Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 16, 1905.djvu/327

 The Etivopean Sky -God. 279

seen, one full-face, the other two in profile. The existence of a triple Janus is further supported by the fact that his consort Diana or Jana was likewise triceps, trifonnis, triplex, tergemina} The usual type of Janus was, however, two-headed, or rather two-faced ; and his customary epithets are biceps, biformis, bifrons, geminiisr It would seem, therefore, that in Italy, as in Greece, the sky-god was at an early date conceived as of manifold, threefold, and twofold formation ; though, so far as we know, no attempt was here made to equate the three faces of the god with the three provinces of nature over which he ruled.^

Jupiter, like Zeus, had the oak as his sacred tree.* And probably for the same reason, viz. that it was the world- tree of southern Europe.^ This indeed must remain a mere conjecture since no description of an Italian world- tree has come down to us ; ^ but it may stand till a more convincing explanation is forthcoming. Many

1 Ov. met. 7. 194 triceps Hecate : Hor. od. 3. 22. 4 diva triformis, alib. : Ov. her. 12. 79 triplicis vultus ... Dianae, alib.: Verg. Aen. 4. 511 terge- minamque Hecaten, tria virginis ora Dianae.

^ See De-Vit Ononiasticon iii. 474 f.

^ Folk-lore xv. 290 f.

servantur, ut lovi aesculus, ApoUini laurus, etc., Verg. georg. 2. 15 f. nemo- rumque lovi quae maxima frondet | aesculus, atque habitae Grais oracula quercus, 3. 332 f. sicubi magna lovis antique robore quercus ( ingentis tendat ramos, Aen. 3. 679 ff. quales cum vertice celso | aeriae quercus . . . | constiterunt, silva alta lovis, Serv. in Verg. eel. i. 17 quercus in tutela lovis est, 7. 13 sacra autem quercus, aut ipsam quam vult intelligi, aut universum genus, quod et lovis et olim fatidica, in Verg. georg. 3. 332 omnis quercus lovi est consecrata, in Verg. Aen. 5. 129 haec enim arbor ^sc. ilex) in tutela lovis est, Ov. met. i. 106 et quae deciderant patula lovis arbore glandes, Phaedr. 3. 17. 2 f. quercus lovi | et myrtus Veneri placuit, Claud, de rapt. Proserp. 2. 108 quercus arnica lovi.
 * Plin. nat. hist. 12. 3 arborum genera numinibus suis dicata perpetuo

5 Folk-lore xv. 292 ff.

® It is noticeable, however, that Virgil speaks of the ordinary terrestrial oak in terms appropriate to a world-tree : georg. 2. 291 f. aesculus in primis, quae, quantum vertice ad auras | aetherias, tantum radice in Tartara tendit.