The Akanthos column at Delphi

= LOER KIN, EN ‘ According to an clegy which Pythagoras is said to have written at Delphi, Apollo, the son of Seilenos, was slain by the Python and buried in the so-called tripod which received its name from the fact that the three daughters of Triopas mourned him.’ That this strange reversal of Delphic tradition was Pythagoreanis suggested by the statement of Hesychis that the Pythagorean name for the tripod was rpiob.® The only other record of tbe death of Apollo is that of Mnaseas who assembled and published the oracles of lciphi.* He says that Apollo was killed by a thunderbolt of Zeus, and was carried out tı burial. In this version Apollo may have been confused with his son Amphiaraos, who entered the earth through an opening made by a thunderbolt. Be that as it may, the | elphic elegy may not be dismissed as a later fancy of no value. The mention of the daughters of Triopas at once directs attention to Knidos. It was a Lacedaecmon:an colony® founded by Triopas,® whence their territory was called Triopion.” One ‘radition made him a son of Helios.” The Dorian hexapolis to which Knidos belonge:: celebrated games at the temple of the Triopian Apollo.’ Three other members of thc confederacy were the Rhodian cities Ialysos, Lindos, and Kamiros whose founders were the children of Helios, and this Helios the son of Akantho.” Triopas looks like an early Apollo of solar character. In view of his importance in Apollin: tradition in the region of Knidos it is not surprising that the Knidians dedicated a statue of Triopas at Delphi.” Otherrdedications of the same city at the same sanctuary «ind possibly at the same time included images of Leto, Apollo, and Artemis, a group showing the Apolline company kept by Triopas. The possible relationship of Triopa+ to Akantho becomes the more likely in the presence of a city Akanthosin the Knidi:n Chersonese.” For another city so named one turns to Egypt where south of Memphis Strabo found an Akanthos with an important sanctuary of Osiris and a grove of xkanthos.” Further at Abydos, where was the burial place of the same god, there was a sanctuary, according to Hellanikos,'* with white and black 1 For helpful criticisms I wish to thank Dr. Oscar Broneer. 2 Porphyry, Vit. Pyticy., 16. Pythagoras wrote another epigram for the tomb of Zeus in Crete (ibid., 17). 3 Hesychios, s. v. * Herodotos, loc. cit. 4 Müller, F.H.G., UE. >. 152, no. 16. 5 Herodotos, I, 17-4. 8 Pausanias, N, 11, 1. 8 Diodoros, V, 56. 9 Herodotos, I, 144. 10 Cicero, De nat. dee san, II, 54: the fourth Helios according to the theologians. 21 Pausanias, X, 11, !. 12 Steph. Byz., 5.2". “Axavos. 13 Strabo, 809, 35. 4 Athenaios, 679 f.

Reviewed work(s): Source: Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Vol. 10, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1941), pp. 373-380 Published by: The American School of Classical Studies at Athens Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/146669 . Accessed: 15/03/2012 16:27 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. The American School of Classical Studies at Athens is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. http://www.jstor.org

According to an elegy which Pythagoras is said to have written at Delphi, Apollo, the son of Seilenos, was slain by the Python and buried in the so-called tripod which received its name from the fact that the three daughte-rsof Triopas mourned him.2 That this strange reversal of Delphic tradition was Pyth-agoreanis suggested by the statement of Hesychios that the Pythagorean name for the tripod was rpt'oi.3 The who assembled and pubonly other record of the death of Apollo is that of MVinaseas lished the oracles of Delphi.4 He says that Apollo was killed by a thunderboltof Zeus, and was carried out to burial. In this version Apollo may lhave been confused with his son Amphiaraos, who entered the earth through an opening made by a thunderbolt. Be that as it may, the Delphic elegy may not be dismissed as a later fancy of no value. The mention of the daughters of Triopas at once directs attention to Knidos. It was a Lacedaemonian colony founded by Triopas,6 whence their territory was called Triopion.7 One tradition made him a son of Helios.8 The Dorian hexapolis to which Knidos belonged celebratedgames at the temple of the Triopian Apollo.9 Three other members of the confederacy were the Rhodian cities Ialysos, Lindos, and Kamiros whose founders were the children of Helios, and this Helios the son of Akantho.'0 Triopas looks like an early Apollo of solar character. In view of his importance in Apolline tradition in the region of Knidos it is not surprising that the Knidians dedicateda statue of Triopas at Delphi.1"Other dedications of the same city at the same sanctuary and possibly at the same time included images of Leto, Apollo, and Artemis, a group showing the Apolline company kept by Triopas. The possible relationship of Triopas to Akantho becomes the more likely in the presence of a city Akanthos in the Knidian Chersonese.12For another city so named one turns to Egypt where south of Memphis Strabo found an Akanthos with an important sanctuary of Osiris and a grove of akanthos."3Further at Abydos, where was the burial place of the same god, there was a sanctuary, according to Hellanikos,"4with white and black For helpful criticisms I wish to thank Dr. Oscar Broneer. Porphyry, Vit. Pythag., 16. Pythagoras wrote another epigram for the tomb of Zeus in Crete (ibid., 17). 7 Herodotos, loc. cit. 3Hesychios, s. v. 4 Muller, F.H.G., III, p. 152, no. 16. 8 Diodoros, V, 56. 5 Herodotos, I, 174. 9 Herodotos, I, 144. 0 Pausanias, X, 11, 1. 10 Cicero, De nat. deorum, III, 54: the fourth Helios according to the theologians. 11 Pausanias, X, 11, 1. '3 Strabo, 809, 35. 14 12 Athenaios, 679 f. Steph. Byz., s. v. "AKavOos.

akianthoiupon the flower of which were set garlands of pomegranate and vine. Their sepulchral character is proved by a story attributed to Demetrios."5 When the Ethiopians who were on their way to Troy learned of the death of Memnon, whose mother was the sister of Helios, they placed garlands upon the akanthoi in the sanctuary at Abydos. These garlands were probablyof pomegranates and vine like those jtst previously mentioned in Athenaios. The akanthos here reveals a distinctly 16 suggests a sepulchral significance, while the description of its flower as EvfEyyE' solar character. The theory of a Rhodian origin for the akanthos of Abydos 17 is especially interesting because on the island of Rhodes Helios, Apollo, and DIionysos were considered by some to be one and the same deity.'" The discarded etymology which derived the name of the city KPt48ogfrom KVi'S, Kvt8O6, "nettle," has very miuch in its favor. With this mythological background one may turn to the akanthos column at Delphi (Fig. 1). The theory of Keramopoullos'" that the Aml-peliotaiof Libya dedicated the column, that the leaves are not those of the akanthos but rather of the silphium plant, and that the three maidens are the H-eesperidescannot be true. There is no mention in ancient literature of any architectural use of the silphium, whereas there is of the akanthos. Further there is no reason for making the Hesperides of Libya dance about the tripod of Apollo at Delphi. The theory rests on the slender basis that according to one Alexandrides of Delphi " the Libyan city of Ampelos sent a stalk of silphium to the Pythian sanctuary. T4heakanthos shaft was apparently very rare in ancient Greece. The Delphic example is dated with certainty before 373 and may be as early as 400." That the dedication at Delphi was appropriate is shown by the akanthos column with superimposed tripod in a painting on a red-figured crater from Thebes.22 Near by are figures of Apollo and Dionysos. Here the tripod is 16 Ibid., 680b Ibid., 680b. Crusius in Pauly-Wissowa, R.E., s. v. Akantho, col. 1147. 78 Dio Clhrys., Or., XXXI, 570r. It is significanitthat all tlhree were represented in the gables of Apollo's temlipleat Delphi. '9 Jour. Iuit. d' Arch. Numt., 1907, pp. 302 ff., 307, 309 note. '08-y'o 7v AcXCov,p. 129. 20 M:uller, F.H.G., Ir1, p. 107. 21 Praschniker, Zur Geschichte des Akroters (1929), pp. 48 ff., who lists the various opinions as to the date of the coltumn. An earlier examiipleof a fluted buitcurved stalk with rinigs of leaves is furnished by the acroteria of the Parthenon, although they may have been somewhat later in date than the temiple. A much greater resemblance to the akanthos colutminin general composition is seen in the silphium of Cyrenaean coins. The stalk of the silphium here is not only extremely thick and straight but is vertically ribbed in a way to suggest flutes. Very comnmonis the tyl)e with three rings of leaves, a numnberfound also on an Athenian lekythos. Athenian sepulchral stelae share with the Cyrenaean coins the rep)resentationof two leaves in profile to right andI left, and a third nmidwaybetween these and bending forward in foreshortened view. The silphium was well known in Athens in the days of Aristophanes as a plant of great value (Aristophanes, Pluttus, 925). Aristaios, the son of Apollo, was said to be the first to cultivate the silphium. Figured by Homolle, B.C.H., XXXII, 1908, p. 217.

THE AKANTHOS Apolline, but that on the monument of Lysikrates with its supporting leaves of akanthos is Dionysiac. The Delphic shaft with rings of akanthos leaves is encircled at the top by three maidens (Fig. 2). They have been called Caryatids and their action Fig. 1. The Akanthos Column at Delphi (Restored) Fig. 2. The " Caryatids " of the Akanthos Column described as a dance about the tripod which once surmounted the shaft. They are rather the three daughters of Triopas whose statue was set up in the same sanctuary, and their dance is about the tripod as the tomb of the god."3 It was the dance about They may be represented with Apollo in an Athenian vase painting (Gerhard, A.V., I,

the tripod which accompaniedthe invocation of Apollo to return from the north, i. e., to come to life again. Such invocation by Alkaios survives in a prose version by Trept Trv rp-ro8a rov 0EO Himerios: --- Xopovs -VOE'WV mrUT/o-avrE9,OEKaLXovv eT7rEp_ 'v /8Op&GV EX6OELV.24That Pythagoras had this tradition in mind when he wrote his elegy is indicated by the belief of his followers that he was Apollo from the Hyperboreans.25 He was thus identified with the god who spent the winter months in " a paradise of pious mortals 26 and whose epiphany at Delphi was celebrated in February. The epigram interpreted the absence of Apollo in the north as the death of the god. The nmaidensof the akanthos shaft wear a short garment and a kalathos which should be comparedwith those of the male dancers on the portal of the hero6n at Trysa, a burial place of the late fifth centtury.27Perhaps the Lycian prince buried there was identified with the Lycian Apollo and like the god was invoked with a dance. It follows from this interpretation that the akanthos column was a dedication of Triopian Knidos which built a treasury and set up a statue of Triopas in the sanctuary at Delphi. The sepulchral symbolism of this akanthos of " Nettle City " is the same as that of the akanthos on the base of the omphalos28 which was the tomb of the Python.29 Nor can the appearanceof the akanthos shaft in the paintings on the white ground lekythoi of definitely sepulchral purpose be dismissed as merely decorative. In these the column may have one. two, or three rings of leaves springing from the base, middle, and top. The largeness of the cluster of leaves at the base shows that the idea of an akanthos growing on a grave has survived the conventionalization of the stem into a column.30Further indication of the chthonic significance of this kind of column is given by a vase painting of the underworld.3' Within an aedicula sit Persephone and Hades, the latter holding a kantharos." The rear columns of the aedicula are Ionic but those in front consist in the lower half of five akanthos clusters, one immediatelyabove the other. This compressionis secondary. They were originally spaced on the shaft. Above these is a nude female figure which serves as a Caryatid. 25 Diog. Laert., Pythagoras, 11; cf. Cook, Zeus, II, pp. 222-223. Or., XIV, 10. Cf. Jebb on Bacchylides, III, 59. 27 Benndorf, Das Heroon vonqGjalbaschi-Trysa, pl. IV; cf. F. Weege, Der Tan2-in der Antike, 47. p. 28 Daremberg et Saglio, Dictiontnaire,s. vz.omnphalos, fig. 5405. A vase from a grave at Centuripe has an egg-shaped finial (miniature omphalos?) with akanthos leaves at its base (Metropolitan Museum 5tudies, II, 1930, p. 189, fig. 2). 24 26 29 Hesychios, s. v. To,tov 8ovvo's. 30 Riezler, Weissgrundige attische LekWthen,pls. 57, 68, akanthos at base only where it cannot be arclhitectural(cf. ibid., text, p. 123) ; pl. 69, akanthos at base and middle; pl. 94, akanthos at base, middle, and top; pl. 70, akanthos at base and top; pls. 72-73, akanthos at top only. This type approaches most closely the Corinthian column. 31 Baumeister, Denkmtnler,III, p. 1927, fig. 2042a; Spinazzola, Le Arti Decorative in Pomtpeii, pl. 203. The date of the vase is the fourth century. 32 The resemblance of the Hades to the Dionysos of a Theban krater (B.C.H., XXXII, p. 217) is striking.

THE AKANTHOS This superposition of the female figure on the akanthos is another version of the superposition in the Delphic shaft while the female figure may be the ultimate source of the remark of Vitruvius that the Corinthian column imitated the gracefulness of a maiden. The combination of the Ionic and the akanthos shafts in the aedicula is as curious as the combination of the Ionic and the Corinthian in the temple of the Phigaleians. Another significant akanthos column was that of Alexander's funeral car.33 Its canopy rested on columns with Ionic capitals but each column had a gold akanthos which reached from its middle point almost to the capital. Alexander was Fig. 3. The Akanthos Column at Corinth buried first at Memphis near which was a town Akanthos.34 The akanthos of his funeral car and its garlands (including pomegranates?) may have had the same significance as the akanthoi upon the flowverof which were set garlands of pomegranate and vine at Abydos. The date of the car about 322 B.C. precludes the idea that the akanthos was simply decorative. That the akanthos of Abydos with its pomegranate and vine was a motif known to Asia Minor is proved by the relief discovered at Pergamon on which a channelled shaft has three sets of akanthos leaves from which spring lesser stems with various fruits including the pomegranate and the grape.35At either side is a Cybele on a lion. " Pausanias, I, 6, 3; Strabo, 809, 35. De?cribed by Diodoros, XVIII, 26-28. von Pergamion, VII, pl. XL; text VII, pp. 317-323. It was not determined what kind of monument received this relief. What are in origin akanthos columns frame a painting of a Maenad with thyrsus and panther in a Pompeian painting (Beyen, Die pompejanische Wanddecoration, Taf. 46, no. 106; Walters, Art of the Romans, pl. XLI). The connection of the akanthos and the vine seems to survive in four columns in the cathedral of Monreale. In these the akanthos is at the base while the vines twine around the shafts (illustrated by Eisler, Orphisch-Dionysische Mvsterien-Gedanken in der Christlichen Antike, Taf. XIII, abb. 86). From the Corinth of St Paul the akanthos column may have found its way to Rome and the chturchof Sta. Prassede. 3Altertiimer

The solar character of the Triopian Apollo and the relationship of Akantho and Helios suggest a reason for the selection of the name Corinthian for the akanthos capital. The temple of Apollo at Corinth occupied a commanding position while tradition said that Briareus awarded its acropolis to Helios whence Corinth was known as the City of the Sun.36 This coincidence makes significant the discovery there of an akanthos shaft (Fig. 3)37 and of a fragmentary column, half akanthos 4).38 The Corinthian order perhaps borrowed its akanand half Caryatid( ?)-(Fig. thos capital from the akanthos shaft of the solar Apollo. Then the earliest known Fig. 4. FragmentsA, B, C of an AkanthosShaft on the " Bema " at Corinth appearanceof the capital in the temple of Apollo at Phigaleia 3 would be quite appropriate. Its presence there in an interior colonnade of the Ionic order must have been due to some special consideration. One may conjecture that the akanthos, especially its flower which was EV4OEyyEs " brilliant," 40 as the symbol of the solar Apollo dictated the use of the new capital. If the Phigaleians thought of their Apollo Epikourios as the Hyperborean whose periodical return from the gloomy north brought light and vegetation to mankind then the old explanation of the unusual orientation of his temple may be true. It faced the north, the direction from which he came with light to his people. Iktinos the architect probablybrought the type of the Corinthian capital from 36 Steph. Byz., s. v. 'HALov roAXt. Cf. Broneer, A.J.A., XXXIX, 1935, p. 66, pl. XVIII, 2; the column lies in the foreground. A capital with fragmentary draped human figures (ibid., pl. XIXa), between which appears the upper part of an akanthos leaf, has been tentatively assigned to the akanthos shaft. 38 Cf. Broneer, 'ApX. 'E+., 1937, p. 127. 39 Cf. Dinsmoor, Metropolitan MIuseumStudies, IV, 1933, p. 212. This flower occupies a conspicuous position on the Corinthian capital discovered at Epidauros.

TEIE AKANTHOS Athens where Kallimachos was credited.with its invention. The date of the latter is not definitely known but is usually placed in the late fifth century. Perhaps in his youth he furnished Iktinos wviththe model. The story which Vitruvius tells about the Corinthian capital confirms the theory as to the importance of the akanthos at Corinth. A maiden described as a civis Corinthia died. Upon her tomb her nurse (nutrix) placed a kalathos containing the girl's favorite cups and covered it with a tile. Underneath the kalatlios at its middle point there chanced to be a root of akanthos. In the spring the root sprouted sending shoots up the sides of the kalathos until they reached the tile and were there curved down to form volutes. At this moment Kallimachos happened along and was so delighted with the effect that he made columns with akanthos capitals among the Corinthians.4' The monument of the Corinthian maid must have been a mound of earth to permit the akanthos to grow. The plant was probablyplaced there as a symbol like another Apolline symbol, the tripod, which occupies the same position on the tomb of Glaukos in a vase painting.49 The two symbols occurred together in the akanthos shaft at Delphi. The basic idea of this dedication is then that the daughters of Triopas dance abouitthe tomb of the solar Apollo which is marked by the tripod and the akanthos. The sculptor availed himself of poetic license when he placed the tripod and the dancing maidens at the top of the akanthos column. The kalathoi of these maidens bear in relief a ray pattern. It is really incorrect to speak of themnas wearing a kalathos. The rays are solar and worked in relief as a matter of expediency. To have carved each one free would have been much more difficult and would have exposed the rays to fracture. The intention of the artist is readily realized when a series of dancers is cited from vase paintings. These have been collected by Cook.4"In the earliest, dated 450-440,44 each ray is separately indicated against the black background as it is on a krater from Ceglie,45but in other examples the rays are painted in black on a fan-shaped background. This headgear is called a kalathos by Cook, but the crown of the wearer's head may be seen above the " kalathoi " in some cases.46 From this intermediary came the kalathos-shaped background for the solar rays which is illustrated by the dancers of the Delphic shaft. The appropriatenessof the solar rays for the Triopian maidens is quite obvious. The solar character of Apolline worship at Knidos and Rhodes is reflectedby their namnes.Knidos, "Nettle City," and Rhodos, " Rose City," like the city Akanthos both take their names fromnprickly plants or rather their flowers which appear as symbols 41 42 43 44 45 46 Vitruvius, De arch., IV, 1, 9. Murray, White Athenian Vases in thJeBritish Museum, pl. XVI. Cook,Zeus, III, pp. 995-1003. Ibid., fig. 805. Ibid., pl. LXXI, 1-2. Ibid., figs. 808-809. There was a dance called kalathiskos.

of light. The rose in Homeric times had already furnished the Dawn with the epitheton " rosy-fingered." The ancient description of the flower of the akanthos as " brilliant " has been noted. The connotation of solar light in the name Rhodos was very old. One tradition made Rhode the wife of Helios.47 The island of Rhodes was colonized from the Argolid. Argos meant " The Bright City " (from dpyo'). The most important temple in Argos was dedicated to Apollo Lykeios, whose appellative may describe him as a god of light rather than as a wvolf.48Danaos, who had a daughter Rhode, was credited with the foundation of this temple. A colony founded by Rhodians especially from Lindos, Gela, was in its turn given a name of the same sort as its grandparent Argos. Hesychios defines ye'Xaas avtyr1 r',Xiovand yEXdELvas Xa6L,LrEWv LVOELV, thus closely associating the ideas of light and flower. The mythical Argive king Gelanor, the displaced rival of Danaos, has 'yEXaas the first component of his name. Gelas was a Carian word for king. The all important light of the sun seems thus to have determined the names of three ancient related cities. This old tradition justified the erection at the city of Rhodes in later times of a colossal image of the solar Apollo. G. W. ELDERKIN PRINCETON UNIVERSITY 47 Apollodoros, I, 4, 6. It is not surprising to find on the Francois vase in the scene of Achilles and Troilos that Apollo and Rhodia appear beside the spring where the young Trojan was ambushed by Achilles. Furtwaengler, troubled by the presence of Rhodia, suggests that she is possibly a Trojan maid (Griech. Vascnmn.,I, p. 56). But the presence of Thetis because of her relation to Achilles justifies the presence of Apollo as the father of Troilos, as he was according to one tradition. Rhodia is added as perhaps the consort of Apollo and raises her arms to indicate her horror at the impending slaughter of the youth. It is Furtwaengler's theory that the vase painter placed the sanctuary of the Thymbraean Apollo near the spring at which Troilos was caught. He cites the story that Achilles sacrificed Troilos at the altar of this Apollo. Pausanias, II, 19, 3.