The ascent of Olympus / by Rendel Harris.

  • J. Rendel Harris
Date:
1917
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The ascent of Olympus / by Rendel Harris. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    conceptions of storm-god and sun-god, which to our way of thinking seem diametrically opposed, are in point of fact by no means incom¬ patible. ‘ In many mythologies, says Dr. Jastrow, the sun and the lightning are regarded as correlated forces. At all events, the frequent association of Shamash and Ramman cannot have been accidental.’ ” ^ These very luminous comments show us the direction in which to look for the solution of our problem. It is the original Sky-god (= oak-god) that has shown the two faces, one bright and one dark. Dionysos stands to Apollo in the ratio of the dark sky to the bright. More exactly, they are both Sky-gods, but Dionysos belongs to the dark sky with traces of the bright sky. With Apollo it is the con¬ verse order. Each is a child of Zeus, but Dionysos is on the thunder-side of the house, Apollo on the sunshiny side. But as we have shown, they are not so very far apart ; Apollo does sometimes handle the thunder.^ We can take a further step in the investigation. Each of the two gods is concerned in the production of fire, and their vegetable symbols show that each of them may be described as a fire-stick. We have already explained that the ivy became a fire-stick, because such fire-sticks are naturally made out of wood which has been re¬ cognised as containing the sacred fire, the lightning, and which are able under friction to give out again the fire which they have con¬ cealed. It is well known that our ancestors made fire by friction of oak-wood. For instance, as Frazer points out,^ “perpetual fires, kindled with the wood of certain oak-trees, were kept up in honour of Perkunas ; if such a fire went out it was lighted again by friction ^ i. 578. ^ In replacing the Delphic laurel, as we shall presently do, by a previous cult-oak, we may have to replace the laurel-maiden by an oak-maiden. Is she Dryope ? or is Dry ope another name for the woodpecker? We are in the oak-area for certain. Probably Dryope is really an oak-maiden, and it is Dryops, her father, that is the woodpecker. Mr. Cook points out that after Dryope had visited the temple of Apollo, she was carried off by the Hamadryads, who caused a poplar to spring up in her place. Note the suggestion of the poplar as a surrogate for the oak. I am inclined to suggest that the original name of Dryops was Dryopikos (the Oak-Picus), which was wrongly taken to be an adjective. We get a similar form in the Epinal Glossary^ 648: fina = marsopicus (i.e. Picus Martius). ^ Magic Art, ii. 366. 3
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