DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0320
258 Dionysos displaced by Apollon
and Apollon, who were completely unified by the solar syncretism
of the Graeco-Roman age. But it would be a gross blunder to regard
these two as identical from the outset. Rather they were analogous
gods, of whom one proved a not uncongenial intruder upon the
other. The welcome guest became in time a recognised member of
the family circle, and ultimately the main representative of the house,
his former naturalisation having been obscured by the later develop-
ments of religion and philosophy.
The situation thus arising may be illustrated by a short sequence
of Greek vase-paintings1. A polychrome pelike from Jiiz Oba, now
at Petrograd (pi. xvi)2, Attic work of the fourth century B.C.,
has for its principal figures the earlier personnel of the Delphic
oracle. The obverse design shows Zeus, with golden bay-wreath
and sceptre, enthroned beside Themis, who, clad in a chiton and a
himdtion partly blue partly red, sits on the yellow-touched gold-
filleted omphalos, her left foot raised upon a stone. God and goddess
are in earnest conversation, as befits the supreme counsellors of all
the world". The subject of their talk is presumably the glorification
1 The Etruscan mirror from the Luynes collection (Gerhard Etr. Spiegel iv. 24 f.
pi. 292), now at Paris (Babelon—Blanchet Cat. Bronzes de la Bibl. Nat. p. 517 f.
no. 1300 fig.), adduced by Miss Harrison in her Themis p. 442 f. fig. 136 as representing
Apollon and Dionysos vis-a-vis with the sun's disk between them, would make a delightful
illustration of the same point. But unfortunately the interpretation of the second figure
as Dionysos is far from certain. The due de Luynes in the Bull. d. Inst. 1848 p. 36
described it as Diana; E. Gerhard loc. cit., E. Babelon and J. A. Blanchet loc. cit., as
Artemis.
2 Stephani Vasensamml. St. Petersburg \\. 324 ff. no. 1793, id. Compte-rendu St. Pit.
i860 p. 39 ff. Atlas pi. 2, 1 f. =Reinach Pep. Vases i. 3, if., C. Strube Studieu i'tber den
Bilderkreis von Eleusis Leipzig 1870 p. 86 n., Overbeck Gr. Knnstmyth. Zeus pp. i8t K,
183, 185 f, Wicn. Vorlegebl. A pi. 9, 1, C. Robert Archaeologische Maerchen ans alter
and neuer Zeit Berlin 1886 p. 188 ff. pi. 3, W. Klein 'Zur Einleitungsscene der Kyprien'
in the Jahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch. hist. 1894 ix. 251 ff. fig. 1, and above all Furtwangler—
Reichhold Gr. Vasenmalerei ii. 46—50 fig. 21 f. pi. 69 ( = my pi. xvi). Height o'443m.
3 Themis as an earth-goddess {supra p. 176 n. 1) knows the right order of events and
from experience of the past can give good advice for the future. In poetry she is euj3ovXos
(Pind. 01. 13. 11, Isthm. 8. 68 cited infra §9 (h) ii {t<),frag. 30. 1 Schroeder cited supra
p. 37 n. 1), 6p06j3ovXos (Aisch. P. v. 18), vlvvto. (Bakchyl. 14. 55, cp. frag, adesp. 82 a
as completed by Bergk4 ad loc.), in prose BovXaia (Plout. praec. ger. reip. 5, Synes.
de regno 15 (lxvi. 1093 Migne)).
Zeus is wise as a forefather (Aisch. suppl. 592 ff. irarrip (pvrovpybs avroxeip avail \ yevovs
ira\aib(pp<jjv p:eyas | tIktwv, to irav p-fixap oiipios Tievs. Cp. for his wisdom as conceived
by Aischylos P. v. 61 f., suppl. 1058 f., and the remarks of W. Kausche in the Disserta-
tiones philologicae Halenses Halis Saxonum 1888 ix. 137), as a magician {supra i. 14 n. 1,
758 n. 1 f.), as an all-seeing sky-god {stcpra i. 187 n. 9, 196 f., 459 ff., 731 n. 1, 783), and
as ideal mind (Nonn. Dion. 20. 266 wepLcraovooLo Aws, Tzetz. chil. 6. 930 6 Zei)s 6 vovs
6 Travootpos, proleg. alleg. 315 6 Zevs yap vovs itceXevae, alleg. Od. I. 163 u> Zev, av vov
(cat (ppdvifie). But it is as a chthonian god or, more strictly, as a god associated with
chthonian goddesses that he gives counsel to men. Thus he is Zeus BovXevs in Mykonos
{supra i. 668 f., 717 n. 3, with Demeter and Kore), Zeus Ei}/3oiAeus in Amorgos {stcpra
and Apollon, who were completely unified by the solar syncretism
of the Graeco-Roman age. But it would be a gross blunder to regard
these two as identical from the outset. Rather they were analogous
gods, of whom one proved a not uncongenial intruder upon the
other. The welcome guest became in time a recognised member of
the family circle, and ultimately the main representative of the house,
his former naturalisation having been obscured by the later develop-
ments of religion and philosophy.
The situation thus arising may be illustrated by a short sequence
of Greek vase-paintings1. A polychrome pelike from Jiiz Oba, now
at Petrograd (pi. xvi)2, Attic work of the fourth century B.C.,
has for its principal figures the earlier personnel of the Delphic
oracle. The obverse design shows Zeus, with golden bay-wreath
and sceptre, enthroned beside Themis, who, clad in a chiton and a
himdtion partly blue partly red, sits on the yellow-touched gold-
filleted omphalos, her left foot raised upon a stone. God and goddess
are in earnest conversation, as befits the supreme counsellors of all
the world". The subject of their talk is presumably the glorification
1 The Etruscan mirror from the Luynes collection (Gerhard Etr. Spiegel iv. 24 f.
pi. 292), now at Paris (Babelon—Blanchet Cat. Bronzes de la Bibl. Nat. p. 517 f.
no. 1300 fig.), adduced by Miss Harrison in her Themis p. 442 f. fig. 136 as representing
Apollon and Dionysos vis-a-vis with the sun's disk between them, would make a delightful
illustration of the same point. But unfortunately the interpretation of the second figure
as Dionysos is far from certain. The due de Luynes in the Bull. d. Inst. 1848 p. 36
described it as Diana; E. Gerhard loc. cit., E. Babelon and J. A. Blanchet loc. cit., as
Artemis.
2 Stephani Vasensamml. St. Petersburg \\. 324 ff. no. 1793, id. Compte-rendu St. Pit.
i860 p. 39 ff. Atlas pi. 2, 1 f. =Reinach Pep. Vases i. 3, if., C. Strube Studieu i'tber den
Bilderkreis von Eleusis Leipzig 1870 p. 86 n., Overbeck Gr. Knnstmyth. Zeus pp. i8t K,
183, 185 f, Wicn. Vorlegebl. A pi. 9, 1, C. Robert Archaeologische Maerchen ans alter
and neuer Zeit Berlin 1886 p. 188 ff. pi. 3, W. Klein 'Zur Einleitungsscene der Kyprien'
in the Jahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch. hist. 1894 ix. 251 ff. fig. 1, and above all Furtwangler—
Reichhold Gr. Vasenmalerei ii. 46—50 fig. 21 f. pi. 69 ( = my pi. xvi). Height o'443m.
3 Themis as an earth-goddess {supra p. 176 n. 1) knows the right order of events and
from experience of the past can give good advice for the future. In poetry she is euj3ovXos
(Pind. 01. 13. 11, Isthm. 8. 68 cited infra §9 (h) ii {t<),frag. 30. 1 Schroeder cited supra
p. 37 n. 1), 6p06j3ovXos (Aisch. P. v. 18), vlvvto. (Bakchyl. 14. 55, cp. frag, adesp. 82 a
as completed by Bergk4 ad loc.), in prose BovXaia (Plout. praec. ger. reip. 5, Synes.
de regno 15 (lxvi. 1093 Migne)).
Zeus is wise as a forefather (Aisch. suppl. 592 ff. irarrip (pvrovpybs avroxeip avail \ yevovs
ira\aib(pp<jjv p:eyas | tIktwv, to irav p-fixap oiipios Tievs. Cp. for his wisdom as conceived
by Aischylos P. v. 61 f., suppl. 1058 f., and the remarks of W. Kausche in the Disserta-
tiones philologicae Halenses Halis Saxonum 1888 ix. 137), as a magician {supra i. 14 n. 1,
758 n. 1 f.), as an all-seeing sky-god {stcpra i. 187 n. 9, 196 f., 459 ff., 731 n. 1, 783), and
as ideal mind (Nonn. Dion. 20. 266 wepLcraovooLo Aws, Tzetz. chil. 6. 930 6 Zei)s 6 vovs
6 Travootpos, proleg. alleg. 315 6 Zevs yap vovs itceXevae, alleg. Od. I. 163 u> Zev, av vov
(cat (ppdvifie). But it is as a chthonian god or, more strictly, as a god associated with
chthonian goddesses that he gives counsel to men. Thus he is Zeus BovXevs in Mykonos
{supra i. 668 f., 717 n. 3, with Demeter and Kore), Zeus Ei}/3oiAeus in Amorgos {stcpra