Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 16, 1905.djvu/358

 3IO The European Sky -God.

complimentary deus was sometimes substituted.^ The great comet (Halley's), which for seven nights after Caesar's death ghttered in the sky,^ contributed not a little to confirm the official apotheosis in the minds of the people at large. Octavius set up a bronze statue of Caesar with a star above his head in the temple of Venus.^ The temple of Divus Julius appears on a coin with a star affixed to its pediment.^ Numismatic busts, bas-reliefs, and statues were all distinguished by the same emblem, till the luliuni sidus or Caesaris astrimi passed into a poetic commonplace.^

Caesar had shown the way : Augustus, though with some apparent hesitation, followed it. Since the role of Jupiter had already been taken by Caesar, he took that of Apollo. A statue of him under the guise of this god was erected in the famous Library of the Palatine Apollo.^ Popular report said that he gave private banquets at which a dozen diners appeared dressed as the twelve gods and goddesses, the costume of Apollo being reserved for him.'^ Hence in time of famine people spoke of him as Apollo Tortor, " Apollo the Torturer." ^ Augustus did more to foster the cult of Apollo than any Roman before or after him ; and it has been suggested ® that in so doing he

^ Dessau 72 Genio deivi luli parentis patriae, quern senatu^ populus- que Romanus in deorum numerum rettulit, 6343 M. Salvio Q. f. Venusto decurioni [bejnefic. dei Caesaris, Corp. inscrr. Lat. x. 3903, 5, Ditten- berger Sylloge inscrr. Graec."^ 347 Vaiov ''\ovKi.ov ra'£o[i' vC\ov Kai<xapa ... tov airb 'Apeus Kal ' AcppodelQrrji debv, Corp. inscrr. Graec. 2369, cp. Suet. Case. 88 in deorum numerum relatus est non ore modo decernentium sed et persuasione volgi, Avid. Cass. 11. 6. haec (xc. dementia) Caesarem deum fecit, and the passages from the poets cited by De-Vit Onoiiiasticon ii. 14 s.v. " Caesar deus."

^ Plut. vit. Caes. 69, Sen. quaestt. iiat. 7. 17. 2, alib.

^ Dio 45. 7, cp. Suet. Caes. 88. * Babelon Monn. de la R^p. rom. ii. 59.

•' Hor. od. I. 12. 47, Verg, eel. 9. 47, alib. See Beuriier op. cit. p. 9 f.

^ Serv. in Verg. eel. 4. 10, comm. Cruq. in Hor. epist. I. 13. 17, cp. Corp. inscrr. Graec. add. 2903 f.

"Suet. Aui;. 70. ^ Id. ib. ''Roscher Lex. i. 448.