DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0493
The supports of the Sky personified 423
those of Herakles and Dionysos in India1, imply the belief that the
sky rests upon solid and tangible supports2. But these as yet are
mere columns or columnar heights3. The two pillars before the
altar of Zeus on Mount Lykaion were likewise in all probability
conceived as sky-props. And here a certain advance may be dis-
cerned : the pillars are divinised, so to say, by the sky-god, who
rests upon each in the form of a gilded eagle4.
The Phoenicians in their sacred architecture went a step further
towards personification. The two inscribed columns of bronze,
eight cubits high, in the Herakleion at Gadeira, which some took to
be the original pillars of Herakles3, were at least masses of shining
metal. They were excelled in brilliance by the two pillars, which
Herodotos saw in the sanctuary of Herakles at Tyre : of these, one
was made of pure gold6, the other of 'emerald-stone large enough
1 The pillars of Herakles and Dionysos on Indian soil (Strab. 171) are sometimes
called boundary-stones (Curt. 3. 10. 5, 9. 4. 21), sometimes altars (Plin. nat. hist. 6. 49,
Solin. 49. 4, Mart. Cap. 692). The pillars of Dionysos (Apollod. 3. 5. 2, Avien. descr.
orb. terr. 824 ff., 1384. The epitome rerum gestarum Alexandri Magni 12 (ed. O. Wagner
Leipzig 1900) mentions one pillar only) are also termed vietae (Claud, de tert. cons. Honor.
Aug. paneg. 208).
2 Preller—Robert Gr. Myth. i. 562 n. 1, 565, 624 n. 1, Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 383,
R. Eisler Weltenmantel und Himmelszelt Miinchen 1910 i. 325, 369, 392 n. 5, ii. 6[9,
624, 627, 631. Supra]). 141.
:i Eustath. in Dionys. per. 64 cpaul Se auras rj dvdpidvTas dvai 'HpctfcXe'os, k.t.X. is an
isolated vagary, which cannot be held to justify the assertion of F. Durrbach in Darem-
berg—Saglio Diet. Ant. iii. 93 that the pillars of Herakles ' ne sont pas autre chose sans
doute que les simulacres de la divinite chez les Pheniciens.' Priscian.per. 617 ff., 1057 f«
{Poet. Lat. min. v. 296 and 311 Baehrens) in like manner describes the pillars of Dionysos
as statitae : see De Vit Onomasticon i. 655.
I add what seems to be a northern parallel. At Cape Solfar in the southern part of
Porsanger Fjord the Lapps of the eighteenth century had their most famous cult-centre.
Here at a distance of half a mile from the sea rose two lofty rocks, one of them coated
with moss. Near the rocks lay the spits [Bassem-Morak) used &t festivals of the god, to
whom his worshippers offered only the bare bones of the animals sacrificed, expecting
him to reclothe the same with flesh [cp. Frazer Golden Bough3: Spirits of Corn and Wild
ii. 257]. Stakes of dry firwood were set up crosswise against the rocks, each marked with
the signs IIIXXXIIH—I—HIIXXX. [Longish stakes called IJet-Morak, smeared with
the blood of the victim, were commonly set up on the place of sacrifice.] Towards the
south stood a tall square beam bearing the same marks : the lower part of it was driven
into the ground, the upper part was pierced by an iron nail like a trenail. Knud Leem
supposes that the deity here worshipped was Thor, though he admits that no idol named
Thor was then known among the Lapps of Finmark (Canutus Leemius De Lapponibus
Finmarchice, eorumque lingua, vita et religione pristina commentatio Ri^benhavn 1767
p. 437 f. with p. 428 f. pi. 86=my fig. 329, Knud Leem Nachrichten von den Lappen
in Finmarken, Hirer Sprache, Sitten, Gebrauche, und ehemaligen heidnischen Religion
Leipzig 1771 p. 221 with p. 216). Supra p. 57 n. 1.
4 Supra i. 66, 83 f.
5 Poseidonios of Apameia frag. 96 {Frag. hist. Gr. iii. 294 Muller) ap. Strab. 170.
6 Eupolemos, a Jewish historian writing c. 150 B.C. (Jacoby in Pauly—Wissowa
those of Herakles and Dionysos in India1, imply the belief that the
sky rests upon solid and tangible supports2. But these as yet are
mere columns or columnar heights3. The two pillars before the
altar of Zeus on Mount Lykaion were likewise in all probability
conceived as sky-props. And here a certain advance may be dis-
cerned : the pillars are divinised, so to say, by the sky-god, who
rests upon each in the form of a gilded eagle4.
The Phoenicians in their sacred architecture went a step further
towards personification. The two inscribed columns of bronze,
eight cubits high, in the Herakleion at Gadeira, which some took to
be the original pillars of Herakles3, were at least masses of shining
metal. They were excelled in brilliance by the two pillars, which
Herodotos saw in the sanctuary of Herakles at Tyre : of these, one
was made of pure gold6, the other of 'emerald-stone large enough
1 The pillars of Herakles and Dionysos on Indian soil (Strab. 171) are sometimes
called boundary-stones (Curt. 3. 10. 5, 9. 4. 21), sometimes altars (Plin. nat. hist. 6. 49,
Solin. 49. 4, Mart. Cap. 692). The pillars of Dionysos (Apollod. 3. 5. 2, Avien. descr.
orb. terr. 824 ff., 1384. The epitome rerum gestarum Alexandri Magni 12 (ed. O. Wagner
Leipzig 1900) mentions one pillar only) are also termed vietae (Claud, de tert. cons. Honor.
Aug. paneg. 208).
2 Preller—Robert Gr. Myth. i. 562 n. 1, 565, 624 n. 1, Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 383,
R. Eisler Weltenmantel und Himmelszelt Miinchen 1910 i. 325, 369, 392 n. 5, ii. 6[9,
624, 627, 631. Supra]). 141.
:i Eustath. in Dionys. per. 64 cpaul Se auras rj dvdpidvTas dvai 'HpctfcXe'os, k.t.X. is an
isolated vagary, which cannot be held to justify the assertion of F. Durrbach in Darem-
berg—Saglio Diet. Ant. iii. 93 that the pillars of Herakles ' ne sont pas autre chose sans
doute que les simulacres de la divinite chez les Pheniciens.' Priscian.per. 617 ff., 1057 f«
{Poet. Lat. min. v. 296 and 311 Baehrens) in like manner describes the pillars of Dionysos
as statitae : see De Vit Onomasticon i. 655.
I add what seems to be a northern parallel. At Cape Solfar in the southern part of
Porsanger Fjord the Lapps of the eighteenth century had their most famous cult-centre.
Here at a distance of half a mile from the sea rose two lofty rocks, one of them coated
with moss. Near the rocks lay the spits [Bassem-Morak) used &t festivals of the god, to
whom his worshippers offered only the bare bones of the animals sacrificed, expecting
him to reclothe the same with flesh [cp. Frazer Golden Bough3: Spirits of Corn and Wild
ii. 257]. Stakes of dry firwood were set up crosswise against the rocks, each marked with
the signs IIIXXXIIH—I—HIIXXX. [Longish stakes called IJet-Morak, smeared with
the blood of the victim, were commonly set up on the place of sacrifice.] Towards the
south stood a tall square beam bearing the same marks : the lower part of it was driven
into the ground, the upper part was pierced by an iron nail like a trenail. Knud Leem
supposes that the deity here worshipped was Thor, though he admits that no idol named
Thor was then known among the Lapps of Finmark (Canutus Leemius De Lapponibus
Finmarchice, eorumque lingua, vita et religione pristina commentatio Ri^benhavn 1767
p. 437 f. with p. 428 f. pi. 86=my fig. 329, Knud Leem Nachrichten von den Lappen
in Finmarken, Hirer Sprache, Sitten, Gebrauche, und ehemaligen heidnischen Religion
Leipzig 1771 p. 221 with p. 216). Supra p. 57 n. 1.
4 Supra i. 66, 83 f.
5 Poseidonios of Apameia frag. 96 {Frag. hist. Gr. iii. 294 Muller) ap. Strab. 170.
6 Eupolemos, a Jewish historian writing c. 150 B.C. (Jacoby in Pauly—Wissowa