The question as to the subject of the relief was a sore puzzle to the early travellers. Père Babin finds "des dieux marins"; [79] Transfeldt, "varias gymnasticorum figuras," which he thought represented certain games held "in Aegena insula" in honor of Demosthenes. [80] Vernon (1676), who regarded the monument as a temple of Hercules, sees his labors depicted in the sculptures of the frieze. [51] Spon, while not accepting this view, admitted that some, at least, of the acts of Herakles were represented; so that the building, apart from its monumental purpose, might also have been sacred to that deity. [82] To Stuart and Revett [83] is due the credit of being the first to recognize in these reliefs the story of Dionysos and the pirates, which is told first in the Homeric Hymn to Dionysos. In the Homeric version, Dionysos, in the guise of a fair youth with dark locks and purple mantle, appears by the seashore, when he is espied by Tyrrhenian pirates, who seize him and hale him on board their ship, hoping to obtain a rich ransom. But when they proceed to bind him the fetters fall from his limbs, whereupon the pilot, recognizing his divinity, vainly endeavors to dissuade his comrades from their purpose. Soon the ship flows with wine; then a vine with hanging clusters stretches along the sail-top, and the mast is entwined with ivy. Too late the marauders perceive their error and try to head for the shore; but straightway the god assumes the form of a lion and drives them, all save the pious pilot, terror-stricken into the sea, where they become dolphins.
Footnote 79:[ (return) ] WACHSMUTH, Die Stadt Athen, I, p. 757.
Footnote 80:[ (return) ] Mitth. Athen., I, p. 113.
Footnote 81:[ (return) ] LABORDE, I, pp. 249 f.
Footnote 82:[ (return) ] SPON, II, p. 175.
Footnote 83:[ (return) ] I, p. 27.
In the principal post-Homeric versions, the Tyrrhenians endeavor to kidnap Dionysos under pretext of conveying him to Naxos, the circumstances being variously related. Thus in the Ναξίακά of Aglaosthenes (apud HYGIN. Poet. Astronom. II. 17), the child Dionysos and his companions are to be taken to the nymphs, his nurses. According to Ovid, [84] the pirates find the god on the shore of Chios, stupid with sleep and wine, and bring him on board their vessel. On awaking he desires to be conveyed to Naxos, but the pirates turn to the left, whereupon, as they give no heed to his remonstrances, they are changed to dolphins and leap into the sea. Similarly Servius, Ad. Verg. Aen., I. 67. In the Fabulæ of Hyginus (CXXXIV), and in Pseudo-Apollodorus, [85] Dionysos engages passage with the Tyrrhenians. Nonnus, however, returns to the Homeric story, which he has modified, extended, and embellished in his own peculiar way. [86] These versions, to which may be added that of Seneca, [87] all agree in making the scene take place on shipboard, and, if we except the "comites" of Aglaosthenes, in none of them is the god accompanied by a retinue of satyrs. But Philostratus [88] pretends to describe a painting, in which two ships are portrayed, the pirate-craft lying in ambush for the other, which bears Dionysos and his rout.
Footnote 84:[ (return) ] Met., III. 605 ff.
Footnote 85:[ (return) ] Bibliotheca, III. 5. 3.
Footnote 86:[ (return) ] Dionys., XLV. 119 ff.