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)

The owl of Athena 815

together seem to have betokened the renewal of life after death. And this would agree
well enough with the observed habits of the tree (Theophr. hist. pi. 4. 13. 3 tvia. 5£
YVpa-TKet /xey Kai (j-qireTai rax^ws, Trapafikaaravei de ttoXlv £k t&v avTuiv, wffirep al 5a0ycu
Kai al HijXiai re Kai al p6ai Kai rCiv (pChiSpwv to. ttoKKo).

Thus pomegranates sprang from the blood-drops of Dionysos; whence women cele-
■ating the Thesmophoria would not eat pips of the pomegranate that fell on the ground
(Clem. Al. protr. 2. 19. 3 p. 15, 9 ff. Stahlin, Euseb. praep. ev. 2. 3. 28. ?cp. supra ii.
Il29)- The same fruit was taboo at the Athenian Haloia (schol. Loukian. dial. met. 7. 4
P" 28o, 22 Rabe), at the Eleusinian mysteries (Porph. de abst. 4. 16, cp. Artemid. oneirocr.

73), and in the Arcadian temple of Despoina (Paus. 8. 37. 7). Again, a pomegranate
Prang from the severed member of Agdistis; and Nana, who placed some of its fruit in
bosom, thereby conceived and became the mother of Attis (supra ii. 969 n. 4). Attis
s Pomegranates in his wreath (supra ii. 298 with fig. 189), and his priest holds one
t,ether with three pomegranate(?)-t\vigs (supra ii. 300 with fig. 193).
k On the common tomb of Eteokles and Polyneikes grew a pomegranate, said to have
n planted there by the Erinyes: its fruit bled, when plucked (Philostr. mai. imagg.
29' 4). On the tomb of Menoikeus near the Neistan gate of Thebes grew another
Pomegranate: when the rind of its fruit was broken, the inside looked like blood (Paus.

25- 1). A pomegranate, therefore, was desirable food for the dead, and figures fre-
quently on funeral monuments of the archaic period (Spartan stelai, ' Harpy' tomb, etc.).

fragmentary Laconian kylix in the British Museum shows a woman presenting a
-gOrnegranat:e to a seated man (supra i. 95 fig. 68). A polychrome Attic Ukythos at
(. Cr 'n depicts a stile, and a woman holding out four pomegranates on a plate for Charon
„ 'a^e (Furtwangler Vasensamml. Berlin ii. 765 no. 2680, F. von Duhn in the Arch. Zeit.
from X 20n?- no- 6 pi- 3 ( = my fig. 621), Reinach Rip. Vases i. 457, 4). AsimilarUkythos
■ m Alopeke near Athens, also at Berlin, has the dead man seated by his stile leaning on
°uple of spears. His chitdn is decorated with a sprig of pomegranates (green leaves,
s'arlrj6 ^rU'^' ant^ DOth chitbn and himdlion have a border of green leaves. On the right
gran s a'10'her man, whose himdtion is adorned in the same way with two large pome-
*ith e"SPri8s an|J with sundry separate leaves and fruits. On the left a maiden approaches
^0r^ a Dasket of offerings. She wears piplos and himdtion, the former decked with leafy
to s and two large pomegranate-sprigs, the latter with a third sprig of the same sort
Lei anSler Vasensamml. Berlin ii. 766 no. 2682, W. Riezler Weissgrundige Attische

Wen Miinchen r9i4 p. i4o f. pi. 92).
W]l0 . Pomegranate as the food of the Underworld recurs in the myth of Persephone,
+t2 T not remain on earth with Demeter because she had eaten one (h. Dem. 372,
seVgn pollod- i- 5. 3) or three (Ov.fast. 4. 607 ff., Lact. Plac. in Stat. Theb. 3. 511) or
462 ^ v" met- 5- 533 ff-, cp. Serv. in Verg. georg. 1. 39, interp. Serv. in Verg. Am. 4.
en8raved ^at' *" 2' 100^ P'PS °^ a Pomegranate growing in Hades' domain. An
hoM: amethyst in my collection shows, according to A. S. Murray, Persephone
c°Uectf a pome£ranate over against Demeter. A bronze statuette from the Payne Knight
her ra' ,1 'fPresents Persephone with a pomegranate in her left hand and a torch (?) in
nialjg u ri^'11 nand (Brit. Mas. Cat. Bronzes p. 179 no. 982). A bronze mirror at Paris
&ron« 61 stand- wi'h a pomegranate held out in her right hand (Babelon—Blanchet Cat.
Senate • ' ^ -Vat- P- 53° no- li20)- Persephone is often associated with a pome-
^sUall terra"cotta figures, the fruit or flower being regularly held against her bosom,
p. i0g n fruit is in ner right hand between her breasts (Brit. Mus. Cat. Terracottas
KekuU B •^amerrosi P- 110 no- K 223 Kameiros, p. 143 no. B 427 Sicily,
Mils. cafS Du Terrakotlen von Sicilicn Stuttgart—Berlin 1880 p. 59 fig- 121, cp. Brit.
as Wejj Terracottas p. 93 no. B 126 Kos, p. 234 no. C 474), occasionally in her left hand
her bre ' P' 87 nos- B 86 Melos, B 87 Melos); or a flower is in her right hand between
kfeeph818 and a fruit in ner 'eft under her left breast (/'*. p. 149 no. B 462 Lokroi
* Init yr'01 (?* (m)' fig. 622 is from E. Braun in the Ann. d. Inst. 1849 xxi. 114 ff., Mon.

right hand*'' ^' ^' 142 n0' B 418 ^amarina) ■ or sne's seate^ wltn tne frult in ner

°n her lap and the flower in her left hand on her left shoulder (ib. p. 137