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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#0191

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The Tritopatores or Tritopatreis 137

Sappho and Phaon (Plin. nat. hist. 22. 20 ob hoc (sc. male root of white eryngo) et Phaonem
Lesbium dilectum a Sappho, multa circa hoc non Magorum solum vanitate, sed etiam
Pythagoricorum). E. Strong and N. Jollifie 'The Stuccoes of the Underground Basilica near
the Porta Maggiore'in the Journ. Hell. Stud, 1924XHV.65—111 justly observe (p. io3f.):
'It is true that Pliny says nothing about the death or leap of Sappho, nothing therefore
bearing on the subject of the apse stucco, yet we may now reasonably assume that the
whole Sappho legend entered into Pythagorean lore, and that M. Carcopino by this
timely discovery has disposed of any doubt as to the Pythagorean character of the basilica,
or as to Sappho's leap being the subject of the apse stucco.' They themselves go further
and, taking a hint from H. Stuart Jones (ib. p. 103 n. 124 a), interpret the relief as a
scene of apotheosis by water (cp. G. Glotz L'ordcdie dans la Grece primitive Paris 1904
pp. 34—50 ('Le saut de Leucade'))—'the root idea of baptism.' See further P. Boyancc
' Leucas' in the Rev. Arch. 1929 ii. 211—219—an interesting discussion of Pliny's Candida
erynge=Yopyt>vaov, ynwXu, l/iepros, etc. (Dioskor. 3. 21 (24) p. 363 f. Sprengel), detfwoc
(Mart. Cap. 141, where cod. A has Xev/cws with gloss herba atbnla nt quidam lilium).

Whatever be thought of this catena of interpretations, it can hardly be denied that
Ovid's description of Sappho and the Leap does fit the design of the relief with remarkable
aPhtude. The single tree overlooking the water (Ov. her. 15. 159 f. quern supra ramos
expandit aquatica lotos, | una nanus), Apollon on his rock (165 Phoebus ab excelso,
fuantum patet, adspicit aequor), the woman stepping down from the cliff (172 nec saxo
desiluisse time), the personification of wind with a mantle for a boat (177 f. aura,
Subito : I et mea non magnum corpora pondus habent), the attendant Eros (179 tu quoque,
'Mollis Amor, pennas suppone cadenti), the lyre carried by the woman (181 inde chelyn
1oebo, communia munera, ponam),—almost every point in the picture can be paralleled
fr°m the poem.

. The art-type of Sappho stepping off the rock for love of Phaon was, I think, derived
. °tt> the earlier art-type of Aphrodite stepping on to the ferry-boat of Phaon, as shown

" a red-figured krater found in 1909 'nella proprieta Tamburini fuori Porta Castiglione'
aild now at Bologna (Pellegrini Cat. vas. gr. dipint. Bologna pp. 133—135 no. 288bis

2-77 ( = my fig. 54).

APollon, according to C. Densmore Curtis in the Am. Journ. Arch. 1920 xxiv. 150,
PPears to be the Apollon Aevic&Ti)s of a coin of Nikopolis struck by Trajan (supra i.
3+5 n. 8).

The dejected man on the rocks to the left has been compared by F. Cumont in the
assegna d'Arte 1921 p. 39 with analogous figures on Attic sepulchral stHai.

much has yet to be done by wav of investigating the antecedents of these and other
Ind'vidual motifs.
 
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