Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/651

 Alusetnns and Rai'ce Shoivs in Antiquity. 341

few shreds saved from the burning of the temple. Hero- dotos states that Amasis bestowed a gilded Athena upon Cyrene, but the images sent to Lindos were of stone. The Rhodian local chronicler, however, was envious of this gilded statue and could not bear that Lindos should take second place after the Libyan colony, so he changed the stone images to gold !

Among the gifts preserved in the later temple were skulls of oxen as records of the sacrifices made by Alexander the (ireat after he had conquered Dareios and made himself Lord of Asia, by King Ptolemy I. and by Pyrrhos, King of Epeiros, this last offering inscribed " in accordance with the oracle of Dodona, and the weapons he used on his perilous exploits." Two other kings, Hieron and Philip, evidently the third of that name, dedicated weapons.

From these extracts it will be seen how much this Lindian Chronicle can teach us of the art, and especially of the history of the early period. As the offerings had perished we cannot vouch for the genuineness of all the objects mentioned, but the majority at least bear the stamp of truth, and if the description is not absolutely accurate, they were at any rate the kind of gifts and the dedicatory formulae in use at the period.

The objects collected in these ancient museums were as varied and curious as the relics in many ancient churches to-day, but we cannot here discuss those which were men- tioned merely on hearsay, introduced by the ancient writer with some such phrase as — " they say " — " they relate " — "it is reported." Neither can we stop to consider the immense list of marvels to which early writers allude in perfect good faith but of which they had no personal knowledge. Pfister in his important book, Reliqiiienkult im Altertum, not a very large work, but packed with inter- esting and suggestive matter, has collected a vast number of references to such objects, some mentioned in detail, others alluded to by a tantahsingly vague remark.