The European Sky-god. 297
Schrader^-^ points out that ai<yeLpo(;, "a poplar," is derived from the same root as aly 1X0)-^ , " the winter- or Valonia-oak," aljaver], " an oaken spear," aesculus ("^aeg- sculus), "an evergreen oak," Eiche, "an oak," — is in fact the same w^ord as our own oak. This change of meaning probably arose in some district where the poplar, not the oak, was the finest tree.~~^ It would be facilitated by the fact that some sorts of poplar resemble in foliage some sorts of oak. Thus Pausanias,-~'^ describing a species of oak called TratSepo)?, says : " Its leaves are less than those of the oak, but larger than those of the evergreen oak : in shape they resemble oak leaves: one side of them is blackish, the other is white: their colour may be best likened to that of the leaves of the white poplar." Nicander ""^ speaks of ths same tree as " the equivalent of the white poplar." This similarity between oak and poplar was in all proba- bility the reason why the white poplar was sacred to Zeus at Olympia. When Heracles first sacrificed to him there he burned the victims " on wood of the white poplar " -~^ and ever afterwards the Eleans used no other wood for the sacrifices of Zeus.^^*^ Indeed, at Lepreum, an Elean town some fifteen miles from Olympia, Zeus was surnamed Aeu/cato?, "he of the White Poplar " {^€vk7])P^ Coins of Sardes show Zeus AuSio9 holding a sceptre and perhaps an
"^ Schrader Reallex., pp. 164, 207.
"-•* In the opinion of Dr. W. Leaf the white poplar is nowadays the finest tree in Greece : see his note on //., 13. 389.
^ Paus., 2. 10. 6, Frazer.
'^^ Nicand.y"r£2^. 2. 55 f- Traidog tpwTtQ \ Xivk7j laawixevoi.
^ Paus., 5. 14. 2. Heracles had found the white poplar growing on the banks of the Acheron (cp. //.. 13. 389 cixipojiQ and Eustath. 938, 62 ff.) ; for Hades, the earth-Zeus, had carried off Leuce, the white-poplar njrniph, to his realm below, and had caused white poplars to grow in the Elysian fields (Serv. in Verg. eel., 7. 61). See further C. Botticher, Der Baumktcltus der Hellenoi, p. 441 ff.
23» Paus., 5. 13. 3, 5. 14. 2.
- Paus., 5. 5. 5, with Frazer's n.
