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Cook, Arthur B.
Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits): Text and notes — Cambridge, 1940

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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14698#0189

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The Tritopatores or Tritopatreis 135

Tyrsenian Pelasgoi, who founded these mysteries, told how mortals
were transformed into sea-deities or sea-creatures—witness Ino
Leukothea, Halia, Kombe, Palaimon, Glaukos Pontios, Enalos, and
the Tyrsenian pirates metamorphosed into dolphins. Accordingly
Roscher conjectured that any Samothracian mystic drowned at sea
was said to have become a deity or a denizen of the deep. Hence
the frequency of these 'Samothracian' designs. H. Steuding1 replied
that, if so, we ought to see the deceased himself portrayed as one
°f the marine powers rather than his effigy borne aloft in their
midst. The matter is still in dispute. Personally, I am impressed
by F. G. Welcker's2cl aim that these sarcophagi are descended from
the famous group by Skopas, of which Pliny3 says:

'But most highly esteemed of all his works is the group in the temple built by
Gnaeus Domitius in the Circus of Flaminius: it comprises Poseidon himself with
Thetis and Achilles, Nereids riding on dolphins and sea monsters or on sea horses,
and Tritons and the train of Phorkos, with sea beasts and a tumult of creatures
°f the deep, the whole by the same hand, a wondrous work, even were it that of
a life-time.'

Jf> as is commonly supposed4, the Scopaic group—almost cer-
tainly a pedimental group—represented the passing of Achilles to
the Islands of the Blest, or more precisely to Leuke or Borysthenis
111 the Black Sea5, it is at least legitimate to interpret the scene on
the sarcophagi as that of a safe and superhuman convoy moving
forward6 to some Othenvorld island7. And here it will be
remembered that the magnificent stucco-relief, which fills the semi-
dome of the subterranean basilica outside the Porta Maggiore at
Rome, depicts an analogous scene (pi. xix)8. Before us lies a stormy

1 H. Steuding in the Woch.f. klass. Philol. Nov. 29, 1893 p. 1307.

2 Welcker Alt. Denim, i. 204—206.

Plin. not. hist. 36. 26 trans. Miss K. Tex-Blake.

L. Urlichs Skopas Leben unci WerkeGreifswald 1863 p. 132 ff., id. Griechische Statuen
W» republikanischen Rom Wiirzburg 1880 p. 17 ff., Overbeck Gr. P/astik* ii. 19 (., 420,
Sieveking 'Der sogenannte Altar des Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus' in the Jahresh. d.
°esi\ arc&. Inst. 1910 xiii. 95—101, G. Lippold in Pauly—Wissowa Rcal-Enc. iii A. 573 f.

Fleischer in Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 53—58, J. Escher-Biirkli in Pauly—Wissowa
^al-Enc. i. 240 f., W. Tomaschek ib. iii. 739, Farnell Gk. Hero Cults p. 286, Preller—

» Gr-Myth- "°4f-

I his escapes E. Petersen's objection that the movement of the group is centripetal,
not Processional (supra p. 133).

Mrs A. Strong Apotheosis and After Life London 1915 p. 215 'The dolphins and
Isl " e. monsters' an°ther frequent decoration, form a mystic escort of the dead to the
s ands 0f ^ g|esti an(j at tne same (mle carrv „.jtn them an allusion to the purifying
j er °f w-iter and to the part assigned to the watery element in Mithraic and solar cults.'

not satisfied that we need to assume any such further implications.
hu G°°d photo£raPns of the relief were published by E. Strong and N. Jolliffe in the
rtt. Hen, stud. 1924 xliv. 103 ff. pL 4 and by J. Carcopino La basiliaue pythagoricienne
a Porte Majeure Paris 1927 p. 371 ff. pi. 24. Better still is the definitive publication
 
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