das Grab des Dionysos (Winckelmannsfest-Progr.
Berlin xviii) Berlin 1856 with figs. 1 f. and 'Zu den Bildwerken der dreiseitigen Basis in
Dresden' in the Arch. Zeit. 1858 xvi. 197 ft". pi. 117. He took (a) as the rape of the
tripod, marking the locality, (b) as the consecration of the tripod in which were the
remains of Dionysos, torn to pieces by the Titans, (c) as the consecration of a bdkchos or
phanos, symbolising the resuscitation of the god. lie also supposed that the priest and
priestess were the neokoros and the principal thy ids, and that the base carried a phanos,
not a tripod. See further W. G. Becker Augusteum Dresden's an tike Denkmdler enthaltend
Leipzig 1804 i. 42ft". pis. 5—7, B. Leplat Recueil des marbres antiques qui se trouvent
dans la galerie du roy de Pologne d Dresden Dresde 1733 P^- 3> H. Hettner Die Bildwerke
der koniglichen antiken Sammluug zu Dresden* Dresden 1881 no. 80, L. Stephani in the
Compte-rendu St. Pel. 1868 p. 46 f., Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Apollon p. 405 Atlas
pi. 24, 14, id. Gr. Plastik* i. 260ft". fig. 70 a, b, ib. p. 298 n. 203, Brunn—Bruckmann
Denkin. der gr. und ram. Sculpt, pi. 150, Muller—Wieseler—Wernicke Ant. Denkm. ii.
3. 328 f. pi. 27, 7, Reinach Rip. Reliefs ii. 60 nos. 1—3. My illustrations are made from
the cast at Cambridge.

3 This is the inference usually, and in my opinion correctly, drawn from the fact that
the upper surface of the base is triangular in shape with a smooth circular mark (12^ inches
across) in the centre of it : see the diagrams given by C. Boetticher in the Arch. Zeit.
1858 xvi. 227 f. F. Hauser Die neu-altischen Reliefs Stuttgart 1889 p. 52 f. no. 69 and
p. 117 holds that the base bore a moveable object such as a candelabrum, but admits
(p. 52) that its reliefs must have been copied from those of a tripod-base.

4 (1) In the Villa Albani (G. Zoega Li bassirilievi antichi di Roma Roma 1808 ii
pi. 99, T. Schreiber Die hellenistischen Reliefbilder pi. 34 (=my fig. 140), Brunn—Bruck-
mann Denkm. der gr. und r'dm. Sculpt, pi. 344 a, Welcker Alt. Denkm. ii. 37-57 pi. 2, 3
( = Baumeister De?ikm. i. 97 fig. 103), Reinach Rip. Reliefs iii. 151 no. 3, Overbeck Gr.
Kunstmyth. Apollon pp. 260, 262 ff., W. Helbig Fiihrer durch die offentlichen Samm-
lungen klassischer Altertu?ner in Rom3 Leipzig 1913 ii. 426 f. no. 1876). Restored: