Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/649

 Musemns and Raree Shows in Antiquity. 339

the only proper material for one who was lord of the rich Thracians and whose golden horse-trappings and splendid steeds aroused the cupidity of Diomedes, who laid an ambush for him and slew him, in spite of his prayers, to gain possession of them.

The heroes who returned from the Trojan War were lavish in offerings, for Menelaos dedicated the dog-skin cap and dagger of Alexander ; Helen presented a pair of armlets ; Kanopos, the steersman of Menelaos, a rudder ; and both Meriones and Teucer offered quivers, and the latter the bow of Pandareos as well.

With the beginning of historical times comes an interest- ing list of very varied objects. In some cases a famous old vessel set upon a new stand was offered, for the inscrip- tion on the lip refers to earlier events, whilst that on the stand commemorates the dedicator. The Lindians who went with Battos to colonise Cyrene sent a group of Pallas and a lion being throttled by Herakles made of lotus wood. Another dedication was a wooden cow and calf on which was inscribed : " Anphinomos and his sons from Sybaris of broad dancing places, the ship having been saved, dedicate this tithe." Anphinomos is otherwise unknown to fame, but the dedication bears all the marks of truth, for the landing at Rhodes was and is often very dangerous : the gift must in any case be placed before the destruction of Sybaris in B.C. 510.

Deinomenes, the father of Gelon, Hieron, Thrasybulos and Polyzalos, being a Lindian, founded Gela with Anti- phemos and dedicated a Gorgon of cypress wood with a stone face, on which was written : " Deinomenes, the son of Molossos, dedicated to Lindian Athena a tithe of the things from Sicily." Here there is an evident confusion between an earlier Deinomeneswho accompanied the founder Antiphemos, and the later one who was father of the three brothers who in turn became tyrants of Syracuse.

The Akragantines dedicated a Palladion, the extremities