DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8944#0029
MYCENAEAN TREE AND PILLAR CULT.
127
into a perfect work of art.1 Isolated survivals indeed were to be found, such
as the stone that represented the Thespian Eros or the wooden column of
the Theban Dionysos, but for the most part even the most ancient xoana were
already half human. The old baetylic and pillar forms, and the sacred trees
that overshadowed them, fall into the background to make way for the
anthropomorphic image of the divinity. Apollo leans gracefully against the
pillar or sits upon the omphalos that were the earlier material representa-
tives of his godhead. What had been already pictorially set foith by the
engravers of the Mycenaean signets now belongs to the realities of cult.
Where, as in a few of the most ancient sanctuaries of Greece, the old
tree and stone worship still held its own,2 it is interesting to notice that
this phenomenon generally coincides with the survival of the early ethnic
stratum that has most claim to represent, in part at least, the Mycenaean
element. The Pelasgic Zeus still abode among the oaks of Dodona.
Beside the Castalian spring the sacred plane-tree of Zeus Agamemnon and
the holy stone of refuge beneath it might claim precedence of the bay and
omphalos of the Delphic God. The plane of Helena at Sparta and that of
Menelaos at Kaphyae3 in Arcadia take us back to the same prehistoric
stratum of the population. The great Arcadian Zeus, whose only shrine was
the oak-woods of Mount Lykaeos, otherwise found his material shape in the
twin columns that rose upon its topmost height towards the rising sun, in
front of the mound that stood for his altar. The twin pillars, for which we
have seen a striking analogy at Knossos 4 in connexion with the Cretan Zeus,
had once borne upon them symbolic eagles of the God, indicative of the bird-
form under which, according to the widespread primitive belief, a spiritual
being descends upon the sacred stone or other object as its possession.5 So,
too, atTegea, Zeus Teleios was represented by a square image, and Pausanias
remarks that the 'Arcadians seem to have an excessive liking for this form.' 0
In Crete again, where the continuity of early tradition was also
exceptionally maintained, the same phenomenon confronts us. This is
indeed the classic land of the /3atTfXo?, the stone that Kronos swallowed,
and which in reality represents the earliest material form of the indigenous
Zeus. To the Cretan, too, as to the kindred Carian Zeus in his sanctuary at
Labranda, the plane was specially sacred. The planes of Gortyna and of
Theren, near Knossos, were celebrated for his union in the one case with
Europa, in the other with a Goddess represented as Hera in the later Greek
tradition. By Knossos, too, ' near the ruins of the house of Rhea/ was a very
1 On the survival of this aniconic cult in
historic Greece and its gradual transforma-
tion, see especially, L. R. Farnell, 'The Ori-
gins and Burliest Development of Greek
Sculpture,' Archaeolor/irnlReview, vol. ii. 1889,
p. 167 seqq. and his Cults of the Greek States,
i. p. 13 seqq.
2 For the materials hearing on this suhject
I need only refer to the exhaustive work of
Botticher, Dtr Baumlcultus der Htllenen.
3 Called Mt«\afs, Pans, viii, 23, 3.
4 See below, p. 170.
5 Pans. viii. 38, 7. M. Berard, De VOrigint
des Cultes Areadient, p. 73 seqq. has rightly
seen that the pillars here, like those of the
Phoenician Melkarth and other .Semitic ex-
amples, represent the God. But it is not
necessary to accept his conclusion that this
shows Phoenician or Semitic influence.
6 Paus. viii. 48, 6.
127
into a perfect work of art.1 Isolated survivals indeed were to be found, such
as the stone that represented the Thespian Eros or the wooden column of
the Theban Dionysos, but for the most part even the most ancient xoana were
already half human. The old baetylic and pillar forms, and the sacred trees
that overshadowed them, fall into the background to make way for the
anthropomorphic image of the divinity. Apollo leans gracefully against the
pillar or sits upon the omphalos that were the earlier material representa-
tives of his godhead. What had been already pictorially set foith by the
engravers of the Mycenaean signets now belongs to the realities of cult.
Where, as in a few of the most ancient sanctuaries of Greece, the old
tree and stone worship still held its own,2 it is interesting to notice that
this phenomenon generally coincides with the survival of the early ethnic
stratum that has most claim to represent, in part at least, the Mycenaean
element. The Pelasgic Zeus still abode among the oaks of Dodona.
Beside the Castalian spring the sacred plane-tree of Zeus Agamemnon and
the holy stone of refuge beneath it might claim precedence of the bay and
omphalos of the Delphic God. The plane of Helena at Sparta and that of
Menelaos at Kaphyae3 in Arcadia take us back to the same prehistoric
stratum of the population. The great Arcadian Zeus, whose only shrine was
the oak-woods of Mount Lykaeos, otherwise found his material shape in the
twin columns that rose upon its topmost height towards the rising sun, in
front of the mound that stood for his altar. The twin pillars, for which we
have seen a striking analogy at Knossos 4 in connexion with the Cretan Zeus,
had once borne upon them symbolic eagles of the God, indicative of the bird-
form under which, according to the widespread primitive belief, a spiritual
being descends upon the sacred stone or other object as its possession.5 So,
too, atTegea, Zeus Teleios was represented by a square image, and Pausanias
remarks that the 'Arcadians seem to have an excessive liking for this form.' 0
In Crete again, where the continuity of early tradition was also
exceptionally maintained, the same phenomenon confronts us. This is
indeed the classic land of the /3atTfXo?, the stone that Kronos swallowed,
and which in reality represents the earliest material form of the indigenous
Zeus. To the Cretan, too, as to the kindred Carian Zeus in his sanctuary at
Labranda, the plane was specially sacred. The planes of Gortyna and of
Theren, near Knossos, were celebrated for his union in the one case with
Europa, in the other with a Goddess represented as Hera in the later Greek
tradition. By Knossos, too, ' near the ruins of the house of Rhea/ was a very
1 On the survival of this aniconic cult in
historic Greece and its gradual transforma-
tion, see especially, L. R. Farnell, 'The Ori-
gins and Burliest Development of Greek
Sculpture,' Archaeolor/irnlReview, vol. ii. 1889,
p. 167 seqq. and his Cults of the Greek States,
i. p. 13 seqq.
2 For the materials hearing on this suhject
I need only refer to the exhaustive work of
Botticher, Dtr Baumlcultus der Htllenen.
3 Called Mt«\afs, Pans, viii, 23, 3.
4 See below, p. 170.
5 Pans. viii. 38, 7. M. Berard, De VOrigint
des Cultes Areadient, p. 73 seqq. has rightly
seen that the pillars here, like those of the
Phoenician Melkarth and other .Semitic ex-
amples, represent the God. But it is not
necessary to accept his conclusion that this
shows Phoenician or Semitic influence.
6 Paus. viii. 48, 6.