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)

428 The holed vessel in Italy

may well have been derived from the rain-charm aforesaid. For,
when men had once begun to distrust the magician and his magic,
a charm to produce rain might easily pass into a proverb for labour
wasted in the attempt to compass impossibilities.

Further, a typical impossibility of this sort would furnish the
ideal test for an early ordeal1, since the performance of it implieS
the manifest interposition of the gods in favour of the accused. Thus,
when the Vestal Tuccia was charged with violation of her vows, she
proved her chastity by successfully carrying water in a sieve from
the river Tiber to the house of Vesta in the Roman Forum2. The
event, which is said to have occurred in the year 235 B.C.3, has
repeatedly furnished artists with a theme. Count Clarac4 published
a couple of marble statues representing Tuccia with her sieve, one
in the Museo Chiaramonti5, the other at Dresden6. Montfaucon had
previously made known a statuette belonging to a M. Boisot and
an engraved gem from the cabinet of M. de la Chausse7, not to
mention a print communicated by Baron Crassier8, all of whic
portraj'ed the same subject with minor variations. M. P. Levesq11^
de Gravelle was able to figure another gem illustrating the scene •
There are, however, grave doubts as to the authenticity of any 0
these representations10. They appear to be nothing but model11

' accepturo tradidisse. quid enim ? si cui vihum debeas et hoc ille te infundere ret^oS
iubeat aut cribro, reddidisse te dices ? aut reddere voles, quod, dum redditur, wtei
pereat ?'

1 Rohde Psyche* i. 327, E. Fehrle in the Archivf. Rel. 1916—1919 xix. 550- ^eil
On trial by ordeal among Greeks and Romans see K. H. Funkhanel 'Gotten"1

bei Griechen und Romern' in Philologus 1847 3S5—402, R. Hirzel Der Eld ^ ^
1902 pp. 182—219, G. Glotz L'ordalie dans la Grece primitive Paris 1904 pP' 1 ■J,_
P. Vinogradoff in J. Hastings Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics Edinburgh 19 '
52ia-b (Greek), A. C. Pearson ib. 528"—529b (Roman). ^ert.

2 Dion. Hal. ant. Rom. 2. 69, Yal. Max. 8. 1 absol. 5, Plin. nat. hist. 28. I2>
apol. 22, Liv. epit. 20, Aug. de civ. Dei 10. 16, 22. 11 (after Varro). ^ jloWe^

Plin. nat. hist. 28. 12 anno urbis Dxvnn (so codd. V (?). E. DCViin cod. R'>
D. Detlefsen.—VIII codd. d. T.). Liv. epit. 20 supports the earlier date.
4 Clarac Mas. de Sculpt, iv. 359^ pi. 771 figs. 1918, 1921, Reinach Rep- sta '

nos. 1,

5 Amelung Sculpt. Vatic, i. 780 no. 686 pi. 84. 4 p^de11

6 H. Hettner Die Bildwerke der koniglichen Antikensammlungzu Dresden

1881 no. 168. o j, 14

7 Montfaucon Antiquity Explained trans. D. Humphreys London i/21 4°
nos. 21 and 22.

8 Id. ib. London 1725 Suppl. i. 39 pi. 6 no. 4. 4 ; pi. 88

9 M. P. Levesque de Gravelle Recueil de pierresgravies antiques Paris 173
(Pierres de Stosch p. 434 no. 170), Reinach Pierres Gravies p. 77 no. 88 pi- 77- jiave

10 In both the statues published by Clarac the sieve is a restoration: they ^ jgdW
portrayed priestesses carrying baskets (Clarac loc. tit.). The statuette and ge"^e vaiiislie<i'
Montfaucon and Levesque de Gravelle do not inspire confidence, and seem to 1