Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/453

 The European Sky-god. 423

now in the British Museum, represents him wearing a poplar-wreath,^^^ as does a fine marble head in the same collection.^^9 In fact, as Virgil'^~° puts it, '' popuius Alczdse gratissimay Hence in the Rhodian Tlepolemea — games held in memory of Tlepolemus son of Heracles — the victor's wreath was of white poplar.^-^

Another surrogate of the oak was the laurel, or, to speak more accurately, the bay. Professor J. R. Green informs me that the species of oak most likely to flourish in northern Greece, the quercus ilex or holm-oak, bears a decided resemblance to the bay. He has kindly furnished me with specimen leaves of the two trees, and points out that they approximate to each other alike in shape and in colour. The bay-leaf, like the ilex-\Q.z.i, is ovate-lanceolate, the former being minutely dentated, the latter minutely serrated. Both have a glossy dark-green upper-surface and a lighter under-surface. In fact, the untrained observer might readily confuse the two. It should also be noted that the Delphic bay came from Tempe,^-^ where it was called hvapeiap'^ a name perhaps comparable^-^ with BdpvWo<i, the Macedonian word for "oak."^^^ Indeed, various philo- logists have held that names of the laurel or bay are related to names of the oak.^~^ If that be so, we have found an

3'^ Brzf. Mus. Cat. Bronzes, p. 219, No. 1297, " a poplar-wreath (?)."

^'^ Roscher Lex., i., 2166.

^^ Verg. eel, 7. 61.

^^ Tzetz. in Lye. Alex., 911, schol. rec. Find. 01., 7. 141.

^ Schol. Find. Pyth., p. 298 Bockh, Paus., 10. 5. 9.

"^ Hesych. s. v. dvaptia.

liquet.
 * -^ If we may assume that dvapeia should be written capveia. But non

^^ Hesych. s.v. oapvKKoQ.

^-* So L. Meyer vergl. Grani.^'i., 70, Hoffmann Gr. Dial., ii., 429, Lindsay Lat. lang., p. 286, cp. Schrader Reallex. p. 505, Stolz Hist. Gram. d. Lat. Spr., i., 235. The names in question are : (a) Oak. Hesych. SapvKXoQ ' 1) dpvq vTTo MaKe^oviDv. Irish dair, datir. (3) Laurel. Lat. latirus. Hesych. \uvt) * Sd<pvt). Uepyaloi. Hesych. Svaptia ' rj iv roir^ Tkfni'-ai Cix^vri . r