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The Stuccoes of the Underground Basilica near the Porta Maggiore

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Extract

Few ancient monuments that have come to light of recent years have aroused so lively an interest amongst scholars or so widespread a curiosity in the general public as the subterranean building of basilican plan discovered in 1917 as if by chance near the Porta Maggiore in Rome. Its situation at a depth of 50 feet below the present level of the soil, the curious mode of its construction, the secrecy of its approach, the mystical character of its decoration led to the theory, put forward almost from the first, that this was probably the secret meeting-place of some religious pagan fraternity. Especially significant in this connexion are the symbolic and eschatological subjects of the stuccoes: the figures of Eros holding torches or playing with a butterfly, the scenes of rape and of liberation, the Victories carrying wreaths belong to the now well-known cycle of subjects that symbolise the aspiration of the soul towards the divine, her liberation from earthly ties and her final flight towards the celestial spheres. In the same way, the long series of reliefs representing sacred enclosures which completely surround the lower part of the walls; the scenes of preparation and of ritual discipline; those of initiation to the mysteries; the indications of a purgatorial Katharsis; the grand apocalyptic scene of the apse; the figures interpreted as Orantes or personified prayers; even the candelabra and other sacred furniture, recall rites by means of which the ancient devotees of the basilica might be initiated while still in this life to the bliss of the next. The subjects considered individually offer nothing either strange or unique, but what strikes our imagination and must certainly have struck that of any one who entered the basilica in antiquity, is to find so large a number of these subjects (their number is, I believe, about 117) so linked together as to cover the whole building with a perfectly logical and homogeneous decoration.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1924

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References

1 Bendinelli, has recently given (Bullettino Comunale, 19221923, pp. 144)Google Scholar a valuable analysis—preparatory no doubt to his larger work—of the decorative elements reproduced in the stuccoes, comparing them to contemporary tomb-stuccoes and paintings.

2 Upwards of thirty articles have appeared on the basilica. To those enumerated by Bendmelli, p. 4, n. 1, should be added Duhn, v., Arch. Anz., 1922, p. 102107Google Scholar; Hubaux, , Musée Belge, xxvii. 1923, pp. 181Google Scholar (‘Le Plongeon Rituel’); Strong, , Letter to Times, Aug. 25th, 1923Google Scholar; Strong, , in Wonders of the Past, pt. xxiv. pp. 11971204Google Scholar; Carcopino, J., Rev. Arch., xviii. 1923, pp. 123Google Scholar; Lietzmann, two important articles, Arch. Anz., 1924, p. 347351Google Scholar and in Vorträge der Bibliothek Warburg, 1924.—For questions of religious interpretation see especially Cumont, F. in Rev. Arch., 1918, pp. 5275Google Scholar, and Rassegna d'Arte, viii. 1921, p. 37, and Leopold, in Mélanges d' arch. et d'histoire, xxxix. 19211922.Google Scholar

2a Needless to say that before the official publication has appeared, no measure drawings could be made.

3 See especially, Gatti, , Not. d. Scavi, 1918, p. 30 ff.Google Scholar A really valuable account of the basilica was given soon after its discovery by Bagnani, G. in J.R.S., ix. 1919, pp. 7885.Google Scholar

4 The existence of the throne is disputed by Bendinelli, , Bull. Com., 1922, p. 32Google Scholar, who believes that a column for a statue stood here. For the apse, cf. Rivoira, T., Architettura Romana, 1921, p. 42.Google Scholar

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5a The old theory that Virgil in the Sixth Aeneid was transcribing into poetry actual rites of initiation, perhaps that of Augustus (see Conington, II, p. 425), may yet be justified in our basilica.

6 Lugli, , Riv. di Architettura, 1921, p. 209.Google Scholar See Carcopino, in Rev. Arch., xviii. 1923, p. 9.Google Scholar

7 Cumont, , Rev. Arch., 1918, p. 14.Google Scholar See also his After-Life in Roman Paganism, p. 23.

8 Bendinelli, who believes that the monument was a mausoleum (which seems impossible owing to the sacrificial remains), suggests that burial urns stood on the plinths, and he surmises that the vases of the frieze (below, p. 99) are copies of these.

9 This interesting comparison was first made by Sir Arthur Evans, at the meeting of the Hellenic Society, in October 1920.

10 Musée Belge, 1923, pp. 56 ff.

11 The decoration of the atrium is well analysed by Bendinelli, , Bull. Com., 1923, p. 9.Google Scholar

12 Bendinelli, p. 26, detects an amphora held mouth downwards in the hands of the winged genius whom he identifies with the Genius Aeternitatis carrying the εἴδωλον, and compares the similar figure in the Apotheosis of Antoninus and Faustina of the Antonine column (Strong, , Roman Sculpture, Pl. LXXXII.Google Scholar) in that of Augustus on the ‘Grand camée de France’ (ibid., Pl. XXXI.) and on the armour of the Augustus from Prima Porta (ibid., Pl. III.).

13 For the landscapes, birds and the general scheme see the paintings of the columbarium of Villa Doria Pamphili (Samter, , Roem. Mitt., viii. 1893)Google Scholar recently removed to the Museo delle Terme—a comparison also made by Bendinelli, p. 9.

14 Bendinelli (p. 10) notes similar decorative schemes in the Pyramid of Cestius from the close of the Republic, the Farnesina and altar reliefs.

15 Petersen, , Ann. d. Ist., 1861, pp. 191 ff.Google Scholar, and Mon. d. Ist., vi., Pls. XLIX.–LIII.

16 Garrucci, , Arte Cristiana, vi. p. 495.Google Scholar

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18 Cumont, , After-Life in Roman Paganism, pp. 134 ff.Google Scholar, and passim.

19 Cf. C.I.G. 6280 = I.G. xiv. 1389 (Tomb of Annia Regilla), line 8,

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20 Ronczewski, , Gewölbeschmuck im Römischen Altertum (1903), p. 25.Google Scholar

21 Cumont, , Rev. Arch., 1918, p. 56.Google Scholar Cf. (Hom. ‘Hymn to Aphrod.’ 207–8).

22 Sarcophagus at Pisa: below the portrait medallion of the deceased, Gany mede and the eagle between Oceanus and Gaia (Reinach, , R. R., iii. 113, 1Google Scholar).

23 Espérandieu, , Bas-reliefs de la Gaule Romaine, 3272Google Scholar: Ganymede holds in his hand an object which is partly broken off (a torch as in our stucco ?).

24 Espérandieu, 5628; Drexelin, F., Röm. Mitt., xxxv. 1920, p. 83Google Scholar; Strong, , Apotheosis and After-Life, p. 220.Google Scholar

25 Cf. Eros with inverted torch in ceiling of atrium.

26 Good examples on a stucco plaque in the Louvre (Alinari phot., p. 15); this doubtless comes from a columbarium. Eros as a symbol of the soul in the other world is common on sarcophagi. Cf. the quot. from Plutarch given by Cumont, p. 57, n. 1.

27 Strong, , Apotheosis, p. 195.Google Scholar The importance of Attis in Greek mystery ritual is evident from Dem., De Corona, 260, where the cry of Hyes Attis Attis Hyes is said to accompany the mystic dance. See Legge, , Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity, II. p. 138Google Scholar, and cf. Farnell, , Cults of the Greek State, V. p. 125.Google Scholar

28 I am informed that the Attis was adjusted later to the Portland vase but does not really belong to it. In this case it would be a sepulchral glass plaque.

29 Hepding, , Attis, p. 187Google Scholar; Cumont, , Oriental Religions in the Roman Empire, p. 55.Google Scholar Cf. Carcopino, , Attideia in Mélanges, 1923, pp. 135 ff.Google Scholar

30 That would be my opinion, but see Carcopino, in Rev. Arch., xviii. 1923, p. 6.Google Scholar

31 Robert, , Sarkophagreliefs, Pl. LVII. 180, 181Google Scholar; LVIII. 182; LIX. 184; also Reinach, , Reliefs, iii. 449Google Scholar; other examples cited by Leopold, p. 187, n. 4. The design seems best adapted to a circular medallion as in the tomb of the Arruntii (now lost), Piranesi, , Antichita Romane, iii. Pl. XIII.Google Scholar

32 Cf. Altmann, , Römische Grábaltãre der Kaiserzeit, Fig. 85, pp. 224 ff.Google Scholar Similar groups also occur in the decoration of secular buildings: Apollo on a griffin in Forum baths of Pompeii; armed figure riding a griffin in the centre of a ceiling from Villa Hadriana (Cameron, , Baths of the Romans, Pl. LXIX.Google Scholar).

33 Cabott, J. H., Stucchi figurati esistenti in un antico sepolcro fuori delle mura di Roma, 1795, Pl. I.Google Scholar, etc.

34 Medea wears a veil gleaming like silver, when she takes the magic ointment to Rhod, Jason. Ap., Argonautica, iii. 833.Google Scholar

35 Cf. also the voyage of Maelduin or of Bran, etc., in Celtic mythology: Cook, A. B., Folklore, xvii. 1906, pp. 141–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar; MacCulloch, J. A., Religion of the Ancient Celts, 1911, p. 385 ff.Google Scholar; cf. Köhler, , Kleineschriften, i. p. 53.Google Scholar

36 Pyth., iv. pp. 159–66 (according to Leopold ‘inexplicable’).

37 See Frazer, J. G., ‘The Serpent and the Tree of Life,’ in Essays to W. Ridgeway, pp. 413 ff.Google Scholar

38 For Dionysos (Liber Pater), cf. Hor., Epp., II. i. 5.; for Heracles, , Od. III. iii. 1214.Google Scholar

39 Bayet, J., ‘Hercule Funéraire,’ in Mélanges, xxxix. 19211922, pp. 219 f.Google Scholar

40 Espérandieu, 4485 (Spire); 5059 (Trèves); 5576 (Hagenau). Reinach, , Reliefs, ii. p. 58Google Scholar, Monument of Severinus Vitalis (Cologne).

41 E.g. Robert, III. i., Pl. XLII.

42 Bayet, p. 235.

42a Full ref. in Hartland, who (III. p. 37) suggests that the vase in the Vatican showing Jason coming out of the monster's mouth may possibly refer to a similar combat.

43 Also reproduced in Maass, , Orpheus, and see pp. 171 ff.Google Scholar

44 P.B.S.R., v. 1910, p. 468.

45 In the painting of Polygnotus in the Lesche at Delphi, Orpheus was represented touching a willow branch (Paus. 10, xxx. 6). Six., Ath. Mitt., 1894, p. 338, followed by Robert, C., Die Marathonachlacht in der Poikile, p. 122Google Scholar, suggests that Orpheus carried a willow branch with him at the time of his descent to Hades, and that this was the Golden Bough of Virgil.

46 Macchioro, , Zagreus, pp. 2842.Google Scholar

47 Robert, ii. Pl. I.

48 See the ref. in Roscher, s.v. ‘Helena’ col. 1969.

49 Delbrück, , Jahrbuch, 1913, pp. 217Google Scholarsq. (see esp. p. 302).

50 We may also compare a mosaic of the Conservatori Coll., where Iphigenia (standing), with the image of the goddess in her right arm, is speaking to Orestes, who sits on a plinth and gazes at her intently (B.S.R., Cat. Mus. Conserv., Gall. Sup., No. 10). It has been suggested that the pair are Helen and Diomedes, but the priestly veil and wreath seem more appropriate to Iphigenia.

51 Cf. also the Scene on the Ara in Florence (Reinach, , R. R., iii. 31, 2Google Scholar).

52 Cf. Proclus (p. 19, ed. Kink).

53 Bartoli-Didot, , Recueil de Peintures Antiques, i. 13.Google Scholar (Cf. Garrucci, , Vetri figurati in oro, Pl. XXXV.Google Scholar, where Heracles takes the hand of Athena.) The type seems to derive from a wall painting of the first century A.D. (Robert, iii. p. 162). In early imperial times kissing the hand was a form of saluting the emperor.

54 It resembles in some particulars wall paintings of Apollo in the service of Admetus. Heibig, , Wandgemälde, 220 and 221Google Scholar; Reinach, , R. P., p. 28, 1 and 8.Google Scholar

55 Mon, d. Ist., vi., vii. Pl. LVII.

56 Papers of British School at Rome, V. 1910, p. 466 (Ashby, ).Google Scholar

57 See Hubert, in Saglio, art. ‘magia,’ p. 1497.Google Scholar

58 Cf. the scene on the end of a sarcophagus at Athens (Reinach, , R. R., ii. p. 406Google Scholar).

58a A religions meaning should doubtless be attributed to the games and scenes from the palaestra in the reliefs of the two bases found in 1922 near the Athenian Ceramieus.—J.H.S. xlii. 1922, Pls. VI. and VII. (style of end of sixth century, B.C.).

59 Dietrich, , Mithrasliturgie, 3rd ed. (Weinreich, ), p. 121 ff.Google Scholar

60 Cf. grave reliefs from Arion, (Espérandieu) 4103; Neumagen, 5149; Narbonne, 619. For the symbolic meaning of these scenes see Strong; Apotheosis, p. 219; against this view see Cumont, , Comment la Belgique fut romanisée, p. 91Google Scholar, who sees no mystic allusion in these reliefs, but merely pride on the part of parents in the education given to their children.

61 Schreiber, , Hell. Reliefs, Pls. XLVL–XVLIII.Google Scholar; B.S.R., , Cat. Mus. Conserv., p. 29 (Galleria, ) No. 26AGoogle Scholar; cf. B.S.R., , Cat. Mus. Cap., p. 470Google Scholar (‘Filosofi,’ p. 118).

61a See Harrison, J. E. in Hastings' Dict. of R. and E., s.v. ‘Initiation, Greek,’ p. 322.Google Scholar

62 Reinach, , R. R., ii. p. 291.Google Scholar

63 Samter, E., Röm. Mitt., 1893, pp. 105141Google Scholar; Reinach, , R. P., p. 316, 4Google Scholar; 6; 7.

64 Cf. Berger, , Kosmographie der Griechen, 1904, p. 21 ff.Google Scholar

64a See Hubert, in Saglio, art. ‘magia,’ p. 1505Google Scholar and Albizzati, in Rend. Accad. Pont. Arch. Romana, p. 191.Google Scholar

65 Parallels in Reinach, , R. R., ii. 285, 286, 298.Google Scholar

66 Cf. Usener, , De Iliadis Carmine quodam Phocaico (Kleine Schriften, iii., pp. 411459—esp. p. 427).Google Scholar

67 Cumont, , After-Life in Roman Paganism, p. 156.Google Scholar

68 Cf. Farnesina Stuccoes (Gusman, , Art Décoratif de Rome, Pl. LXXIV.Google Scholar).

69 Cf. Tomb of Valerii (Petersen, , Annali 188, pp. 348sq.Google Scholar), where the greater part of the decoration consists of nymphs riding sea-creatures, symbolising the voyage of the soul.

70 Cf. Farnesina Stuccoes (Gusman, Pl. XXXVI.).

71 Harrison, J. E., Prolegomena, 2nd ed. p. 517.Google Scholar

72 Robert, iii. 2, Pls. LI.–LVI.

73 Bendinelli, p. 29 and Fig. 4.

73a Memoriae della classe di scienze morali etc. (Accad. Lincei), xvi. 1920, p. 36 ff. and Pl. II.

74 Burnet, J.: Early Greek Philosophy, p. 90.Google Scholar

75 Cf. figure on an altar in the Uffizi, Florence (Boscher, s.v. ‘Pentheus,’ Fig. 6).

75a On the magical property of the key, see Hubert, in Saglio, art. ‘magia,’ p. 1508Google Scholar; ibid., Vallois, art. ‘serra,’ p. 247.

75b Cf. Dietrich, , Mithrasliturgie, 3rd ed. (Weinreich, ), p. 123Google Scholar and Legge, , Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity, i. p. 145.Google Scholar

76 Furtwängler brings out this meaning of the griffin in Ionian art, Sitzungsber. der philos. philol. Classe of the Bavarian Academy, 1897, p. 136 and Pl. IX. (terracotta frieze). The significance of the sphinx in our stuccoes must likewise be that of the watchful guardian (see Nicole in Saglio, s.v. sphinx). Bendinelli mentions leopards among the creatures of this frieze, but owing to the great height and the curves of the vault, details are difficult to make out.

77 Cf. Strong, , Apotheosis, p. 209Google Scholar; griffins appear on the short ends of the well-known tomb (Tomba di Nerone) on the Via Cassia, and they decorate the frieze of the temple of Apollo at Miletus (Louvre).

78 E. g. Strong, , Apotheosis, Pl. XXVI.Google Scholar

79 Cf. Seneca, , Apocol. 13Google Scholar, where Hermes veils the head of Claudius before conducting him below.

80 Lugli, in Riv. di Architettura e Arti decorative, i. 1921, p. 241Google Scholar, Fig. 24 (Heracles leading Aleestis).

81 Cf.P.B.S.R. vii., Pls. XXVI., XXVII., where priestesses are attended by young girls. Groups of initiates shown engaged in a sort of ‘sacra conversazione’ are common in this class of wall paintings. The ‘Aldobrandini marriage’ may be another example: I have pointed this out in my lectures on Roman painting. Cf. also Buren, E. D. Van in J.R.S., ix. 1919, p. 224.Google Scholar

82 Cf. Nonnus, , Dionys., xiv. 261sqq.Google Scholar, xxiv. 139 sqq. For the whole question ot the kid in Dionysiac and Orphic ritual, see Reinach, S., Cultes, mythes et religions, ii., pp. 122 ff.Google Scholar, and Cook, A. B., Zeus, pp. 675 f.Google Scholar Cf. also Mon. d. Ist., xii., Pl. XLII. (Farnesina, ).Google ScholarFurtwängler, , Antike Gemmen, Pl. LXV. p. 46Google Scholar, shows a Maenad suckling a panther.

83 Cf. Seneca, , Troades, 942Google Scholarsq: — Polyxene miseranda, quam tradi sibi Cineremqtie Achilles ante mactari suum Campo maritus ut sit Elysio iubet.

84 Cf. painting of same subject, Röm. Mitt., 1890, p. 232.

85 The passage noted in this connexion by Reinach, op. cit., is of extraordinary importance for the ritual of the mysteries. Cf. Foucart, , Les associations religieuses, p. 67.Google Scholar

86 Cf. painting from ‘house of Livia’ in the Palatine. Rostowzew, (Röm. Mitt., 1911, Fig. 2)Google Scholar, and cf. Fig. 21 (= Naples, 9413) and Hellenistic relief in Palazzo Colonna at Rome (Schreiber, Pl. XV.).

87 The act of kneeling in ritual had hitherto been only established for the Mithraic religion (Cumont, , Textes et monuments, etc., ii. p. 62Google Scholar).

88 Cf. Farnesina stuccoes; Rostowzew, Fig. 13, and fragment of a Hellenistic relief at Berlin (Schreiber, Pl. LXVIII.).

89 Cf. colonnade in Farnesina stuccoes; Helbig-Amelung, Führer, n. 1327; Lessing and Mau, Pl. XIV.

90 Cf. Farnesina stuccoes; Gusman, , Art Décoratif de Rome, Pl. LXXII.Google Scholar

91 Ruesch, , Mus. Naz. di Napoli, n. 1478Google Scholar: among the ‘piccoli paesaggi’ are a great many of this type; e.g. 9486, 9396, etc. See also Rostowzew, Fig. 20 (‘Pompeii,’ vii., 15, 12), Fig. 29, Figs. 15–18, etc.

92 Cf. Rostowzew, Pls. I. and II.; yellow frieze from House of Livia; also paintings from columbarium of Villa Doria-Pamphili, now at Museo d. Terme, Samter, E., Rom. Mitt., 1893, pp. 105141Google Scholar, and Rostowzew, Figs. 6–8.

93 Paribeni, , Terme di Diocleziano, pp. 451456Google Scholar; Helbig-Amelung, ii., pp. 1327–1332 (with reff.); Gusman, , Art Décoratif de Rome, Pls. LXXII., LXXIII.Google Scholar

94 Pfuhl also discusses the different kinds of epithemata; for the use of tympana as sepulchral offerings he compares Anth. Pal., vii. 485:

95 E.g. Dessau 8342, etc.

96 Cf. C.I.L., vi. 3708: Custos sepulcri … deus; and cf. C.I.L., v. 3634; Priapus ego sum mortis et vitai locus.

97 Cf. C.I.L., ii. 6054: Veneri sacrum in H. mem. Postumiae Marcellinae. C.I.L., vi. 10958: D.M. Sacrum Deanae (sic) et memoriae Aeliae Proculae. C.I.L., x. 7541: In honorem filiae … Iunoni sacrum.

98 For the custom of deifying the dead, cf. Orelli 4588: Deae dominae Rufiae Maternae aram et Iucum consacravit Mucronia Marcia et ei omnibus annis sacrum instituit … natali Maternae. C.I.L., vi. 15696: … inter deas adorando.

99 For this passage we are indebted to Mr. G. McN. Rushforth; cf. also Apuleius, , Met., 8, 7Google Scholar: … imagines defuncti quas ad habitum dei Liberi formaverat, … divinis percolens honoribus.

100 Bendinelli, who has made a detailed study of the architectonic features, points out the likeness to tombs found in the excavations of Ostia, Porto and Pompeii.

101 Saglio-Pottier, s.v. Oscilla; also Boetticher, , Baumkultus, p. 833.Google Scholar At first the name applied only to masks of Bacchus hung on trees; cf. Servius on Virg., Georg., ii. 389; Aeneid, vi. 741, xii. 603. But later the name was applied to all kinds of other objects to which were transferred the purificatory functions of the original oscilla.

102 See the important passage in Cumont, , After-Life, p. 143.Google Scholar

103 Campana, , Antiche opere in Plastica, Pls. XCV., XCVIGoogle Scholar, cf. Pls. XCIV., XCVIII.; Kohden-Winnefeld, pp. 144 ff.

104 The one on the left appears to be male.

105 Figures similar to these—with hands raised, and standing on high plinths—appear in a series of stucco plaques at Carlsberg, Ny, Billedtavler, lxx.Google Scholar

106 I take these to be not merely praying figures but symbols of prayer; see Walter, G. P., Altchristliche Liturgien; das Christliche Mysterium, 1921, p. 1611.Google Scholar

107 Cf. lustration of new-born infants Pind., Olymp., i. 40; Nonn., Dionys., xxv. 490; Plautus, , Amphit., 1102.Google Scholar The parallel might be intentional, as initiates were thought of as beginning a new life. The combination of vine branch and crown appears in a mosaic from Hadrian's Villa: Pfuhl, , Malerei u. Zeichnung der Griechen, iii.Google Scholar, Fig. 694.

108 Cf. Firmicus Mat. loc. cit., tibiarum cantu et cymbalorum tinnitu crepundia quibus puer deceptus fuerat mentiuntur.

109 These rings were called κρίκοι and were added to make a pleasant sound as the hoop moved along. Antyll. ap. Oribasius vi. 26. Cf. Martial, xiv. 168–169. For use with a religious meaning, cf. statuette of Zeus (Cook, A. B., Zeus, p. 289Google Scholar, Fig. 209) wearing hoop with nine S-shaped pendants.

110 Reinach, , R. R., iii. 153Google Scholar; Alinari phot. 27540.

111 Dütschke, , Ant. Bildw. in Oberitalien, v., p. 161, n. 102Google Scholar; Saglio, Fig. 7101.

112 Ruesch, , Mus. Naz. di Napoli, p. 394, and 1827, n. 9578.Google Scholar The figure is probably not that of an athlete. The attitude, generally associated with Apollo or Dionysus, suggests that the dead boy has been deified.

113 Note that in the restricted space of the frieze above the arches, oscilla take the place of the ritual tables and urns.

114 J.R.S., III., Pl. IX.; Rizzo, , Dionysos Mystes, Pl. II.Google Scholar

115 Cf. Cumont, , After-Life in Roman Paganism, p. 119Google Scholar, for actions transferred from the palaestra to ritual.

116 For the composition see relief in Villa Albani, Reinach, , R. R., 138, 3Google Scholar (Amelung, W., Herakles bei den Hesperiden, 80th Winckehnannsprogr., 1923Google Scholar), and cf. the so-called ‘Heracles and Hebe’ of another Albani relief, Reinach, , R. R., 139, 3.Google Scholar It is unusual to represent Heracles seated, as in our stucco, on a stool.

117 This is the subject of the central group of the fine sarcophagus in the Brit. Mus. (Cat. No. 2300), where it probably stands for the hero's own apotheosis. For the Hesperides see also Bayet, p. 256.

118 Bendinelli, p. 23. Cf. Skyphos of Boeotian fabric; Cook, A. B., Zeus, vol. i., Fig. 165, p. 224.Google Scholar Demeter hands ears of corn to Triptolemus who is holding a plough; as in our relief, the winged car is absent.

119 Cook, A. B., Zeus, p. 228Google Scholar, Fig. 167.

120 On the funerary rôle of Satyrs and Sileni see Bayet, , Hercule Funéraire, pp. 122, 150, 162.Google Scholar

121 In the Lateran: Gusman, , Art Décoratif de Rome, Pl. XXVII.Google Scholar

122 But see Bagnani, , J.B.S. 1919, pp. 81 f.Google Scholar

123 Lugli, in Riv. d. Architettura e Arti Decorative, i. 1921, p. 239Google Scholar, Fig. 23 (Victory with crown and garland).

124 Ashby, , P.B.S.R., i. 1902, p. 179Google Scholar, Fig. 6 (Victory with garland).

124a For the first suggestion that the apse scene might imply ‘Apotheosis by water,’ I am indebted to Prof. Stuart-Jones. The following pages, save for the modifications necessitated by M. Carcopino's discovery of the Plinian text relating to Sappho and the Pythagoreans, are a literal translation of the paper read before the Pontifical Academy in 1922.

125 Not. d. Scavi, 1918, pp. 39 ff.

126 Rev. Arch., 1918, pp. 52 ff.

127 Amer. Journ. of Arch., xxiv. 1920, pp. 146 ff.

128 Rassegna d'Arte, 1921, pp. 38 sqq.

129 Rev. Arch., xviii. 1923, pp. 1–23 (see p. 20 for the light the new Plinian text throws on the magicae superetitiones for which Statilius Taurus was condemned).

129a Prof. Halkin of Liège, whom I met accidentally in the basilica, points out to me that only the curve of the apse makes the so-called Sappho appear to bend forward. Looked at from the opposite side and close to, the figure is seen to be perfectly vertical, and to be descending quietly by the help of three ledges cut in the rock.

130 Od., xxiv. II.

131 Glotz, , L'Ordalie dans la Grèce primitive, pp. 40 ff.Google Scholar and passim.

132 Usener, , Götternamen, p. 328Google Scholar: ‘Phaon is the ferryman who ferries the Souls across the Ocean to the Lichtland of the gods.’ Cf. his Sintflutssagen, p. 191 and passim.

132a See now Carcopino, in Rev. Arch., xviii. 1923, p. 19Google Scholar, note 3.

133 See Sintflutssagen, p. 27 ff.

134 Dieterich, : Nekuia, p. 215.Google Scholar

135 L'Ordalie, pp. 15, 34, and passim.

136 Golden, Bough, one vol. ed., p. 579.

137 Zeus, p. 345.

138 Cf. Cumont, , After-Life in Roman Paganism, p. 185Google Scholar; I regret that a paper on the subject by Eitrem, S., noted in the Year's work for Classical Studies, 1923, p. 52Google Scholar, has not been accessible to me. Another trace of purification by air seems to have survived in the story of Timagoras and Meles told by Pausanias, I. 30, i., in which Reinach, S., Cultes, ii. pp. 201 f.Google Scholar, justly sees a counterpart to the story of the Lovers' Leap. But the two cocks placed in the arms of the statue that commemorated the event recall the feathers and birds tied to Strabo's criminals (also observed by Hubaux, p. 32, who sees a further allusion to the feathers in Ovid's pennas suppone cadenti).

139 Weege, , Etruskische Malerei, p. 34Google Scholar and Figs. 58–60.

140 Brizio, , Bulletino, 1873, p. 82.Google Scholar

141 Heinemann, M., Landschaftliche Elemente in der Griechischen Kunst, p. 48.Google Scholar

142 Sappho und Simonides, p. 26.

143 Examples are innumerable; sarcophagus in Antiqua, S. Maria in the Forum, Gruneisen; Ste Marie Antique, p. 78, Fig. 50AGoogle Scholar; pediment of sepulchral stele in Louvre, Alinari, 22725; a scene so far unexplained from a vase in Athens (Reinach, , R. V., p. 415Google Scholar; Pfuhl, , Malerei u. Zeichnung der Griechen, iii., Fig. 281Google Scholar) may also be one of ordeal by water (man held by a rope plunging into the sea, dolphins, etc.), and we would suggest the possibility of a like explanation for the enigmatic relief in the B.M. Cat. of Greek Sculpt., 2308, Pl. XXVIII.

144 Martha, , L'Art Etrusque, p. 406.Google Scholar

145 Welcker, , Kleine Schriften, ii., p. 80.Google Scholar

146 Carcopino, (Virgile et les Origines d'Ostie, p. 110)Google Scholar shows that the story of the Vestal Tuccia, who in order to prove her innocence brought back Tiber water in a sieve, conceals an old ordeal of the Vestals by the water of the Tiber; according to the same scholar we have the further trace of an ordeal by water in the story of the exposure of the twins Romulus and Remus by their mother, the Vestal Rhea Sylvia.

147 Pfuhl, iii., Fig. 127.

148 Simonides, ed. Bergk. 4, iii. pp. 404 ff.

149 Glotz, p. 116.

150 Gnecchi, , Med. Rom., ii., Pl. LXVIII.Google Scholar 1 (medallion of Faustina), and cf. Pl. LXXVI, 3 (medallion of Lucilla).

151 Buti, C., Pitture Antiche della Villa Negroni (1778), Pls. I. and III.Google Scholar = Röm. Mitt., xxxiv. 1919, Pl. I. 2 (Krieger, ).Google Scholar

152 Röm. Mitt., 1899, Pl. VII. p. 154.

153 Delattre, , Rev. Arch., 1913, pp. 318 ff.Google Scholar

154 See Strong, E., Letter to The Times, Aug. 25, 1923.Google Scholar

155 Rassegna d' Arte, 1921, p. 39.

156 Usener, , Kleine Schriften, iii. p. 463Google Scholar; see now Cumont, After-Life in Roman Paganism, whole of eh. v.

157 Rev. Arch., 1918, pp. 19 ff.

158 Bartoli-Bellori, , Pitture antiche del Sepolcro dei Nasonii, Pls. IV. and V.Google Scholar; cf. Rodenwaldt, in Röm. Mitt., xxxii., 1917, p. 1 ff.Google Scholar For the Gabii tomb see above, note 121.

159 Strzygowski, , Orient oder Rom., Pl. I.Google Scholar

160 Bull. Com. Arch., 1917, pp. 5 ff.

161 Michaelis, , Arch. Jahrb., xxv., 1910, p. 101126Google Scholar; Engelmann, , Antike Bilder in Römischen Handschriften, 1909Google Scholar; Ashby, , P.B.S.R., vii. pp. 162Google Scholar; viii. pp. 35–54.

162 See especially Leopold, , Mélanges, 1921, p. 191.Google Scholar