DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0758
The axes and the sacred oaks at Dotion 683
with her for a sentence. Fin agreed. They played. She won and
sentenced him to take her for his wife. After a time she said : ' I
must leave you now for a season.' Fin then drove his sword into
a tree-stump and said : ' Call your son Faolan (" Little Wolf"), and
never send him to me until he is able to draw the sword from this
stump.' She took the stump with her and sailed away homeward.
She nursed her son for three days only, and called him Faolan.
When ten years old, he was taunted by a playmate for not knowing
who his father was. He asked his mother, who told him about Fin
and the tree-stump. With one pull he drew out the sword, and then
set forth, accompanied by his mother's blessing, to find his father.
His subsequent adventures do not here concern us ; but it is obvious
that thus far the story has at least some points in common with
J. G. von Hahn's tale from Dodona and with the Volsung saga.
(t) The axes and the sacred oaks at Dotion.
The enormous appetite of the strong man in the folk-tale from
Dodona reminds us, not only of the ever-hungry Herakles, but also
of the insatiate Erysichthon, whose myth again includes the incident
of an axe left in a sacred tree.
The story is told by Kallimachos1 as follows. The Pelasgians,
before they migrated from Thessaly to Knidos, had planted a grove
for Demeter at Dotion. Here dwelt the royal family of the Triopidai.
Erysichthon, son of Triopas, acting under some infatuation, armed
his followers with axes and hatchets, and invaded the grove. The
first tree attacked was a magnificent poplar2, which groaned aloud.
Demeter heard it and, appearing in the likeness of her priestess,
attempted to dissuade the madman. He at once threatened to fell
her with his axe, being bent on fashioning the timbers of a house
in which to feast with his friends. Demeter in wrath resumed her
godlike form ; and Erysichthon's comrades horror-struck left their
axes sticking in the oaks3. She punished their chief by inflicting
on him a hunger that nothing would satisfy.
Ovid4 tells the same tale with some variations. He describes
the tree cut down by Erysichthon as an ancient oak5 adorned with
fillets and tablets by the pious rustics. Though the Dryads had
often danced beneath it, the son of Triops bade his servants fell it.
When they hesitated, he caught up an axe and swore that the tree
should fall, though it were not merely the favourite of the goddess,
1 Kallim. //. Dem. 24—117.
2 Id. ib. 37 a'iyeipos. Supra p. 497 n. 5.
3 Id. ib. 60 ivi 8pvcri xttA/cop dcpevres. 4 Ov. met. 8. 738 ff>
5 Id. ib. 8. 743 ingens annoso robore quercus.
with her for a sentence. Fin agreed. They played. She won and
sentenced him to take her for his wife. After a time she said : ' I
must leave you now for a season.' Fin then drove his sword into
a tree-stump and said : ' Call your son Faolan (" Little Wolf"), and
never send him to me until he is able to draw the sword from this
stump.' She took the stump with her and sailed away homeward.
She nursed her son for three days only, and called him Faolan.
When ten years old, he was taunted by a playmate for not knowing
who his father was. He asked his mother, who told him about Fin
and the tree-stump. With one pull he drew out the sword, and then
set forth, accompanied by his mother's blessing, to find his father.
His subsequent adventures do not here concern us ; but it is obvious
that thus far the story has at least some points in common with
J. G. von Hahn's tale from Dodona and with the Volsung saga.
(t) The axes and the sacred oaks at Dotion.
The enormous appetite of the strong man in the folk-tale from
Dodona reminds us, not only of the ever-hungry Herakles, but also
of the insatiate Erysichthon, whose myth again includes the incident
of an axe left in a sacred tree.
The story is told by Kallimachos1 as follows. The Pelasgians,
before they migrated from Thessaly to Knidos, had planted a grove
for Demeter at Dotion. Here dwelt the royal family of the Triopidai.
Erysichthon, son of Triopas, acting under some infatuation, armed
his followers with axes and hatchets, and invaded the grove. The
first tree attacked was a magnificent poplar2, which groaned aloud.
Demeter heard it and, appearing in the likeness of her priestess,
attempted to dissuade the madman. He at once threatened to fell
her with his axe, being bent on fashioning the timbers of a house
in which to feast with his friends. Demeter in wrath resumed her
godlike form ; and Erysichthon's comrades horror-struck left their
axes sticking in the oaks3. She punished their chief by inflicting
on him a hunger that nothing would satisfy.
Ovid4 tells the same tale with some variations. He describes
the tree cut down by Erysichthon as an ancient oak5 adorned with
fillets and tablets by the pious rustics. Though the Dryads had
often danced beneath it, the son of Triops bade his servants fell it.
When they hesitated, he caught up an axe and swore that the tree
should fall, though it were not merely the favourite of the goddess,
1 Kallim. //. Dem. 24—117.
2 Id. ib. 37 a'iyeipos. Supra p. 497 n. 5.
3 Id. ib. 60 ivi 8pvcri xttA/cop dcpevres. 4 Ov. met. 8. 738 ff>
5 Id. ib. 8. 743 ingens annoso robore quercus.