Dionysos Mystes by G. Rizzo; Zagreus, Studi Sull' Orfismo by v. Macchioro

7/28/2019 Dionysos Mystes by G. Rizzo; Zagreus, Studi Sull' Orfismo by v. Macchioro

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"Dionysos Mystes" by G. Rizzo; Zagreus, Studi sull' Orfismo by V. Macchioro

Review by: E. Douglas van BurenThe Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 9 (1919), pp. 221-225Published by: Society for the Promotion of Roman StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/296011 .Accessed: 28/08/2012 18:48

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NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS.OTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS.in the old system was that in its exclusive cult of memory it starved thought to death;the result of all the Virgilian paraphrasing,all the dictionesethicae and artificial dis-putations, had been an extraordinarydearth of men able to concentrate on any realor new problem. The Church, by forcing men to think, restored a living interest inthought. It also brought history back into an honest connexion with fact; the firstecclesiastical chronicles were dull, but they were history, and neither mythology norpanegyric. There were other respects in which the old academic teaching washumanized. The monastic training brought handicraftswithin the sphere of education.This probably helped forward an appreciation of art by the decoration of churchbuildings with mosaics and frescoes, and by the illumination of books, much as thedevelopment of choirs was good for music. The merit of the wide views held bythe greater churchmen was the higher in that the adoption of so much from paganculture was not carried without a struggle. In the end the men of broader minds,a Jerome, an Augustine, an Ennodius, a Hilary of Poitiers triumphed; but mostcenturies had their Tertullians and their Martins ready to declare the way to politelearning the broad path to damnation. The Church, by using humanism in the serviceof its ' forward deals,' drew it from the slough of retrospection, and set it on the path,rough but firm, along which progress in the barbariankingdomswas alone possible. Bydoing this the monastic schools redeemed much of their own seeming barbarism; thehumanities owe more than is commonly acknowledgedto mediaeval monkishLatin.Many subjects are discussed in these pages which can here receive no more thana bare mention: the extent to which the Visigoths and Frankswere affected by Romanculture ; the education of women ; discipline in schools; the authors read and theteaching of Greek; the Celtic background n the Gauls ; the favourableposition of theprovince in the fourth and fifth centuries, which gave it a leading place in the Romansystem. All these things the reader will find sufficiently treated within the limits per-mitted in a small volume. The work of a Rhodes scholar now on the teaching staff ofthe University of Capetown, the book is one among many signs of the benefits conferredby the Rhodes Trust on the higher education of the empire.

" DIONYSOS MYSTES " (in Mem. Accad. arch. Napoli, iii, I918). By G. Rizzo. pp. 39-102.ZAGREUS, STUDI SULL' ORFISMO. By V. MACCHIORO. p. 269. Bari, Laterza, I920. Price It.lire i6.50.

The paintings of the Villa Item at Pompeii appear to furnish endless material fordiscussion. They were first made known to readersof this Journalby Miss Mudie-Cooke(7.R.S. iii, I913, pp. 157-174, pl. viii-xiv) whose valuable observationspointed out theline of investigation which other scholarshave since carried further with remarkableresults. ProfessorRizzo believes that these pictures illustrate the education of Dionysosand depict him especiallyas the first, the typical initiate. To prove this interpretationhe draws upon a vast store of literary and figurative material, relying largely upon thedescriptionfurnishedby Nonnus, amplifiedby representationson gems, vasesand reliefs.Thus in the first scenes Mystis herself reveals ra &eLKv/4ceva to the young Dionysos;the threads or narrow ribbons hanging from the fingersof the woman in B must be thewoollen K&6KLVOL rTzoVes,symbolical of purification. Rizzo considers that the wingedfigure is about to chastise the kneeling woman who sacrilegiouslyuncovers the liknonand that the scene in F is quite separate from E. The last three panels G, H, I aremere genre scenes, the usual quiet close to the passion and movement of

a Greekdrama.ProfessorMacchioro, on the contrary, thinks one should begin with these scenes, thefirst of a seriesillustratingthe whole sequenceof rites of the LesserMysteries performedat Agrae as an introduction to the Greater Mysteries at Eleusis. He points out that ifone enters straight from room I6 (see his plan) by the small door in the corner, the firstscene which greets the eye is that on the wall opposite, G of Rizzo's enumeration: the

in the old system was that in its exclusive cult of memory it starved thought to death;the result of all the Virgilian paraphrasing,all the dictionesethicae and artificial dis-putations, had been an extraordinarydearth of men able to concentrate on any realor new problem. The Church, by forcing men to think, restored a living interest inthought. It also brought history back into an honest connexion with fact; the firstecclesiastical chronicles were dull, but they were history, and neither mythology norpanegyric. There were other respects in which the old academic teaching washumanized. The monastic training brought handicraftswithin the sphere of education.This probably helped forward an appreciation of art by the decoration of churchbuildings with mosaics and frescoes, and by the illumination of books, much as thedevelopment of choirs was good for music. The merit of the wide views held bythe greater churchmen was the higher in that the adoption of so much from paganculture was not carried without a struggle. In the end the men of broader minds,a Jerome, an Augustine, an Ennodius, a Hilary of Poitiers triumphed; but mostcenturies had their Tertullians and their Martins ready to declare the way to politelearning the broad path to damnation. The Church, by using humanism in the serviceof its ' forward deals,' drew it from the slough of retrospection, and set it on the path,rough but firm, along which progress in the barbariankingdomswas alone possible. Bydoing this the monastic schools redeemed much of their own seeming barbarism; thehumanities owe more than is commonly acknowledgedto mediaeval monkishLatin.Many subjects are discussed in these pages which can here receive no more thana bare mention: the extent to which the Visigoths and Frankswere affected by Romanculture ; the education of women ; discipline in schools; the authors read and theteaching of Greek; the Celtic background n the Gauls ; the favourableposition of theprovince in the fourth and fifth centuries, which gave it a leading place in the Romansystem. All these things the reader will find sufficiently treated within the limits per-mitted in a small volume. The work of a Rhodes scholar now on the teaching staff ofthe University of Capetown, the book is one among many signs of the benefits conferredby the Rhodes Trust on the higher education of the empire.

" DIONYSOS MYSTES " (in Mem. Accad. arch. Napoli, iii, I918). By G. Rizzo. pp. 39-102.ZAGREUS, STUDI SULL' ORFISMO. By V. MACCHIORO. p. 269. Bari, Laterza, I920. Price It.lire i6.50.

The paintings of the Villa Item at Pompeii appear to furnish endless material fordiscussion. They were first made known to readersof this Journalby Miss Mudie-Cooke(7.R.S. iii, I913, pp. 157-174, pl. viii-xiv) whose valuable observationspointed out theline of investigation which other scholarshave since carried further with remarkableresults. ProfessorRizzo believes that these pictures illustrate the education of Dionysosand depict him especiallyas the first, the typical initiate. To prove this interpretationhe draws upon a vast store of literary and figurative material, relying largely upon thedescriptionfurnishedby Nonnus, amplifiedby representationson gems, vasesand reliefs.Thus in the first scenes Mystis herself reveals ra &eLKv/4ceva to the young Dionysos;the threads or narrow ribbons hanging from the fingersof the woman in B must be thewoollen K&6KLVOL rTzoVes,symbolical of purification. Rizzo considers that the wingedfigure is about to chastise the kneeling woman who sacrilegiouslyuncovers the liknonand that the scene in F is quite separate from E. The last three panels G, H, I aremere genre scenes, the usual quiet close to the passion and movement of

a Greekdrama.ProfessorMacchioro, on the contrary, thinks one should begin with these scenes, thefirst of a seriesillustratingthe whole sequenceof rites of the LesserMysteries performedat Agrae as an introduction to the Greater Mysteries at Eleusis. He points out that ifone enters straight from room I6 (see his plan) by the small door in the corner, the firstscene which greets the eye is that on the wall opposite, G of Rizzo's enumeration: the

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NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

beginning of a chain linked together in almost every instance by a figure on the extremeright who does not participate in the action depicted within the same panel but movesor looks towards the scene which comes next in order. The argument is as follows:the whole cycle tells the story of one woman, she who in G is robed as the mystic bride,for she wears the sindone,and the myrtle with which many of the figures are crownedwas a nuptial plant; she approachesthe reading child in A; passeson to B carryinga dish; flees thence in terror at what she sees or hearsin D; uncovers the liknon in E;hides her face in the lap of the priestess in F and finally dances as a Bacchant. It istherefore a human story, and all the acts and facts are human; but it is presented as asacreddrama, and the Silenoi and Satyrs are merelyactors disguisedin these roles. Theonly non-human beings are Dionysos and Kore, conceived as invisibly watching themime which is performedbefore them.An important detail is the plinth found in almost all these scenes, strange in shapeand without architectonicor decorativeelements. These plinthsarefrequentin Eleusinianand Dionysiac rites, and the single plinth must derive from the ayXac-7ro5 precpaofDemeter, probably a stone used from the earliest times with magic intent, which servedas thronosn the initiation ceremonies of which the p6povwoLas the first. The doubleplinth-upon which sits the Seilenos in D and the woman in F-was Dionysiac, as isshown by the numerous vase paintings where Satyrs sit upon a double plinth (Reinach,Rep.Vasesii, p. 201, 2; p. 303, I and 5; Macchioro, figs. 8-12). The Andaniainscription(I.G. v. I390) teaches us that the headdressworn by the seated woman in B and thekneelingfigure in E is the ritual 7rZXos.B showsthe agapewhich precedesthe initiation; C signifiesthe communionor rebirthof Zagreus: Euripides in the Bacchae,699 ff., describes such a scene. The Satyr andSatyriskaare seated upon a plinth and she is intent upon sucklinga fawn which heresymbolisesthe child Dionysos attracted by the sound of the mystic syrinx, thus typifyingby an allegorythe rebirth of the initiate.In D is a scene of katoptromancy,not lekanomancy,for the bowl is white to denotesilver,like a poculum in shape,similar to those mirrors dedicatedin the temple at Smyrna(Plin. N.H. xxxiii, I29). A mirrorwas often used to foretell the future, but Nonnus(Dion. xxiv, 129 ff. ed. Koechly) relates that Dionysos was slain by the Titans whilegazing in the mirror at his distorted face-obviously a concave mirror, the monstrificumof Pliny. Here the Satyr sees, not himself, but the maskshownin Dionysiac scenes uponaltars, etc., as a sign that the god was present. The Seilenos who holds the bowl repeatsthe messageto the terrified maiden, and this annunciationis the most important of theceremonies,for by its means the initiate becomes consciousof her destiny. The youthapproaches the magic mirror in the expectation of the supernaturaland beholds-nothimself-but a Seilenic mask which gazes at him strangely. He believes he is about tobe transformedinto the Seilenos, that he is no longer man but god. The neophytekneels before the winged figure in E and by her action in uncoveringthe liknon imploresthe sacred union with the god which, however, can only be obtained by suffering,andthe rod falls upon the back of the initiate who is the same person, resignedto her fate.Whosoever was flagellatedin the mysteriesof Zagreus died like him, and was, like him,reborn. The winged divinity is Telete herself, daughter of Dionysos and Nikaia, per-sonification of the mystic ceremonies and following of Dionysos (Nonnus, Dion. xvi,400). The last scene showsthe rebirthof the neophyte, and her Bacchic state is indicatedby her unbound locks.When Tertullian (Adv. Valent. i) accusesthe Valentiniansof imitating the mysteriesat Eleusis he refers to the unveiling of the liknon, a rite strictly connected with Agrae,where also we find the legend and cult of the a-yeXao-rogrETpaf Demeter. Thereforethe companion of Dionysos is Kore, because the Lesser Mysteries at Agrae were sacredto Kore alone, not to Demeter and Kore.There is no special scene setting, becausethe environment was suggestedby symbols,the mere sight of which sufficedto throw the neophyte into an ecstasy. Only two personsare portrayedas speaking,the hierophant and the terrified maiden: the rest are mute,

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NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS.with closed lips and inexpressivefaces. For this is a pantomime in successivepictures,founded upon a theological dogma, an article of faith which promisedto initiates eternalbliss.These are the essential points of Professor Macchioro's argument, backed up by awealth of references both literary and figurative, and certainly convincing in its mainthesis that the pictures represent successive scenes in a liturgy. They are too esotericto be appropriatedecoration for a triclinium, and Macchioro's view that the room inquestion was an Orphic basilica or private chapel is strengthened by the nature of thedecoration in the preceding rooms, 15 and I6, subjects of Satyrs, Bacchants,priestesses,and scenes of sacrifice. The large window presents a difficulty, although it is notuncommon in country villas, for it cannot have been designed to shed more light uponthe proceedingsasMacchiorosuggests,because nitiation ceremonieswerealwaysperformedat night, and it was only the processionsand such public or exoteric functions whichtook place by day. It is probable that only the actual participants in the rite stoodwithin the room, whilst the onlookers,alreadyinitiated, gathered without in the porticoE and looked through the largewindow spaceat the doingswithin, illumined by torches:the liturgy accomplished,the ministrantswho had entered through the small door from1.6passed out in processionby the main entrance on to the terrace F.It is certainly more logical to begin with G which thus falls into place in the cycle;the hieratic seated figure of I has an almost exact counterpart in a painting fromHerculaneum(Herrmann-Bruckmann,pl. 3), where also a priestess enthroned watchesher attendants who, wreathed in myrtle, prepare for the sacred rites. But we cannotagree that the same woman is the protagonist in each scene : for ancient art, when itunrolled a storyin the continuous method, portrayedthe hero each time in the same guise,so that there might be no mistake as to his identity. Neither can one argue that artdoes not distinguish between the real and the feigned, for whenever in ancient art thesubject is a performanceby actors the fact is made clear by the masksthey hold in theirhands, as on the Pronomos vase in Naples, or by their theatrical costumes,as for examplein the scenes of the fury of Herakles or the amours of Zeus.In the child reading from the scroll M. Pottier (Rev. Arch. Ser. v, ii, I915, p. 325)sees Iacchos, although his objection to the identification asDionysos, becausein D he isrepresented as fully grown, is negatived by reliefs depicting his education where heappearsin various stages of growth. In his instructress perhaps we should see Teleterather than Mystis with Rizzo : for on the Thyrea relief Telete is seated in very similarfashion and it would seem more appropriate that she who reveals r& 5eLKv'6jLeva tothe neophyte should be the personificationof the mysteries,rather than the raging Furywho purifiesby castigation and is more probably A1&bs,modest reverence.

To designate the head-dressworn by two of the figures as a 7rXosseems rather amisnomer: that term signifies a peaked cap or stiff head-gear, since it was sometimesmade of skin, whereas these women wear a soft o-dKKOS.The great objection to seeing in B an agapeis the fact that there is no.sign of, andno indication of preparationfor, a meal, and, above all, the neophyte takes no part.The scene is best explained by the sacred formula (Clem. Alex. Protrept.ii, I8) : ' Ifasted; I drank the kykeon; I took from the basket. ... I put back in the basket andfrom the basket into the chest.'The monuments cited by Macchiorocertainlyappearto prove that the double plinthhad some significancein scenes taken from the Satyric cycle, but it is hard to believethat the single plinth typified the a,ytAXa-Tosirrpa which, from the evidence of thelegends, was an outcrop of the natural rockupon which the goddess rested (P. Foucart,Les Mysteres d'Eleusis,Paris I912, p. 342; Rubensohn, Ath. Mitt. 1899, pp. 46-54).To cover such seats with a clo h or mantle may have been enforced, but it was certainlythe natural and obvious thing to do, for a stone seat is both hard and chilly. Moreover,the words of the Andania inscription are : 8ifpous 8 gxovroaT lepct, and there is nomention of plinths.If the fawn in C suckled by the Satyriskais a personificationof Zagreus, then any

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NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS.wild animal suckledby a Bacchant would be the embodiment of the divinity, althoughunder the influence of the divine madness they did not nourish gentle fawns only, bntwolf-cubs and panthers.The pictorial evidence noted by Macchioro of mirrors used in Dionysiac rites displaysan ordinary flat mirror, and the literary evidence he quotes refers to lekanomancy,notkatoptromancy. In either case, of course, the result would be the same, a visionmaterialised in the bowl. But it is the fate of the maiden, not'his own, which the youngSatyr sees and announcesby the medium of the Seilenos, a presageof bliss but also ofsuffering in the attainment.The companionof Dionysos has been called Semele, Kore Ariadneand even Demeter.A connexion with Kore would imply a chthonic character which Dionysos in this aspectdid not possess. The composition is one frequently used for portraying Dionysos andAriadne, and the latter, a mortal raised from desolation to union with a divine lover,was looked upon as a symbol of the human soul,and is thereforeappropriatelyntroducedhere as foreshadowingthe progressof the initiate from earthly care to mystic felicity.It is incredible that the woman who unveils the liknon can be the initiate pleadingby this action for union with the god, since at this stage she has not been fully initiated;for one who is not yet really of the elect to come thus into contact with the sacredsymbols, to profane the mysteriesin such a way would be sacrilegeunspeakable. As shewears a costume and head-dresssimilarto that of the priestessin B she maybe a priestessengagedin one of the sacredofficesor one of the higher orderof initiates-a fully evolvedBacchant. It cannot be upon her that the lash falls: her attitude is calm, and there isnot a sign of shrinkingor terror. The gesture of repulsion made by the winged figureis often found on gems, terra-cotta reliefs, etc., but in every instance she is in the act offleeing and does not hold the whip. In the painting her figure is perhaps the leastsuccessfulartisticallyof the whole series: the feet are most awkwardlyplaced, the wingsare absolutely inorganic. Rizzo thinks she has just alighted; but a being who alightsafter a flight rests upon the tips of her toes like the Nike of Paionios, not with the frontfoot treading upon the back one, and a person poised to strike a powerful blow standswith the feet a little apart to give balance. These considerationssuggest that the figureis a contaminatio rom at least two different scenes, the shunning of the sacra and themystic flagellation,here not very happily telescoped by the artist in order to link togetherthe two scenes, and possibly to avoid the introduction of two winged beings juxtaposedin a cycle whereall the other personagesare without wings : perhapshe was alsohamperedby want of space.Miss Mudie-Cooke's opinion that the primary purpose of ritual flagellation waspurification and the expulsion of evil is better supported by evidence drawn from-comparativereligion than Macchioro's theory that ' whoever was flagellated in themysteries of Zagreus died like him and, like him, was reborn.'An interesting parallel to these scenes is furnished by the painting which itsseventeenth-century discoverers named ' the Aldobrandini Marriage.' Interpreted asa marriagerite, many of the elements are incomprehensible. Why should the ceremonytake place under the open sky ? Above all, why should the bridegroom sit upon thethreshold in a state of heroic nudity ? Interpreted as part of a series representing themysteries, these puzzling details fall into place. The neutral background typifies thetemple precinct or basilica: to the left we have the counterpartof the Villa Item sceneB, for here also myrtle-wreathedattendants minister to the priestesswho performs theritual lustration. In the centre those who are fully initiated encourage the neophyteto endure the ordealbefore her. Upon the sacredplinth sits Iacchos,possiblyas invisiblewitness for the due performanceof the mysteries, probably as guardian of the threshold'betweenthe profaneand the full joys of the initiated who are shown to the right, dancingin ecstasy.Each scholar who has discussedthese enigmatical paintings has contributed somethingtowards their interpretation: probably a study of all the scenes of ritual and sacreddrama would reveal even more. But to ProfessorMacchiorobelongs the merit of having

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NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS.OTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS.shown that the whole seriesdepicts a liturgy, a logical sequenceof ritual acts, beginningwith the preparation or initiation andculminatingin the care-freeemancipationof perfectspiritual knowledge. E. DOUGLAS VAN BUREN.

INSTITUT D'ESTUDIS CATALANS, ANUARI, I9Ii, 19I2.A further volume of this excellent publication, in every way worthy of its prede-cessors,has recently been issued. Both in the interest of the subjects treated and inthe typographical and illustrative sections, this volume constitutes an historical andarchaeologicalwork of veryhigh order. It is, asusual,divided into sections,the principalof which are the historical, archaeological,literary and jurisprudential. Most of thearticles, as is only natural, are written in the Catalanlanguage, but there are several inSpanish and one, of considerable importance, in French. We propose to touch only

upon the archaeologicalsection in these notes.M. Lluis M. Vidal contributes an exhaustivestudy of the Abrissousroche and cavesat Capelladesand Santa Creud'Olorde,in the province of Barcelona,which have affordedevidence of their use during the Mousterian, M/agdalenian,and neolithic periods.M. Vidal carefully sifts the evidence brought to light by his investigations, which hasled him to the conclusion that there was an important factory of flint implements of theMousterian period at l'Abrich Romanil at Capellades,and that it was consequently oneof the oldest in Catalufia. The deposit,which is twelve metres deep, points to habitationduringa very long period. The flint implements found at EstacioAgut bear considerableresemblance to those from the Mousterian deposits at La Ferrassie in France. Aninteresting point in connexion with M. Vidal's investigations was the discovery in theMagdalenian stratum of the shell of Mitra striatula, believed by many naturaliststo have disappearedfrom the marine fauna in late tertiary times, but now shown to haveexisted in the Mediterraneanduring the early part of the quaternaryperiod. Anotherrarespecimenfound is the Pleurotoma ndatiruga,which now only occurs on the Algeriancoast.The district exploredby M. Vidal, to judge by the large number of caves containingdebris of pottery and polished stone implements, was thickly inhabited during theneolithic period. Some of the pottery illustratedin the article showsevidence of tradingrelations between the then inhabitantsof Catalufia and some of the Portuguesetribes.A very good seriesof plates illustratea large number of the finds amongwhich thosefrom the Magdalenianand Mousterian strata at l'Abrich Romanipredominate.In ' Els Temples d'Empuries (the Temples at Ampurias)M. Puigy Cadafalchgivesacarefully considered account of the work carried on during I9Io-II by the MuseumsCommission on the site of the ancient city of Emporion (founded about 550 B.C.),inwhich he makes special reference to the traces of the temples then discovered. TheEmporion site has been excavated,systematicallyand carefully,for severalyearspast andhas yielded much material of considerablearchaeologicalvalue, the most notable being,perhaps,the seriesof pottery which includes examples of Greek ceramic art of the finestperiod. M. Puig ascribes the temples to the second or Hellenistic period of the city,andthe time of their construction to the Roman occupationof the north-easternportionof the peninsula. The soil on which they stood is full of pottery sherds of the well-knownCampanianware of the third and second centuries B.C.,while the underlying stratum,that of the Greek city proper, abounds in red-figure pottery of the fifth and fourthcenturies preceding the Christian era. A plan of the excavations, which would havebeen renderedmore instructive had some indication been given as to the meaning of thedarkand lighter drawnportions, shows the site of the temples, of which that dedicatedto Aesculapius s the best preserved. The lower part of the statue of the god was foundin the ' cella.' It has been found possible to reconstitute it with the fragments of the

shown that the whole seriesdepicts a liturgy, a logical sequenceof ritual acts, beginningwith the preparation or initiation andculminatingin the care-freeemancipationof perfectspiritual knowledge. E. DOUGLAS VAN BUREN.

INSTITUT D'ESTUDIS CATALANS, ANUARI, I9Ii, 19I2.A further volume of this excellent publication, in every way worthy of its prede-cessors,has recently been issued. Both in the interest of the subjects treated and inthe typographical and illustrative sections, this volume constitutes an historical andarchaeologicalwork of veryhigh order. It is, asusual,divided into sections,the principalof which are the historical, archaeological,literary and jurisprudential. Most of thearticles, as is only natural, are written in the Catalanlanguage, but there are several inSpanish and one, of considerable importance, in French. We propose to touch only

upon the archaeologicalsection in these notes.M. Lluis M. Vidal contributes an exhaustivestudy of the Abrissousroche and cavesat Capelladesand Santa Creud'Olorde,in the province of Barcelona,which have affordedevidence of their use during the Mousterian, M/agdalenian,and neolithic periods.M. Vidal carefully sifts the evidence brought to light by his investigations, which hasled him to the conclusion that there was an important factory of flint implements of theMousterian period at l'Abrich Romanil at Capellades,and that it was consequently oneof the oldest in Catalufia. The deposit,which is twelve metres deep, points to habitationduringa very long period. The flint implements found at EstacioAgut bear considerableresemblance to those from the Mousterian deposits at La Ferrassie in France. Aninteresting point in connexion with M. Vidal's investigations was the discovery in theMagdalenian stratum of the shell of Mitra striatula, believed by many naturaliststo have disappearedfrom the marine fauna in late tertiary times, but now shown to haveexisted in the Mediterraneanduring the early part of the quaternaryperiod. Anotherrarespecimenfound is the Pleurotoma ndatiruga,which now only occurs on the Algeriancoast.The district exploredby M. Vidal, to judge by the large number of caves containingdebris of pottery and polished stone implements, was thickly inhabited during theneolithic period. Some of the pottery illustratedin the article showsevidence of tradingrelations between the then inhabitantsof Catalufia and some of the Portuguesetribes.A very good seriesof plates illustratea large number of the finds amongwhich thosefrom the Magdalenianand Mousterian strata at l'Abrich Romanipredominate.In ' Els Temples d'Empuries (the Temples at Ampurias)M. Puigy Cadafalchgivesacarefully considered account of the work carried on during I9Io-II by the MuseumsCommission on the site of the ancient city of Emporion (founded about 550 B.C.),inwhich he makes special reference to the traces of the temples then discovered. TheEmporion site has been excavated,systematicallyand carefully,for severalyearspast andhas yielded much material of considerablearchaeologicalvalue, the most notable being,perhaps,the seriesof pottery which includes examples of Greek ceramic art of the finestperiod. M. Puig ascribes the temples to the second or Hellenistic period of the city,andthe time of their construction to the Roman occupationof the north-easternportionof the peninsula. The soil on which they stood is full of pottery sherds of the well-knownCampanianware of the third and second centuries B.C.,while the underlying stratum,that of the Greek city proper, abounds in red-figure pottery of the fifth and fourthcenturies preceding the Christian era. A plan of the excavations, which would havebeen renderedmore instructive had some indication been given as to the meaning of thedarkand lighter drawnportions, shows the site of the temples, of which that dedicatedto Aesculapius s the best preserved. The lower part of the statue of the god was foundin the ' cella.' It has been found possible to reconstitute it with the fragments of the

1 Discovered by D. Amador Romani in I909.Discovered by D. Amador Romani in I909.

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Dionysos Mystes by G. Rizzo; Zagreus, Studi Sull' Orfismo by v. Macchioro

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Transcript of Dionysos Mystes by G. Rizzo; Zagreus, Studi Sull' Orfismo by v. Macchioro