Cook, Arthur Bernard. Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1914.

(excerpted by Clifford Stetner)

Plate VII

Zeus enthroned on the ara Capitolina.

See page 43

ZEUS ­ A STUDY IN ANCIENT RELIGION

BY ARTHUR BERNARD COOK

FELLOW AND LECTURER OF QUEENS' COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE READER IN CLASSICAL ARCHAEOLOGY TO THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

VOLUME I

ZEUS GOD OF THE BRIGHT SKY

Cambridge: at the University Press 1914

PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

PREFACE

MORE than eighty years have elapsed since the last comprehensive monograph on Zeus was written, a couple of octavo volumes. by T. B. Emeric-David issued at Paris in 1833. In the interval much water has gone under the classical mill. Indeed the stream flows from remoter ranges and some of its springs rise from greater depths than our grandfathers guessed. Nowadays we dare not claim to understand the religions of Greece and Rome without an adequate knowledge, of contiguous countries and at least an inkling of prehistoric antecedents. In both directions pioneer work of inestimable value has been accomplished. The discoveries of Rawlinson and Layard in Babylonia, of Lepsius and Mariette in Egypt, of Humann and Winckler in Asia Minor - to mention but a few of many honoured names - have enormously increased our area of interest. Again, Schliemann and Dr Dorpfeld, Prof. Halbherr and Sir Arthur Evans, Piette and the Abbe Breuil, have opened to us vista beyond vista into the long-forgotten past. We realise now that Mycenaean and 'Minoan' and even Magdalenian culture has many a lesson for the student of historical times. But above all a new spirit has little by little taken possession of archaeological research. Under the universal sway of modern science accuracy of observation and strictness of method are expected. not only of the philological scholar but of any and every investigator in the classical field.

Changed conditions have brought with them a great influx of material, much of which bears directly on the main topic of this book. Important sites where Zeus was worshipped have been identified and examined. Big caves on Mount Dikte and Mount Ide, his precinct on the summit of Mdunt Lykaion, his magnificent altar on the Pergamene Akropolis, his temples. at Olympia and Athens and many another cult-centre, have been planned and published. with the minutest care. Inscriptions too are discovered almost daily, and not a few of them commemorate local varieties of

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this ubiquitous deity - now thirty or forty questions scratched on slips of lead and addressed to his oracle at Dodona, now a contract for the building of his temple at Lebadeia, now again a list of his priests at Korykos, odd details of his rites at Iasos, a hymn sung in his service at Palaikastro, and votive offerings to him from half the towns of Greece. Such information, fresh and relevant, accumulates apace. Moreover, those who can neither dig nor travel carry on the quest at home. Year in, year out, the universities of Europe and America pour forth a never-ending flood of dissertations and programmes, pamphlets and articles, devoted to the solution of particular problems in ancient religion; and a large proportion of these is more or less intimately concerned with Zeus.

To cope with an output so vast and so varied would be beyond the strength of any man, were it not for the fact that intensive study follows hard upon the heels of discovery. On many aspects of what K. Schenkl called die Zeusreligion standard books have long since been penned by well-qualified hands. And more than one admirable summary of results is already before the public. Greek and Latin literature has been ransacked by writers galore; who have sketched the conceptions of Zeus to be found more especially in the poets and the philosophers: it would be tedious to enumerate names. Others again have dealt with the worship of … affected a particular area: recent examples are Maybaum Der Zeuskult in Boeotien (Doberan 1901) and E. Neustadt De Jove Cretico (Berlin 1906). Yet others have written on some specialised form of Zeus: C. J. Schmitthenner De Jove Hammone (Weilburg 1840), H. D. Muller Ueber den Zeus Lykaios (Gottingen 1851), and A. H. Kan De Iovis Dolichmi cultu (Gottingen 1901) will serve as specimens of the class. Notable attempts have been made to cover parts of the subject on more general lines. Inscriptions about Zeus are grouped together by W. Dittenberger Sylloge inscriptionum Graecarum (ed. 2 Leipzig 1898, 1900, 1901), C. Michel Recueil d'inscriptions grecques (Paris 1900, 1912), and H. Dessau Inscriptiones Latinae selectae (Berlin 1892, 1902, 1906, 1914). Descriptions of Zeus in Greek and Latin poetry are analysed by C. F. H. Bruchmann Epitheta deorum quae apud poetas Graecos leguntur (Leipzig 1893) and J. B. Carter Epitheta deorum quae apud poetas Latinos leguntur (Leipzig 1902). The festivals of Zeus in Athens and elsewhere are discussed by A. Mommsen Feste der Stadt Athen (Leipzig 1898) and, with greater circumspection, by M. P. Nilsson Griechische Feste von religioser Bedeutung mit Ausschluss der attischen (Leipzig 1906).

xi

Monuments too have received their fair share of attention: rattles and statuettes, reliefs, vase-paintings, coins, and gems are selected ,and considered in primis by J. Overbeck Griechische Kunstmythologie (Besonderer Theil i. 1 Zeus Leipzig 1871 with Atlas 1872, 1873) - a book that is a model of archaeological erudition. Further, every worker on this or kindred themes must be indebted to the Repertoires of S. Reinach, whose labours have now reduced chaos to cosmos, not merely in the reproduction of previously known sculptures and vases, but also in the publication of much unpublished material. For surveys of the whole subject we turn to the handbooks. And here again good work has been. done. C. Robert's revision of L. Preller Griechische Mythologie (Theogonie und Goetter Berlin 1894) deals with Zeus in a clear conspectus of 45 pages. O. Gruppe, the greatest mythologist of modern times, compresses the Father of gods and men into 22 of his well-packed pages (Griechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte, Munchen 1897, 1906). Probably English readers will derive most benefit from the lucid chapters of Dr L. R. Farnell, who in his:­ Cults of the Greek States (Oxford 1896, 1896, 1907, 1907, 1909) spends 144 pages in discussing 'Zeus,' 'The Cult-monuments of Zeus,' and 'The Ideal Type of Zeus' with a wealth of learning and aesthetic appreciation that leaves little to seek. Other treatments of the topic are no doubt already being designed for two (at least of the three huge dictionaries now approaching completion. The Dictionnaire des Antiquités grecques et romaines, edited by C. Daremberg and E. Saglio (Paris, 1877- ) has given some account of Zeus in its article on 'Jupiter' (vol. iii pp. 691-708 by E. P[ottier], pp. 708-713 by P. Perdrizet). But W. H. Roscher's ­Ausfuhrliches Lexikon der griechischen und romischen Mythologie. (Leipzig 1884- ), though it includes.an excellent article on 'Iuppiter' by Aust (vol. ii pp. 618-762), is not likely to reach 'Zeus' for some years to come. And the great syndicate of scholars who are re-writing Pauly's Real-Encyclopia auf der dassischen Altertumswissenschaft (Stuttgart 1894- ) have not yet got as far as 'Iuppiter,' let alone' Zeus.'

The present volume is the first of two in which I have endeavoured to trace the development and influence of Zeus. It would seem that the Greeks, starting from a sense of frank childish wonder, not unmixed with fear, at the sight of the animate sky, mounted by slow degrees of enlightenment to a recognition of the physical, intellectual, and moral supremacy of the sky god Dion…

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ix

Chrysostomos in a memorable sentence declared Zeus to be 'the giver of all good things, the Father, the Saviour, the Keeper of mankind.' On the lower levels and slopes of this splendid spiritual ascent the Greeks found themselves at one with the beliefs of many surrounding peoples, so that a fusion of the Hellenic Zeus with this or that barbaric counterpart often came about. On the higher ground of philosophy and poetry they joined hands with a later age and pressed on towards our own conceptions of Deity. I have therefore felt bound to take into account not only the numerous adaptations of Levantine syncretism but also sundry points of contact between Hellenism and Christianity. It is obvious that the limits of such an enquiry are to a certain extent arbitrary. I shall expect to be told by some that I have gone too far afield, by others that I have failed to note many side-lights from adjacent regions. Very possibly both criticisms are true.

Indeed, given the subject, it is not altogether easy to determine the best method of handling it. As a matter of fact I have tried more ways than one. In the Classical Review for 1903 and 1904 I published a series of six papers on 'Zeus, Jupiter and the Oak,' which aimed at summarising the Greek and Roman evidence that might be adduced in support of Sir James G. Frazer's Arician hypothesis. Satisfied that the evidence was much stronger than I had at first supposed, I next attempted, rashly enough, to pursue the same theme into the Celtic, the Germanic, and the Letto-Slavonic areas. With that intent I wrote another series of eight articles on 'The European Sky-God,' which appeared in Folk-Lore between the years 1904 and 1907. Of these articles the first three restated, with some modifications, the results obtained on Graeco­-Italic ground; and the remaining five were devoted to a survey of analogous phenomena among the Insular Celts. I had meant to go further along the same road. But at this point Dr Farnell in the friendliest fashion put a spoke in my wheel by convincing me that the unity of an ancient god consisted less in his nature than in his name. Thereupon I decided to abandon my search for 'The European Sky-God'; and I did so the more readily because I had felt with increasing pressure the difficulty of discussing customs and myths without a real knowledge of the languages in which they were recorded. After some hesitation I resolved to start afresh on narrower lines, restricting enquiry to the single case of Zeus and marking out my province as explained in the previous paragraph. Even so, the subject has proved to be almost too wide.

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xiii

I incline to think that a full treatment of any of the greater Greek divinities, such a treatment as must ultimately be accorded to them all, properly demands the co-ordinated efforts of several workers.

Be that as it may, in this instalment of my book I have traced the evolution of Zeus from Sky to Sky-god and have sought to determine the relations in which he stood to the solar, lunar, and stellar cults of the Mediterranean basin. I need not here anticipate my conclusions, since the volume opens with a Table of Contents and Closes with a summary of results. But I would warn my readers that the story runs on from Volume I to Volume II, and that the second half of it is, for the history of religion in general, the more important. Zeus god of the Bright Sky is also Zeus god of the Dark Sky; and it is in this capacity, as lord of the drenching rain-storm, that he fertilises his consort the earth-goddess and becomes the Father of a divine Son, whose worship with its rites of regeneration and its promise of immortality taught that men might in mystic union be identified with their god, and thus in thousands of wistful hearts throughout the Hellenic world awakened longings that could be satisfied only by the coming of the very Christ.

To some it may be a surprise that I have not made more use of ethnology as a master-key wherewith to unlock the complex chambers of Greek religion. I am far from underestimating the value of that great science, and I can well imagine that the mythology of the future may be based on ethnological data. But, if so, it will be based on the data of future ethnology. For at present ethnologists are still at sixes and sevens with regard to the racial stratification of ancient Greece. Such a survey as K. Penka's Die vorhellenische Bevolkerung Griechenlands (Hildburghausen 1911) shows that progress is being made; but it also shows the danger of premature constructions. Hypotheses that stand to-day may be upset to-morrow; and to build an edifice on foundations so insecure would be seriously to imperil its stability. I shall therefore be content if certain ethnological conclusions can be drawn, as I believe they can, from the materials here collected, materials that have been arranged on other principles. Again, I may be taxed with an undue neglect of anthropological parallels. In defence I might plead both lack of knowledge and lack of space. But, to be honest, I am not always satisfied that similarity of performance implies similarity of purpose, and I hold that analogies taken from a contiguous area are much more likely to be helpful than analogies gathered, sometimes on doubtful authority, from the ends of the habitable earth.

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Mention must here be made of sundry minor points in method and arrangement. I have as far as possible refrained from mottling my text with Greek and Latin words, and have relegated the necessary quotations to foot-notes, which can be 'skipped' by the expeditious. The perennial problem of orthography I have solved along arbitrary, but I trust consistent, lines. My plan is to trans­literate all Greek names (Aischylos, Phoinike, etc.) except those that have been so far Englished as to possess forms differing not only from the Greek but also from the Latin (Homer and Aristotle, the Achaeans and Thessaly). Greek words and phrases cited in the text are further italicised and accentuated. References in the foot-notes have the author's name transliterated, but the title of his work given in Latin to suit prevailing custom, unless that title includes the name of a Greek deity (e.g. Aisch. P.v., Plout. v. Aem. Paul., but Kallim. h. Zeus, Orph. h. Dem. Eleus.). To facilitate occasional usage. I have provided two Indexes at the end of Volume I, the first dealing in detail with Persons, Places, and Festivals, the second more summarily with Subjects and Authorities. On the other hand, considerations of space have led me to reserve the Appendixes to the end of Volume II. I may add that the manuscript of that volume is already far advanced: - its publication will not, I hope, be unduly delayed.

There remains the pleasant task of thanking those that have in a variety of ways helped towards the making of this book. It was Sir James G. Frazer who first advised me to put together in perma­nent form the materials that I had collected: he has seen about a third of the present volume, and, though well aware that I differ from him on certain vital issues, he has with characteristic generosity more than once encouraged me to persist in my undertaking. I am conscious that I owe much also, both directly and indirectly, to Dr O. Gruppe, who in his Handbuch and elsewhere has set up a standard of thoroughness that must for many a long day be kept in view by all writers on the subject of classical religion. Prof. G. Murray, with proofs of his own on hand, has yet given time to reading mine and has sent me a flight of pencilled marginalia, which I have been glad here and there to incorporate. Most of this book has been perused, either in manuscript or in slip, by Miss J. E. Harrison, to whose wide range and quick synthetic powers I am indebted for several valuable suggestions:

xv

I am the more anxious to acknowiedge this debt because on matters of the deepest import we do not see eye to eye. Other helpful criticisms have reached me from my friend Dr J. Rendel Harris, whose studies of 'Dioscurism' have obvious bearings on certain aspects of Zeus, and from Mr F. M. Cornford, especially in connexion with Dionysiac drama; a subject which he has made peculiarly his own.

Life in Cambridge has indeed afforded me, not merely ready­ access to a great Library, but - what is better still - ready access to many personal friends both able and willing to enlighten ignorance. On questions of etymology I have time after time trespassed on the scanty leisure of Dr P. Giles, Master of Emmanuel College, or all too rarely had the benefit of a flying visit from the Rev. Dr J. H. Moulton, Greenwood Professor of Hellenistic Greek and Indo-European Philology, in the Manchester University. Prof. E. J. Rapson has answered various queries with regard to Sanskrit myths and has furnished me with a detailed note on the Vedic Dyaus. One who deals with the syncretistic worships of the nearer East must perforce make excursions into the religions of Egypt, Babylonia, Syria, and Asia Minor. In things Egyptian I have consulted Mr F. W.Green, Mr H. R. Hall, and Mrs C. H. W. Johns. For Mesopotamian cult and custom I have. gone to my friend and former colleague Dr C. H. W. Johns, Master of St Catherine's College. Semitic puzzles have been made plain to me, partly in long-suffering talks and partly on learned post-cards (that boon of modern University life), by the Rev. Prof. R. B. Kennett of Queens' College, by Profs. A. A. Bevan and F. C. Burkitt of Trinity College, by Mr N. McLean of Christ's College, and by Mr S. A. Cook of Gonville and Caius College: to each and all of them I tender my cordial thanks.

In a book of this character, with its constant appeal to the monuments, textual illustration is not a luxury but a necessity. And here again many friends have laid me under lasting obliga­tions. Photographs of unpublished scenes or objects have been sent to me by Mr K. Kourouniotes, Dr C. G. Seligmann, Mr. J. M. W. Tillyard, Mr P. N. Ure, Mr A. J. B. Wace, and by my brother Dr A. R. Cook. Mr A. H. Smith, Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities in the British Museum, has allowed me to have photographs and drawings made of numerous art-treasures in gold and silver, bronze, marble, and terra-cotta; not a few of them are figured here for the first time.

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I am specially indebted to Mr H. B. Walters, Assistant-Keeper of the same collection, who has compared the drawings of vases with the vases themselves, and to Miss P. B. Mudie Cooke, who has verified illustrations, and references for me in the Reading Room. In the Department of Coins and Medals Mr G. F. Hill and the late Mr W. Wroth likewise gave me valuable help, partly by discussing various numismatic problems, and partly by supplying me with scores of casts taken from the coins under their charge. Mr F. H. Marshall, formerly of the British Museum, has sent me impressions of gems in the Gold Room, and Monsieur E. Babelon has furnished me with the cast of an unpublished coin in the Paris cabinet. Permission to have drawings made from objects in their possession was granted to me by Mr R. M. Dawkins, Mr F. W. Green, and Dr W. H. J. Rouse; permission to reproduce blocks, by Messrs F. Bruckmann and Co., Monsieur l'Abbe H. Breuil, and Sir William M. Ramsay. Mr J. R. McClean, who was always eager to put his magnificent collection of Greek coins at the service of classical scholarship generously allowed me to anticipate his Catalogue by figuring several of his most interesting specimens, and but a few weeks before, his death contributed a large sum towards the better illustration of this work. Another liberal donation to the same object, enhanced by a letter of rare kindness, has reached me from my friend and fellow-lecturer the Rev. Dr A. Wright, Vice-President of Queens' College.

Of the subjects represented in my first volume thirteen coins and one relief were drawn for me by the late Mr F. Anderson, official draughtsman to the British Museum. But the main bulk of the drawings has been made by an equally gifted artist, Miss E. N. Talbot of Saint Rhadegund's House, Cambridge. To her scrupulous exactitude and unremitting industry I am indebted for no fewer than three hundred and twenty-five of my cuts, including the two coloured designs and the restorations attempted in plates vi, xv, xxiii, and xl. Nor must I omit to thank another craftsman of first rate ability, Mr W. H. Hayles of the Cavendish Laboratory, who visited more than one museum on my behalf and, though working against time and not always in ideal conditions, produced a series of exceptionally good photographs.

The Syndics of the University Press by undertaking financial responsibility for the whole work have shouldered a heavy burden with little or no hope of ultimate remuneration. Apart from their timely assistance this book would have remained a pile of musty manuscript. Moreover, at every stage of its production I have

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xvii

met with unwearied courtesy and consideration from the Manager ­and Staff of the Pitt Press. In particular I wish to express my obligation to Mr N. Mason, whose resourceful skill has frequently surmounted obstacles in the way of satisfactory illustration and to Mr W. H. Swift, whose vigilance and accuracy in proof-reading have been to me a perpetual marvel.

Finally, my wife has devoted many hours to the monotonous work of Index-making. I am glad to think that in consequence of her labours this volume will be decidedly more useful than it could otherwise have been.

ARTHUR BERNARD COOK.

19 CRANMER ROAD, CAMBRIDGE. 22 July 1914.

xix

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I

CHAPTER I

ZEUS AS GOD OF THE BRIGHT SKY

PAGES

§ 1. Zeus and the Daylight                                                                               1-25

(a) Zeus the Sky                                                                                   1

(b) The Transition from Sky to Sky-god                                                 9

(c) Zeus Amários                                                                                14

(d) Zeus Panámaros, Panemeros, Panemérios                                      18

§ 2. Zeus and the Burning Sky                                                                       25-62

(a) Aithér as the abode of Zeus                                                            25

(b) Zeus Aithérios, Zeus Aíthrios                                                         26

(c) Zeus identified with Aither (sometimes with Aer)

 in Philosophy and Poetry                                                                    27

(d) Zeus as god of the Blue Sky in Hellenistic Art                                   33

i. The Blue Nimbus                                                                    34

ii. The Blue Globe                                                                      41

iii The Blue Mantle                                                                     56

§ 3. Zeus Lýkaios                                                                                          63-69

(a) Wolf-god or Light-god?                                                                   63

(b) Peloponnesian coin-types of Zeus Lýkaios                                        68

(c) Human 'sacrifice to Zeus Lýkaios                                                    70

(d) The Precinct of Zeus Lýkaios                                                          81

(e) The Cult of Zeus Lýkaios at Kyrene                                                89

(f) Zeus Lýkaios on a Spartan ('Cyrenaic') kýlix                                     92

(g) Zeus-like deities in wolf-skin garb                                                    96

§ 4. Zeus and Olympos                                                                                  100-117

(a) The Cult of Zeus on Mount Olympos                                               100

(b) Dionysiac traits in the Cult of Zeus on Mount Olympos                     104

(c) Development in the meaning of Ólympos. Zeus Olýmpios.                 113

§ 5. The Mountain-cults of Zeus                                                                     117-186

(a) Chronological Development of the Mountain-cults                             117

(b) The Mountain as the Throne of Zeus                                               124

(c) The Mountain as the Birth-place of Zeus                                          148

(d) The Mountain as the Marriage-place of Zeus                                     154

(e) The Mountain as the Burial-place of Zeus                                         157

(f) Zeus as a Mountain-god superseded by Saint Elias                             163

xx

Contents

§ 6. Zeus in relation to the Sun                                                                       186-730

(a) Direct identifications of Zeus with the Sun                                        186

(b) Cult-epithets of Zeus that may be solar                                             195

(c) The Sun as the Eye of Zeus                                                             196

(d) The Sun as a Wheel                                                                        197

i.The Solar Wheel in Greece                                                        197

(α) Ixion                                                                           198

(β) Triptolemos                                                                 211

(γ) Kirke                                                                           238

(δ) Medeia                                                                        244

(ε) Iynx                                                                             253

(ζ) Isis, Nemesis, Tyche, Fortuna                                        265

ii. Zeus and the Solar Wheel                                                         288

iii. Zeus and the Solar Disk                                                           291

iv. The Lycian Symbol                                                                 299

v. The Lycian Symbol and the Kyklops                                         302

vi. The Kyklops of the East and the Kyklops of the West                309

vii. The Kyklops and Zeus                                                            317

viii. The Blinding of the Kyklops' Eye                                            321

ix. Prometheus' Theft of Fire                                                         323

x. The Fire-drill in relation to Prometheus, the Kyklops, and Zeus     325

xi. The Solar Wheel combined with Animals                                    330

xii. The Solar Chariot                                                                     333

xiii. The Solar Wreath                                                                    338

(e) The Sun as the Bird of Zeus                                                                341

(f) The Sun and the Ram                                                                         346

i. The Ram and the Sun in Egypt Zeus Ammón                                346

(α) Khnemu and Amen                                                         346

(β) Amen and Zeus Thebaieús                                               347

(γ) Amen and Zeus Ámmon                                                    348

(δ) Ba'al-hammân and Zeus Ammón                                       353

(ε) Zeus Ammón and the Snake                                              358

(ζ) Zeus of the Oasis a Graeco-Libyan god                              361

(η) The youthful Ammón                                                       371

(θ) The Oasis of Siwah                                                          376

ii. The Ram and the Sun in Phrygia. Zeus Sabázios                           390

iii. The Golden or Purple Ram of the Etruscans and Italians               403

iv. The Golden or Purple Lamb of Atreus                                         405

v. The Cattle of the Sun                                                                  409

vi. The Golden Lamb in a folk-tale from Epeiros                               412

vii. The Golden or Purple Ram of Phrixos                                        414

viii. Zeus Aktaîos or Akraîos and his Fleeces                                     420

ix. Zeus Meilíchios, Zeus Ktésios, and the Fleece of Zeus                 422

x. The Significance of the Ram in the Cults of Zeus                           428

Contents

xxi

(g) The Sun and the Bull                                                                        430

i. The Bull and the Sun in Egypt                                                    430

ii. Zeus, Io, and Epaphos                                                              437

iii. Priests and Priestesses with Animal Names                                441

iv. Hera and the Cow                                                                   444

v. Kleobis and Biton                                                                     447

vi. Trophonios and Agamedes                                                       450

vii. The Proitides                                                                         451

viii. Hera and Io                                                                           453

ix. Zeus and Argos                                                                       457

x. The Myth of Pasiphae                                                              464

xi. The Bull and the Sun in Crete                                                   467

xii. The Cow and the Moon in Crete                                              469

xiii. The Sacred Cattle of Gortyna                                                 471

xiv. The Laoyrinth at Knossos                                                      472

xv. The Minotaur                                                                         490

xvi. 'Minoan' Bull-fights                                                                497

xvii. Ritual Horns                                                                         506

xviii. The Marriage of the Sun and the Moon in Crete                     521

xix. Zeus and the Bovine Figures of Cretan Mythology                   543

xx. The Bull and the Sun in Syria                                                  549

(α) Zeus Adados and Iupiter Heliopolitanus                         549

(β) Iupiter Heliopolitanus and the Bull                                 567

(γ) Adad or Ramman and the Bull                                 576

(δ) Zeus (Adad) and Hera (Atargatis) at Hierapolis        582

(ε) Zeus (Adad) at Dion, Rhosos, etc.                           590

(ζ) Characteristics of the Syrian Zeus (Adad)                 591

(η) Ba'al-tars and Zeus Térsios                                     593

(θ) Zeus Dolichaîos and Iupiter Dolichenus                 604

xxi. The Significance of the Bull in the Cults of Zeus                   633

(α) The Bull as a Fertilising Power                                 633

(β) The Influence of Apis                                              635

(γ) Spread of the Hittite Bull-cult                                   639

(δ) The Cretan Zeus and Zagreus                                  644

(ε) The Cretan Zeus and Human Omophagy                  651

(ζ) The Cretan Zeus and Bovine Omophagy                  659

(η) The Origin of Tragedy                                             665

(θ) The Attic Festivals of Dionysos                                680

(ι) The Satyric Drama                                                   695

(κ) Zeus, Dionysos, and the Goat                                  706

xxii.Animals sacrificed to Zeus                                                   716

(h) The Sun as a Bronze Man                                                                719

i. Talos in Crete                                                                                    719

ii. Talos in Sardinia                                                                                721

iii. Talos and the Bronze-founder's Art                                                   723

iv. Talos at Athens                                                                                724

v. Talos identified with Zeus                                                                  728

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Contents

§ 7. Zeus in relation to the Moon                                                                       730-40

(a) Direct identifications of Zeus with the Moon                                     730

(b) Zeus paired with Selene (Pandîa?)                                                  732

(c) Zeus paired with Io, Pasiphae, Europe                                             733

(d) Zeus paired with Antiope                                                                 734

(e) Zeus and his Lunar Consorts                                                            739

§ 8. Zeus in relation to the Stars                                                                        740-75

(a) Zeus Astérios, Zeus Seirén, Zeus Oromasdes                                 740

(b) Zeus as god of the Starry Sky                                                          751

(c) Zeus in Astronomy and Astrology                                                    754

(d) Zeus transformed into a Star                                                            760

(e) The Dioskouroi as Stars                                                                  760

i. The dedication of Stars after the battles of Salamis

and Aigos Potamos                                                                   761

ii. The Dioskouroi as Stars in Hellenic Literature                        763                 

iii. The Dioskouroi with Stars in Hellenistic Art                           764

iv. The Dioskouroi identified with the Heavenly

Twins in Hellenistic Literature                                                    770

v. The Dioskouroi identified with various Stars

by modem writers                                                                     771

vi. The Dioskouroi identified with Saint Elmo's

Fire in Hellenistic Literature                                                       771

vii. The Stars of the Dioskouroi and of Helene

as a good or bad omen                                                             772

viii. Saint Elmo's Fire                                                                 774

§ 9. General Conclusions with regard to Zeus as god of the Bright Sky

ADDENDA                                                                                                  781-786

INDEX I (PERSONS, PLACES, FESTIVALS)                                              787-859

INDEX II (SUBJECTS, AUTHORITIES)                                                      860-885

LIST OF PLATES IN VOLUME I

FRONTISPIECE

and PLATE                                                                                                      to face page

I Wall, painting from Pompeii: Zeus enthroned with pillar behind him                             34

II Well-mouth at Naples: Zeus enthroned with pillar beside him                                      34

III Amphora from Ruvo: pillar-cult of Zeus                                                                  36 f.

IV Kratér from Apulia: pillar-cults of Zeus                                                                   39

V Kratér from Lecce: pillar-cult of Zeus                                                                      39

VI Wall-painting from Pompeii: Zeus enthroned with globe beside him                           42

VII Relief on the so-called ara Capitolina: Zeus enthroned with globe beside him             42

VIII View of the summit of Mount Lykaion, showing bases of eagle-columns                 83

IX, 1 View of Mount Olympos as seen from the port of Litokhoro

 2 Diagram of the same view, showing Mount Olympos as it rises through aér into aithér 100

X Restored view of Pergamon, showing the great altar of Zeus                                      119

XI Hydria from Ruvo: Zeus and the judgment of Paris                                                 125

XII Pelike from Ruvo: Zeus and the defeat of Marsyas                                                 129

XIII Relief signed by Archelaos of Priene: Zeus and the apotheosis of Homer                 129

XIV View of Mount Taygeton as seen from Sparta                                                       155

XV Upper half of colossal figure from Eleusis: kistophóros known as Saint Demetra        172

XVI Amphora from Cumae: Ixion on his wheel                                                             203

XVII Etruscan, mirror: Ixion on his wheel                                                                     204

XVIII Kratér from Agrigentum: Triptolemos                                                                 219

XIX Amphora from Ruvo: Triptolemos                                                                        223

XX Krater from Cumae: Triptolemos                                                                           223

XXI Coin of Gaza Minoa (?): the Hebrew Godhead as a solar Zeus                                232

XXII Kratér from Canosa: the vengeance of Medeia                                                     252

XXIII, 1 Restoration of the cult-statue of Nemesis at Rhamnous

la, 1b Front and side of extant fragment of the head

2a, 2b Coin of Kypros: obv: Zeus enthroned; rev. Nemesis standing                     274 f.

XXIV, 1 Silver-gilt plaque from Elis': Helios rising

2 Bronze crescent from Elis: lily-work etc                                                          336

PLATE                                                                                                            to face page

XXV May-garland of flowers and corn from Eleusis                                                     338

XXVI 1 Terra-cotta statuette from Kypros: Ba'al-hammân en­throned               

2 Leaden plate from Caesarea Iol: heads of Ba'al-hammân

3 Silver diadem from Batna: Ba'al- hammân, Tanit, etc.                                      354 f.

XXVII Bronze relief at Copenhagen: Zeus Sabázios                                                     392

XXVIII Corn-maiden from Lesbos                                                                             396

XXIX Mosaic in the orchestra of the theatre at Athens: swastika-­pattern                       480

XXX Hydría from the Canino collection: a Minotaur-dance (?)                                     497

XXXI Bell-kratér in the Hope collection: Herakles in Olympos

taking fruit from the cornu copiae of Zeus                                                        502

XXXII White-ground kýlix from Aigina: Zeus and Europe                                            526 f.

XXXIII Marble stéle from Marseille: Iupiter Heliopolitanus                                         570

XXXIV Bronze plate from Heddernheim: Iupiter Dolichenus                                       620

XXXV Bronze týmpanon from the Idaean Cave in Crete: Zeus and the Kouretes           644

XXXVI Hydría from Kameiros: Zagreus devoured by the Titans                                  654 f.

XXXVII Terra-cotta mask from Anthedon: a Satyric choreutés                                    696

XXXVIII Kratér from Altemura: (a) the decking of Pandora; (b) a Satyric chorus          700 f.

XXXIX 1 Bell-kratér in the Hope collection: preparations for a Satyr-play                    

2 Bell-kratér in the Hope collection: preparations for a Satyr-play                        702

XL, 1-4 Reliefs decorating the stage of Phaidros in the theatre at Athens: (1) the infancy of Dionysos; (2) the advent of Dionysos; (3) the marriage of Dionysos; (4) the enthronement of Dionysos [A restoration of these reliefs is printed on a transparent overleaf] in pocket at end of Volume I

XLI Kratér from Ruvo: the death of Talos                                                                  720 f.

XLII Kýlix at Taranto: Zeus Lýkaios                                                                          722

ABBREVIATIONS

This List of Abbreviations has been drawn up in accordance with two principles. On the one hand, the names of Authors have not been shortened, save by the omission of their initials. On the other hand, the titles of Books and Periodicals have been cut down, but not - it is hoped - beyond the limits of recognizability.

The customary abbreviations of classical writers and their works (for which see supra. p. xiv) are not here included.

[. . . .]

CHAPTER I ZEUS AS GOD OF THE BRIGHT SKY:

§ 1.      Zeus and the Daylight.

(a) Zeus the Sky

1

THE supreme deity of the ancient Greeks, during their historical period at least, was Zeus. His name, referable to a root, that means 'to shine' may be rendered 'the Bright One 1.' And, since a whole series of related words in the various languages of the Indo-Europaean family is used to denote 'day' or 'sky 2,' it can be safely inferred that Zeus was called 'the, Bright One' as being the god, of the bright or day-light-sky 3. Indeed a presumption

1 K. Brugmann Grundrs der vergleickenden Grammattik der indogermanischen Sprache Strassburg 1897 i. 204, 210, 263, 276 f., 307, 527, 797, 1906 ii. I. 133 f., id. Kulte vergleichende Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen Strassburg 1904 ­p. 312, Schrader Reallex. p. 670, H. Hirt Die Indogermanen Strassburg. 1907 ii. 506. The Greek Zeus, and the Old Indian Dyaús represent an Indo-Europaean [dieu-s] from the root [di']: [die]: [deia], 'to shine.'

2 This series as collected by Walde Lat. etym. Worterb. S.v. deus, dies, and Hirt op. cit. ii. 734 f. includes the following forms: Greek [endios] 'at mid-day,' [eudia] 'clear sky'; Latin sub divo 'under the open sky,' dies 'day'; Welsh diw, dyw dydd 'day,' Breton dez 'day,' Cornish det 'day,' Irish indiu 'to-day'; Gothic sin-teins 'daily'; Lithuanian dienà 'day,' Slavonic dini 'day'; Albanian diti 'day'; Armenian tiv 'day '; Old Indian divá 'on the day,' divám, 'day, sky.'

3 Two misleading explanations may here be noted. (1) E. H. Meyer Germanische Mythologle Berlin: 1881 pp. 182, 220 holds that Zeus denotes properly the, 'hurler' or 'discharger' of rays (cp. H; Grassmann Wurterbuch zum Rig-veda Leipzig 1873-1875 p. 600 s. v. div.) and infers that he must have been the lightning-god, not as is com­monly supposed the god of brightday-light. But the frequent use of the word dyaus in the Rig-veda for 'sky' or 'day' (A. A. Macdonell Vedic Mythology Strassburg 1897 p. 21, P. von Bradke 'Dyáus Asura Halle 1885 p. 110) and the existence of the forms recorded in the foregoing note are conclusive in favour of the common view. (2) Frazer Golden Bough ii. 369, ib. 2 iii. 456 f., suggested, tbat Zeus was, named 'Bright' as being the oak-god, i.e. god of the tree whose wood was used in fire-making. Agains this view I protested in the Class. Rev. 1902 xvi. 372, as did Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 1100 n. 2. And Frazer op. cit. 3 ii. 358 n. admits that he 'was disposed to set aside much too summarily what may be called the meteorological side of Zeus and Jupiter,' though he still regards the oak-tree as the primary, not a secondary, element in their composite nature (ib. ii. 373 ff.). I now hold, and shall hope in vol. ii of the present work to show, that the oak was originally the tree of the earth-mother rather than the tree of the sky-father, and that the latter acquired it in the first instance through association with the former.

3

Ambrosial, on his immortal head,

Shook - at their shaking all Olympos quaked 1.

Nevertheless, although Zeus as conceived by the Homeric minstrel is fully anthropomorphic, certain traces of the earlier conception persisted even into post-Homeric times 2. The evidence is linguistic, rather than literary. I shall begin by passing it in review.

Closely akin to the substantive Zeús is the adjective díos, which denotes properly 'of' or 'belonging to Zeus 3.' This meaning it actually bears in Attic drama 4. But how comes it that in the much earlier Homeric poems it has the force of 'bright' or 'glorious' without any such restriction to the property of a personal Zeus 5? Probably because the word was formed before Zeus became a personality, when as yet he was the Zeus, the radiant sky credited with' an impersonal life of its 'own. Díos in fact meant at first 'of' or 'belonging to the bright sky'; and a vestige of its primary meaning is to be found in the frequent Homeric phrases, 'the bright upper air 6' and 'the bright dawn 7.' The transition from brightness, in this sense, to glory or splendour in general is not hard tofollow.

[p.2 n cont’d.] enough remains to prove that the beard, like the body, was red-brown in colour shaded with black ([Eph. Arch] 1888 p, 71 ff. pl. 5).

1 Il. I. 518 ff., cp. 8. 199 (of Hera). For a similar explanation of earthquakes in modem Greece see infra, ch. ii. § 5.

2 Wissowa Rel. Kult. Rom. p. 100 contrasts Zeus the personal sky-god with Iupiter the actual sky (cp W. Warde Fowler The Religious Experience of the Roman People London 1911 pp. 128, 141). But the contrast was neither originally nor finally valid: at the first both Zeus and Iupiter were the sky; at the last both were the sky-god.

3 Brugmann Grundriss etc.2 ii. I. 187 ('himmlisch'), id. Kurz vergl. Gram. etc. pp. 99 ('himmlisch'), 360 ('gottlich'), Der Handb. der. Etym. iii. 175 f. ('von Zeus herruhrend, Zeus angehorend,' dann allgemeiner 'himmlisch,' gottlich; herrlich' oder ahnlich); Prellwitz Etym, Worterb. d. Gr. Spr. 2 p. 117 ('gottlich'), Boisacq Dict. etym. de la Langue Gr. p. 189 f. ('divin'), treat ...

4 E.g. Aisch. P.v. 619 …

5 According to H. Ebeling Lexicon Homericum Lipsiae 1885 i. 310 f. Homer has [dios] in the sense 'bright' or 'glorious' of goddesses (but not gods, though in frag. h. Dion. … is Dionysos son of Zeus, and in Il. 17. 582 Zenodotos wrote … nymphs, men, and women, peoples and places, divine horses; rivers and mountain-peaks, land and sea.

6 Il. …

7 Il. …

 Zeus the Sky

Further, when Zeus came to be regarded as an individual sky-god, the way was open for díos, 'of the bright sky,' to take on the more personal meaning, 'of the god Zeus.' Thus, on the assumption that Zeus began life as the Zeus, both Homeric and Attic usages are satisfactorily explained 1. We note in passing that in north-eastern Phrygia Zeus was worshipped as Zeus Díos 2, a double appellation which recalls the Dea Dio of the Romans, and very possibly attests the survival among the Thraco-Phrygian folk of an early, not to say primitive, Zeus.

Another adjective éndios occurs in epic verse with the meaning 'in broad day-light' or 'at mid-day 3.' For example, Nestor in the Iliad describes an expedition in which he had once taken part:

At mid-day (éndioi) came we to the sacred stream

Alpheios 4.

Eidothea, too in the Odyssey tells Menelaos the habits of her father Proteus:

What time the Sun bestrides mid heaven, there comes

Shoreward the unerring Ancient of the Sea 5.

And fifty lines further on her word is made good:

At mid-day (éndios) came the Ancient from the sea 6.

1 Another possible, but - as it seems to me - less probable, explanation would be to say that dios meant originally 'of Zeus,' i.e. of the personal Zeus, and that its meaning had been widened and weakened by epic usage till dios came to signify merely 'divine,' while yet Attic poetry retained the primary force of the word dios, 'of Zeus.' That different dialects should be at different stages in the evolution of the meaning of a given word, and even that the early poetry of one dialect should give only the later meaning while the later poetry of another dialect gave only the early meaning, is certainly thinkable. But the hypothesis set forth in the text involves fewer assumptions.

2 A. Korte in the Gott. Gel. Anz. 1897 clix. 409 f. publishes (after G. Radet 'En Phrygie' in the Nouvelles Archives des Missions Scientifiques Paris 1895 vi. 4115-594) a limestone altar at Eskischehir in the Kutschuk-Han inscribed' … On the upper part of the altar are two bunches of grapes; on the base, a plough of a kind still much used in Anatolia. Korte observes that the quantity of I in DIOS is doubtful, and suggests that we have here perhaps 'den uralten Himmelsgott dios' (an ancient nominative assumed by H. Usener Gotternamen Bonn 1896 pp. 43, 70 f. to account for … This, however, is highly precarious. I prefer to write DIOS with Sir W. M. Ramsay Studies in the History and Art of the Eastern Provinces of the Roman Empire Aberdeen 1906 p. 1175, who notes that Solon, servitor of Zeus [Dios], discharged a vow to his god and by the same act of devotion made a tomb for himself.

3 So Souid. S.v. [endios], Hesych. S.vv. … et. mag. p. 339, I, et. Gud.1 p. 186, 39, Orion p. 60, 4, Apollon. lex. Hom. s.v. [endeios], Cramer anect. oxon. ii. 200, 7f.

4 Il. 11. 726 with Eustath. in 11. p. 881, … schol. V. ad loc. says …

5

Similarly Souidas cites the following couplet, perhaps by Keri­machos:

So, while mid-day (éndios) endured and earth grew hot,

More brilliant than crystal shone the sky 1.

From this adjective are derived verbs meaning' to take a mid-day siesta 2,' 'to live in the open air 3,' 'to grow up into the air 4.' But the adjective itself must have meant originally 'in the Zeus' or 'in the bright sky 5,' thence passing into the sense 'in broad day­light,' 'at mid-day 6.'

Lastly, there is the adjective eúdios 'with a cleilr sky, tranquil 7,' the substantive eudía 'a clear sky, calm weather 8,' and the verbs eudiân, eudiázesthai 'to be serene 9.' These all spring from the same root as dîos, éndios 10, and alike bear witness to the fact that

1 Souid. s.v. ... =Kallim. frag. an. 24 Schneider. Hellenistic poets affected the word, e.g. Kallim. k. Dem. 39 … with schol. … id. frag. 124 Schneider … id. Hekale frag. pap. col. iv, … Ap. Rhod. I. 603 … with schol. p.ix … id., 4. 1310 f. … Theokr. 16. 95… with schol. vet. … and gloss M. … (imitated by Antiphilos in Anth. Pal. 9. 71), Arat. phaen. 498 … with schol. …

2 … Plout. symp. 8. 6.S, fl. Rom. 4, v. Lucull. 16. Cp. Hesych. …

3 … Theokr. 16. 38, 22. 44, Antk. Pal. 5. 291. 6 Agathias. The verb came to mean simply 'to dwell': Anth. Pal. 2. 122 Christodoros, ib. 4. 4. 10 Agathias, ib. 5. 269. 10 Paulus Silentiarius. The (Alexandrine?) author of the Homeric h. Sel. says of the full moon … which E. E. Sikes ad loc. would render: 'are as bright as day.'

4 ... Tab. Heracl. 1. 120 f. … which G. Kaibel in the Inscr. Gr. Sic. It. p. 174 renders arbores quae in aerem succreverunt.

5 … is related to … see L. Meyer Handb. d. gr. Etym. i. 423. Prellwitz Etytn. Worterb. d. Gr. Spr. 2 p. 142, Boisacq Dict. etym. de la Langue Gr. p. 250.

6 W. Prellwitz Eim griechische und eine lateinische Etymologie Bartenstein 1895 p. 8 notes that ... both being derived from ... 'im Zeus, im lichten Tage.'

8 Cp. Otl. 8. 449 … 'straightway,' lit. 'on the self-same day' (so Prellwitz Etym.Worterb. d. Gr. Spr. 2 p. 66, Boisacq op. cit. p. 103, on the analogy of …

Zeus the Sky

6

Zeus once signified the animate sky. It is interesting to observe that the tenth-century scholar, who compiled the great Greek lexikon known as the Etymologicum Magnum, seems to have had an inkling of the truth; for in discussing the words eúdios and eudía he suggests as a possible derivation - 'or because Zeús denotes "the sky" also 1.'

When the pre-anthropomorphic conception of Zeus had, de­veloped into the anthropomorphic, the natural tendency would be to forget the former in the latter. We can hardly expect, therefore, to find in extant Greek literature the name Zeús used as a simple equivalent of 'the sky.' Still, there are occasional passages of a more or less colloquial sort, in which the ancient usage may be detected. Thus Aristophanes in his comedy Friends of the Frying­ Pan  makes one of the characters exclaim:

And how should Plouton bear the name he does bear,

Had he not got the best of it? I'll explain.

The things of earth surpass the things of Zeus.

When you are weighing, 'tis the laden pan

Seek searth, the empty one goes up towards Zeus 2.

The remark gains in point, if we may suppose that 'towards Zeus' was a popular expression for 'sky-wards 3.' It certainly appears to be used in that sense by Euripides: he has in his Kyklops the following conversation between Polyphemos, who has returned home unexpectedly, and the Chorus of Satyrs, who are caught idling and so face their ferocious master with hanging heads:

Kyklops, Look up, not down.

Chorus. There! We are staring up towards Zeus himself:

I see the stars; I see Orion too 4.

Plutarch, again quotes a witty epigram, Lysippos' statue of Alexander the Great,with its characteristic upturned gaze:

The man of bronze who looks to Zeus

Says (so I should opine) -

Zeus the Sky

7

This earth I keep for my own use;

The sky, Zeus, is for thine 1.'

With these passages of comedy and quasi-comedy should be 'compared certain others of more serious tone, in which the poet says 'the rays of Zeus' or 'the light of Zeus' where we should say 'the light of day.' The Iliad thus describes the crash of a battle between Argives and Trojans:

The din of both

Rose to the upper sky and the rays of Zeus 2.­

Hekabe in the tragedy that Euripides named after her speaks of her dead son Polydoros as­

No longer in the light of Zeus 3.

In the same poet's Iphigeneia at Aulis the heroine, when she departs to her death, bids adieu to the day-light:

O lamp of day

And light of Zeus,

Another life,

Another lot

Henceforth be mine.

Loved light, farewell 4.

In such passages it is difficult to determine whether Zeus is conceived as anthropomorphic, or not. Anthropomorphism is; however, apparent in the Rhesos, where Euripides writes not only 'the light of the god 7' but also 'Zeus god of Light 8.'

1 Plout. de Alex. magn. 1. 9. 2. 2 (=Cougny Anth. Pal. Append. 3. 53)…

2 Il. 13 … Eustath. … quotes it as proof that, Zeus sometimes means 'the sun.' Hesych. … The phrase recurs in a Greek metrical inscription found at Ostia (Inscr. Gr. Sic. It.: no. 940 …

3 Eur. Hec. 707 …

4 Id. I.A. 1505 ff. …

5 Id. Res. 331 …

8 Id. ib.355 [Zeus o phanaios]… perhaps we should rather render 'He that Appeareth'; cp. ib. 370 …The same title was borne by Apollon in Chios (Hesych. s.v. [phanaios]), and is thus explained by Macrob.Sat. I. 17.34: … Cornut. theol. 32 p. 67, 3 f. has… But, as applied to the Chian Apollon, and presumably also to Zeus, the epithet was at first a mere [ethnikon] 'the god. of Panai'; for Strab. 645 in describing Chios mentions… though Steph. Byz. S.v. … says …The port and promontory are referred to by other writers (Aristoph. ail. 1694 with schol. Thouk. 8. 24, Ptolem. 5. 2 p. 323, 19, Liv. 36. 43, 44.28, 45. 10, Verg. georg. 2. 98 with Servo ad loc.). Orphic writers occasionally gave the name Zeus to their first-born deity [phanis] (Damaskios quaest. de primis principiis p. 380=Orph. frag. 48 Abel … Euseb. praep. ev. 3. 9. 1 f.=Stob. ecl. 1. 1. 23=Orph. frag. 123 Abel Zeus … see O. Gruppe in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 2260), whose own name was explained sometimes as referring to Light (10. Malal. chron. 4 p. 74 Dindorf, Souid. s.v. …) or to Day (Theon Smyrn: expos. rerum mathemat. ad legendum Platonem utilium p. 105 =Orph. frag. 171 Abel … but usually as a description of the Sun (Macrob. Sat. 1. 18. 13, Diod. I. II, Iambl. theol. arith. p. 60: see E. Zeller A History of Greek Philosophy trans. S. F. Alleyne London 1881 i. 106 n. 4, O. Gruppe in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 2255 f.). On a relief at Modena representing Phanes with a thunderbolt in his right hand see R. Eisler Welten­mantel und Himmelszelt Munchen 1910 ii. 399 ff. fig. 47.

8

Zeus the Sky

For fifteen hundred years and more, in fact till the decay: of paganism, the anthropomorphic conception of Zeus held the field. Yet the older view was never very far below the surface, and from time to time, as we shall see, it cropped up in a variety of ways. Even in the extreme decadence of Greek: letters there was a scholastic resuscitation of it. Thus, the original Zeus was simply the radiant day-light Sky. With, the rise of anthropomorphism this belief was obscured and overlaid. The Zeus of Hesiodic mythology is described as grandson of an older god - Ouranos, the 'starry midnight 'Sky 1.' In Hellenic times the two Spartan kings were respectively priests of Zeus Lakedaímon and Zeus Ouránios ('of the Sky 2'). In the Hellenistic age the latter title was much used by the poets 3: it afforded a point of contact between the Greek Zeus and the Semitic Ba'al-šamin; 'Lord of Heaven 4.' Finally, Byzantine learning spoke of Zeus ouranós, Zeus the 'sky 5,' a title which in letter, though not in spirit, recalled the primary idea of the animate Sky.

1 The relation of Ouranos to Gaia, and of both to Zeus, will be considered later.

2 Hdt. 6. 56. Wide Lakon. Kulte p. 3 cites Corp. inxcr. Gr. i no. 1241, 8 ff.

… no. 1258, 6 ff. … no. 1276, 9, f. … Lebas-Foucart Peloponnese no. 179 a, 3 f…. (=Corp. inscr. Gr. i no. 1420, cp. nos. 1421, 11 f., , 1429, 4f., 1473, 1, 1719, 6), Corp. inscr. Gr. i no. 1424, 1 ff. …

3 Kallim. h. Zeus 55, ep. 52. 3 Wilamowitz, Anth. Pal. 9, 352. 4 (Leonidas Alex.), Anth. Plan. 293, 3, Kaibel Epigr. Gr. no. 618. 21, Eratosth. epist. ad Ptolem. 15 Hiller, Nonn. Dion. 21.4, 24. 279, 25.348, 27.76, 31.97, 43. 174 f., 47.694 f. (cp. 46, 39 [ZINOS] …) collected by Bruchmann Epith. deor. p. 136. So Aristot. de mundo 7. 401 a 25.

4 Infra ch. i § 6 (a). See also C. Clermont-Ganneau Recueil d'Archeologie Orientale Paris 1903 v. 66 ff.

5 Tzetz. antehom. 208 [ZINOS] ... Hom. 171 f. ...

The Transition from Sky to Sky-god

9

(b) The Transition from Sky to Sky-god.

The precise steps by which men advanced from a belief in Zeus the Sky to a belief in Zeus the Sky-god are hidden from us in the penumbra of a prehistoric past. The utmost that we can hope is to detect here and there survivals in language or custom or myth, which may enable us to divine as through gaps in a mist the track once travelled by early thought 1. In such circumstances to attempt anything like a detailed survey or reconstruction of the route would be manifestly impossible. Nevertheless the shift from Sky to Sky-god was a momentous fact, a fact which modified the whole course of Greek religion, and its ultimate consequence was nothing less than the rise of faith in a personal God, the Ruler and Father of all. In view of this great issue we may well strain our backward gaze beyond the point of clear vision and even acquiesce in sundry tentative hypotheses, if they help us to retrace in imagination the initial stages of the journey. I shall make bold, therefore, to surmise that in Greece, as elsewhere, religion effected its upward progress along the following lines.

When those who first used the word Zeús went out into the world and looked abroad, they found themselves over-arched by the blue and brilliant sky, a luminous Something fraught with incalculable possibilities of weal or woe. It cheered. them with its steady sunshine. It scared them with its flickering fires. It fanned their cheeks with cool breezes, or set all knees a-tremble with reverberating thunder. It mystified them with its birds winging their way in ominous silence or talking secrets in an unknown tongue. It paraded before men's eyes a splendid succession of celestial phenomena, and underwent for all to see the daily miracle of darkness and dawn. Inevitably, perhaps instinctively, they would regard if with awe - that primitive blend of religious feelings 2 - and would go on to conciliate it by any means In their power. This, is the stage of mental and moral development attributed by Herodotos to the ancient Persians. 'I am aware,' he says, 'that the Persians practise the following customs.

1 The only writer, so far as I know, who has recognised and done justice to this blank stretch in our knowledge of Zeus is Gruppe in his masterly handbook (Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 753 'die Entstehung der Vorstellung von den einzelnen Gottern das dunkelste Gebiet der gesamten griechischen Religionsgeschichte ist,' p. 1102 'Zwischen dem Urzeus und dem historischen Zeus liegen tiefe Klufte, die wir in Gedanken zwar leicht uber­springen konnen, aber nicht uberspringen durfen ').

2 R. R. Marett The Threshold of Religion London 1909 p. 13 (='Pre-Animistic Religion' in Folk-Lore 1900 xi. 168), W. Woodt Volkerpsychologie Leipzig 1906 ii. 2. 17-l ff. Die praanimistische Hypothese.

3 Hdt. 1. 131. The passage is paraphrased also in Strab. 732.

The Transition from Sky to Sky-god ­

10

They are not in the habit of erecting images, temples, or altars; indeed, they charge those who do so with folly, because - I suppose - they do not, like the Greeks, hold the gods to be of human shape. Their practice is to climb the highest mountains and sacrifice to Zeus, by which name they call the whole circle of the sky 1. They sacrifice also to the sun and moon, the earth, fire and water, and the winds. These, and these alone, are the original objects, of their worship.' The same stage of belief has left many traces of itself in the Latin language and literature 2. To quote but a single example, a popular line of Ennius ran 3:

Look at yonder Brilliance o'er us, whom the world invokes as Jove.

1 Hdt. 1. 131 … My friend the Rev. Prof. J. H. Moulton, our greatest authority on early Persian beliefs, in a very striking paper 'Syncretism in Religion as illustrated in the History of Parsism' (Transactions of the Third International Congress for the History of Religions Oxford 1908 ii. 89 ff.) observes a propos of this passage: "It is generally assumed that he [i.e. Herodotos] calls the supreme deity 'Zeus' merely from his Greek instinct. But it is at least possible that he heard in Persia a name for the sky-god which sounded so much like 'Zeus,' being in fact the same word, that he really believed they used the familiar name. (The suggestion occurred to me J.H.M.) independently; but it was anticipated by Spiegel, Eran. Alt. ii. 190) This incidentally explains why the name … (Auramazda) does not appear in Greek writers until another century has passed. In Yt. iii. 13 (a metrical passage, presumably ancient) we find [patat dyaos. Anro Mainyu], 'Angra fell from heaven': see Bartholomae, s. v. dyau. Since Dyaus survives in the Veda as a divine name as well as a common noun - just as dies and Diespiter in Latin - it is antecedently probable that the Iranians still worshipped the ancestral deity by his old name." Prof. Moulton further writes to me (June 23, 19I1) that Herodotos 'is entirely right, as usual: his general picture of Persian religion agrees most subtly with what we should reconstruct on other evidence as the religion of the people before Zarathushtra's reform began ta affect them. It is pure Aryan nature-worship - and probably pure Indogermanic ditto - , prior alike to the reform of Z. on the one side and the Babylonian contamination that produced Mithraism on the other.' Auramazda appears in later Greek authors as [Zeus megistos] …pseudo-Kallisthen. I. 40) …

2 I have collected the evidence in Folk-Lore 1905 xvi. 260 ff.

3 Ennius ap. Cic. de nat. deor. 2. 4 and 65 'aspice hoc sublime candens, quem invocant omnes Iovem.'

The Transition from Sky to Sky-god

11

There can be little doubt that in this expressive sentence; the poet has caught and fixed for us the religious thought of the Italians in its transitional phase. Behind him is the divine Sky, in front the Sky-god Iupiter.

Now an animate Sky, even if credited with certain personal qualities, does not necessarily become an anthropomorphic Sky-­god. It may even develop, in the opposite direction: Xenophanes of Kolophon in the sixth century B.C. appears to have based his reformed theology directly on the ancient Greek conception of Zeus. As Aristotle puts it, he 'looked upon the whole sky and declared that the One exists, to wit God 1.' To this cosmic Unity 'equal on all sides 2' Xendphanes, again in all probability following the lead of early religious thought, ascribed various personal powers:

As a whole he sees, as a whole he thinks, and as a whole he hears 3.

But the poet explicitly repudiates anthropomorphism:

One God there is, greatest among gods and men;

Like to mortals neither in form nor yet in thought 4.

We have, therefore, it would seem, still to determine the circum­stances that occasioned the rise of the anthropomorphic view. In plain words, we must answer the question: How came the Greeks in general to think of Zeus, not as the blue sky, but as a sceptred king dwelling in it?

To solve this problem we turn our attention once more to the primitive idea of a living Sky. One point about it, and that the most important of all for practical folk, we have thus far omitted to mention. Vegetable life, and therefore animal life, and therefore human life, plainly depends upon the weather, that is upon the condition of the Sky 5.

1 Aristot met. 1. 5. 986 b 21, ff. … J. Burnet Early Greek Philosophy London and Edinburgh 1892 prefers to translate: 'Xenophanes said, with reference to the whole universe, that the One was God.' But this, I believe, misses the point. Xenophanes, like Pythagoras and many another reformer, starts with a revival of half-forgotten beliefs.

2 H. Diels Die, Fragmente der Vorsokratiker 2 Berlin 1906 i. ...

3 Xenophan. frag. 24 Diels ap. Sext. adv. math. … Diog. Laert. 9. 19. Cp. the Homeric … Zeus and the Hesiodic… (o. d. 267).

4 Xenophan. frag. 23 Diels ap. Clem. Al. strom. 5. 14 p. 399. ... cp. frag. 10 ff. Diels.

5 The Greeks persistently attempted to connect [Zeus, Zina] etc. with [zin]. Grnppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p.1101 n. justly remarks that their attempts, though etymologically mistaken, have a certain value as throwing light on their conception of the god. He distinguishes: (1) Zeus as the only living Son of Kronos (et. mag. p. 408, 55 f. cp. et. Gud. p. 230, 16 f.); (2) Zeus as the world-soul (Cornut. theol. 2 p. 3, 3 ff, Lang, a. mag. p. 408. 52 f.); (3) Zeus as the, cause of life to all that live (Aristot. de mund.7. 401 a 13 ff. = Apul. de mund. 37. Chrysippos infra p. 29 n. 4, Cornut. theol. 2 p. 3, 6. Lang, Diog. Laert. 7. 147, Aristeid. or. 1. 6 (i. 9 Dindorf), et. mag. p. 408, 54, et. Gud. p. 230, 18 f., schol. II. 15. 188 f., cp. Athen. 289 A, Eustath. in Il. p. 436, 11 ff.); (4) Zeus as life­giving breath, i.e [zin 4 ao]) (et. mag. p. 408, 57 f.).

The Transition from Sky to Sky-god

12

Hence unsophisticated man seeks to control its sunshine, its winds, above all its fructifying showers by a sheer assertion of his own will-power expressed in the naïve 'arts of magic 1' Modern investigators have shown how great was the role of the magician, especially of the public magician, in early society. And not the least of Dr J. G. Frazer's services to anthropology has been his detailed proof 'that in many parts of the world the king is the lineal successor of the old magician or medicine-man 2.' 'For sorcerers,' he urges, 'are found in every savage tribe known to us; and among the lowest savages...they are the only professional class that exists. As time goes on, and the process of differentiation continues, the order of medicine-men is itself subdivided into such classes as the healers of disease, the makers of rain, and so forth; while the most powerful member of the order wins for himself a position as chief and gradually develops into a sacred king, his old magical functions falling more and more into the background and being exchanged for priestly or even divine duties, in proportion as magic is slowly ousted by religion 3.' But if so, it becomes highly probable, nay practically certain, that the real prototype of the heavenly weather-king was the earthly weather-king, and that Zeus was represented with thunderbolt and sceptre just because these were the customary attributes of the magician and monarch.

So Zeus, in a sense, copied Salmoneus. But it remains to ask what led the community side by side with their Salmoneus to postulate a Salmoneus-like Zeus. I incline to the following ex­planation as possible and even probable. With the age-long growth of intelligence it gradually dawned upon men that the magician, when he caused a storm, did not actually make it himself by virtue of his own will-power but rather imitated it by his torches, rattling chariot, etc., and so coaxed it into coming about.

1 On 'will-power' as a rough equivalent of the mana of the Pacific and the orenda of the Iroquois see R. R. Marett The Threshold of Religion London 1909 p. 99, cp. pp. 115-141.

Even sophisticated man has his moments of hyperboulia. When I hit a ball too far at lawn-tennis, I ejaculate 'Don't go out!' and while speaking feel as if my voice actually controlled the ball's flight. Or again, I find myself rising on tip-toe to make a ball, already in mid air, clear the net. What is this but rudimentary magic? In Folk-Lore 1903 xiv. 278 f. I attempted to show that magic, whether 'mimetic' or 'sympathetic,' ultimately depends upon a primitive conception of extended personality - ­a failure to distinguish aright the I from the not-I.

2 Frazer Golden Bough: The Magic Art i. 371, cp i. 215, 245, and especially 332 ff.

3 Id. ib. i. 420 f.

The Transformation from Sky to Sky-god

13

If, then, the magician or king imitated a storm made by Zeus, how did Zeus make it? The spirit of enquiry was awake (with the Greeks it awoke early), and the obvious answer was that Zeus must be a Master-mage, a King supreme, beyond the clouds. Doubtless, said nascent reflexion, Zeus makes his thunder in heaven much as our magician-king makes it upon earth, only on a grander, more sonorous scale. But observe: if this was indeed the sequence of thought, then the change from Sky to Sky-god was occasioned not by any despair of magic 1 - for people might well come to believe that Zeus the Sky-god made thunderstorms and yet not cease believing that the magician-king could produce the like - but rather by the discovery that magic, whether effective or not, was a matter of imitation. In short, the transition from Sky to Sky-god was a result, perhaps the first result, of conscious reflexion upon the modus operandi of primitive magic.

On this showing the cult of an anthropomorphic Zeus was the outcome of a long evolution comprising three well-marked stages, in which the feelings, the will, and the intellect played successively the principal part. First in order of development came emotion - ­the awe felt by early man as he regarded the live azure above him, potent to bliss or blight. Feeling in turn called forth will, when the community was parched with drought and the magician by his own passionate self-projection made the rushing rain-storm to satisfy the thirst of man and beast. Later, much later, intellect was brought to bear upon the process, distinguishing the imitation from the thing imitated and expressing heaven in terms of earth.

1 Dr Frazer in a memorable chapter (op. cit. i. 220-243) argues that, when little by little the essential futility of magic was discovered, the shrewder intelligences casting about for an explanation of its failures would ascribe them to the more powerful magic of great invisible beings - the gods - and thus would escape from the 'troubled, sea of doubt and uncertainty' into the 'quiet haven' of religion. Magic, he conjectures, every­where came first, religion second, the latter being directly due to the unmasking of the former. The eloquence with which Dr Frazer has stated his case is only less admirable than his learning. But for all that I believe him to be wrong. The baffled magician would, most plausibly account for his failure by attributing it to the counter-charms of some rival practitioner on earth, say a neighbouring chief, or else to the machinations of a ghost, say a dead ancestor of his own. Why should he - how could he - assume a sky-god, unless the sky was already regarded as a divine Potency? And, if this was the case, then religion was not subsequent to magic, but either prior to it or coeval with it. No doubt, as Dr Frazer himself remarks (ib. i. 223), much turns upon our exact definition of religion. But personally I should not refuse the term 'religious' to the attitude of reverential fear with which I suppose early man to have approached the animate Sky. Indeed, it would not be absurd to maintain that this pre-anthropomorphic conception was in some respects higher, because more true than later anthropomorphism. After all, God is not a 'man,' and early thought could hardly be drawn nearer to the idea of the Infinite, than by contemplating the endless blue of Heaven.

14

The Transition from Sky to Sky-god ­

Thus a movement, which began on the plane of feeling, passed upwards through that of volition, and ended by evoking all the powers of the human soul.

Incidentally we have arrived at another conclusion, deserving of a moment's emphasis. We have, if I may use the phrase, ventured to analyse the divinity of Zeus. This analysis, tentative (be it remembered) and provisional in character, has detected two distinct elements, both of a primitive sort, on the one hand the vast mysterious impersonal life of the blue sky, on the other the clear-cut form and fashion of the weather-ruling king. To speak with logical precision, though in such a matter logic was at best implicit, the primeval sanctity of the sky gave the content, the equipment of the magician-turned-king gave the form, of the resultant sky-god Zeus 1.

(c) Zeus Amários.

The transition from the day-light sky to the day-light Sky-god is perhaps best exemplified by the Latin terms dies, 'day,' and Diespiter, ' Day-father.' The vocative case of Diespiter came to be used as a new nominative, the more familiar Iupiter 2.

1 An objection must here be met. It may be argued that, if my view were true, the Homeric Zeus ought to be recognisable as a magician, whereas notoriously magic is scarce in Homer and never associated with the Homeric Zeus. To this I should reply (1) that the Homeric poems as we have them bear ample traces of earlier expurgation affecting many savage practices (see the convincing chapter of Prof. G. Murray The Rise of the Greek Epic Oxford 1911 pp. 141-166), and (2) that such expurgation has in point of fact failed precisely where failure might have been expected, viz. in eliminating the pre-Homeric 'fixed epithets' of Zeus. These are simply redolent of the, magician. Zeus is often … 'son of the wizard Kronos.' He is himself … a 'mage' rather than a 'sage.' The word … is used thrice, in h. Ap. 344 and h. Hest. 5 of Zeus (so Hes. o.d. 51, theog. 457, Moiro ap. Athen 491 B), in od. 4, 227 of magic herbs prepared. by the daughter of Zeus. Again, Zeus alone is … (11. 24. 88, h. Aphr. 43, Hes. theog. 545, 550, 561; frag. 35, 2 Flache, cp. the names of the sorceresses Medeia, Agamede, Perimede, Mestra. Thirty-six times in the Il. and od. he is described as … a transparent synonym of 'rain-maker.' And what of his constant appellation …? The [aigis] when shaken, produced a thunderstorm (Il. 17., 593 ff., cp. 4. 166 ff.), and Virgil at least seems to have regarded it as part of the rain-maker's paraphernalia (Aen, 8. 352 ff, Arcades ipsum credunt se vidisse Iovem; cum saepe nigrantem aegida concuteret dextra nimbosque cieret, cp. Sil. It. 12. 719 ff.). It was presumably as a magical means of securing fertility that at Athens the priestess brought the sacred [aigis] to newly-wedded wives (Souid. s.v. [aigis]). Further, Zeus causes an earthquake by nodding his head and shaking his hair (supra p. 2 f.) - a procedure that savours strongly of the magician's art. Lastly, the frequent mention of the [Bouli] … of Zeus (from Il. I. 5 … onwards: see H. Ebeling Lexicon Homericum Lipsiae 1885 i. 236) gains fresh meaning if seen to imply the will-power characteristic of the magician-king.

2 F. Stolz Historische Grammatik der lateinischen Sprache Leipzig 1894 i. 1. 305, W. M. Lindsay The Latin Language Oxford 1894 p. 389, Walde Lat. Etym. Worterb. p. 313.

Zeus Andrios

15

But, confining our attention to the Greek area, we may further illustrate the same change.

Macrobius states that 'the Cretans call the day Zeus 1,' a startling, but by no means incredible, assertion. Unfortunately he, does not go on to tell us whether this usage was restricted to any particular tribe or town in Crete. That island was a meeting-place of the nations. Already in Homeric times its population in­cluded Achaeans, Eteo-Cretans, Cydonians, Dorians and Pelasgians 2; and to choose between these, and perhaps others, is a precarious undertaking. Nevertheless the dialect of Crete 'as a whole through­out the classical period was undoubtedly Doric, and we are therefore free to contend that in some variety of Cretan Doric the word Zeus had retained its primitive meaning.'

This contention gains in probability from Prof. R. C. Bosanquet's discovery at Palaikastro in eastern Crete of a late Doric hymn to Zeus Diktaíos 3. The hymn appears to have been written down about the year 290 A.D.; but its wording is perhaps five centuries older 4, and its refrain preserves what I venture to regard as a survival of the original conception of Zeus: -

Hail, greatest Lad of Kronos' line 5,

Almighty Brilliance, who art here

Leading thy followers divine:

To Dikte come for the new year

And dance with joy this dance of mine 6.

1 Macrob. Sat. 1. 15. 14 Cretenses …

2 Od. 19. 175 ff.

3 Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1908-1909 xv. 339 ff.

4 G. Murray, ib. xv. 364 f.

5 With … cp. Aisch., P. v. 577 f. ... Pind., ol, 2. 22 … see Stephanus Thes. Gr. Ling. iv.1895 A. …

6 Two copies of the hymn are engraved on the back and face of the same stone, The back, which contains a text full of blunders, nowhere preserves the termination of the word … The face has in line 2 … altered into … and in line 20 … This suggests an attempt to make sense of an old defective copy, and, on reading it I conjectured (see Trinity College Lecture Room paper of Nov. 4, 1910) that the original phrase was... Enn. Ap. Cic. de nat., deor. 2. 4 aspice hoc sublime, candens, quem invocant omnes Iovem (Folk-Lore 1905 xvi. 261). Prof. G. Murray printed… in his restored text and translated it 'Lord of all that is wet and gleaming.' He, now (Aug. 15, 1911) writes to me a propos of [ganos]: 'I think it a very probable suggestion but do not on the whole think there is sufficient reason for altering the text.' He adds that 'in a letter to himself Prof. U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff had, independently, made the same correction.

16

Zeus Amários

A possible but by no means certain parallel to this survival occurs in the Tabula Edaliensis, a Cypriote inscription, which thrice uses the word zân in the sense of 'time 1.' Dr Hoffmann suggests that this word is related to the Sanskrit dyâus, 'day,' and to the Latin dies, 'day,' - in fact is akin to the name Zeús 2. Some such primitive usage, we may suppose, underlies and explains the Homeric and Hesiodic belief that 'days are from Zeus 3.'

Far more advanced was the cult of Zeus Amários, whose name appears to denote Zeus 'of the Day-light' (amára) 4. According to Strabon, the Achaeans of the northern Peloponnese, like the Ionians before them, were wont to assemble for deliberation and the transaction of common business at a place called the Amárion 5: this was a grove sacred to Zeus in the territory of Aigion 6. Hence, when about the year 230 B.C. the town of Orchomenos in Arkadia joined the Achaean League, it was agreed that the Achaean magistrates at Aigion and the Orchomenian magistrates at Orchomenos should swear to the terms of a treaty by Zeus Amários, Athena Amaría, Aphrodite and all the gods 7.

1 W. Deecke 'Die griechisch-kyprischen Inschriften' in Collitz-Bechtel Gr. Dial.

Inschr. i. 27 ff. no. 60, 10, 23, 28 ...

2 O. Hoffmann Die griechischen Dialekt Gottingen 1891 i. 68 ff. no. 135, 10, 23, 28 … id. ib. i. 71 f. rejects Meister's view …But all this is very doubtful, as Hoffmann himself (ib. p., 228) admits. C. D. Buck Introduction to the Study of the Greek Dialects Boston etc. 1910 p. 182 n. …

3 Od. 14. 93 … Hes. o. d. 765 … ib. 769 ... Cp. II. 2. 134 … This last line supports the contention of W. Prellwitz Eine griechische und eine lateinische Etymologie Bartenstein 1895 p. 1 ff. that [eniautos] is strictly the day on which the year starts again 'in the same' [eni auto] position as before, and that it was originally an appellation of Zeús=dies (ib. p. 8).

4 P. Foucart 'Fragment inedit d'un decret de la ligue acheenne' in the Rev. Arch. 1876 N.S. xxxii. 2. 96-103 first propounded the explanation, now commonly accepted, of [Amarios] as 'le dieu de l'atmosphere lumineuse', (ib. p. 100). … is found in Locrian inscriptions (Collitz-Bechtel op. cit. nos. 1478, 42, 1479, 5, cp. 1478, 33), and … in a Delphian inscription (ib. no. 2561, D 16, = Dittenberger Syll. inscr. Gr.2 no. 438, 183)… may well have been in use on the other side of the Corinthian Gulf also.

5 Kramer on Strab. 389 and F. Hultsch on pol. 2. 39. 6 (praif. p. iv) hold that the name was… cp. … Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 1116 n. 3, following Collitz and Schulze Quaestiones epicae p. 500 n. 1, takes … 5 Strab. 385. MSS. …

6 Strab. 387. MSS. and cjj. as before.

7 Dittenberger Syll. inscr. Gr. 2 no. 229 = Michel Recueil d’Inscr. gr. no. 199.

Zeus Amários

17

And, when in 217 B.C. Aratos the Achaean general had settled certain serious disputes at Megalopolis, the terms of the settlement were engraved on a tablet and set up beside an altar of Hestia in the Amárion 1. This is in all probability the spot described byPausanias in the following extract: 'Near the sea' at Aigion is a sanctuary of Aphrodite, after that one of Poseidon, one of Kore Demeter's daughter, and in the fourth place one to Zeus Homagýrios. Here there are statues of Zeus, Aphrodite and Athena. Zeus was surnamed Homagýrios, "the Assembler," because on, this spot Agamemnon gathered together the chief men of Bellas; to consult how they should make war on the kingdom of Priam... Adjoining the sanctuary to Zeus Homagýrios is one of Demeter Panachaiá, "goddess of all the Achaeans 2." Zeus Amários was on this showing one with Zeus Homagýrios; and it is possible that the former title was, owing to the influence of the latter, popularly changed into Homários, which might be understood as 'the Joiner-­together 3.' However that may be, it is clear that from Aigion the cult made its way to Magna Graecia, where Kroton, Sybaris and Kaulonia, in avowed imitation of the Achaeans, erected a common temple to Zeus Amários 4.

How this Zeus 'of the Day-light' was conceived by his worshippers, can be inferred from representations of him on coins of the Achaean League. A unique silver stater of Aeginetic standard, probably struck at Aigion about 367-362 B.C., has for its reverse type an enthroned Zeus, who holds an eagle in his right hand and rests on a sceptre with his left (fig. 1) 5.

1 Polyb. 5. 93. 10. MSS. …Foucart restored … cp. J. L. Strachan­ Davidson Selections from Polybius Oxford 1888 p. 145. On the connexion of Hestia with Zeus, see infra ch. iii § I (a) ix (a.).

2 Paus. 7. 14. 1 f. O. Jessen in Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. i. 1741 would distinguish between the… and the precinct of Zeus ….but Frazer Pausanias iv. 161 identifies them.

3 Dittenberger Syll. inscr: Gr.2 p. 370 thinks that … is a corruption of … but this is not necessary. … (Polyb. 1. 39, 6 …C, 5. 93. 10) suggests comparison with Hesych. …Those that take it to be the original form will quote Steph. Byz. …

4 Polyb. 1. 39. 6. The MSS. vary: …Foucart restored …

5 W. Wroth in the Num. Chron. Fourth Series 1901 ii. 314 ff. pl. 16, 4, G. F. Hill Historical Greek Coins London 1906 p. 73 IT. pl. 5, 38; Head Hist. num 2 p. 416 ('the reverse; type of Zeus seems to have, been suggested by the seated Zeus on the early Arcadian coins.' Cp. infra ch. i §. 3 (b)). The coin is now in the British Museum...

Zeus Panámaros, Panémeros, Panemérios

18

Bronze coins of the League, as reconstituted in 281 B.C., exhibit on the obverse side a standing figure of Zeus: he is naked and supports on his right hand a winged Nike, who offers him a wreath, while he leans with his left hand on a long sceptre (fig. 2) 1. The later silver coins, from some date earlier than 330 B.C., show a laureate head of Zeus as their obverse (fig. 3), a wreath of bay as their reverse design 2. Such representations drop no hint of Zeus as a day-light deity. The physical aspect of the god had long been forgotten, or at most survived in a cult-title of dubious significance.

(d) Zeus Panámaros, Panémeros, Panemérios.

Near the Carian town of Stratonikeia was a village called Panamara, situated on the mountain now known as Baiaca. Here in 1886 MM. G. Deschamps and G. Cousin discovered the precinct of the Carian god Zeus Panámaros and over four hundred ipscrip­tions relating to his cult 3. It is probable that the name Panámaros, which appears more than once without that of Zeus 4, was originally a local epithet denoting the deity who dwelt at Panamara 5. If so, it is useless to speculate on the real meaning of the word. But when the district was subjected to Hellenic influence - Stratonikeia, we know, was a Macedonian colony 6 - the local divinity - by an instructive series of changes became Zeus Panámaros 7,

Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3.

1 Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus pp. 113, 162, 219, Munztaf. 2, 17 and 17 a, Muller-Wieseler-Wernicke Ant. Denkm. i. 94 pl. 9, 18, Head Hist. num.2 p. 417 f., Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Peloponnesus p. 12 ff. pl. 2,15-20, pl. 3, 1-14. I figure pl. 3, 7.

2 Overbeck Gr. Kuntstmyth. Zeus pp. 97 f., 105, Miinztaf. 1, 29, Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Peloponnesus p. 1 ff. pl. 1. 1-23, pl. 2, 1-14, Head Hist. num.2 p. 417, W. Wroth in the Num. Chron. Third Series 1900 xx. 286 f. pl. 14, 1.

3 Bull. Corr. Hell. 1887 xi. 373 ff., 1888 xii. 82 ff., 249 ff., 479 ff., 1891 xv. 169 ff., 1904 xxviii. 20 ff., 238 ff. See further the article by O. Hofer in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 1491-1497. Nilsson Gr. Feste pp. 27-31.

4 … without [Zeus] occurs in Bull. Corr. Hell. 1888 xii. 85 no. 9, 11, ib. p. 86 no. 10, 15, ib. p. 88 no. 11, 5. … was one of the Carian Kouretes along with …(et. mag. p. 389, 55 ff.).

5 So Hofer loc. cit. 1492 f., Nilsson op. cit. p. 31 n. 6. On A. Dieterich's conjectural

Amaros - Amara see Append. B Egypt.

6 Strab. 660, cp. Steph. Byz. s.v….

7 … is the common form of his name in the inscriptions (Hofer loc. cit. 1492, I ff.).­

Zeus Panámaros, Panémeros, Panemérios

19

Zeus Panémeros 1, Zeus Panemérios 2. The unintelligible Carian name was thus Hellenised into a cult-title that suited the Greek con­ception of Zeus. Panámaros to Greek ears would mean the 'god of the live-long Day' (panámaros, panémeros, panemérios) 3.

Imperial coins of Stratonikeia, both in silver and in bronze (fig. 4), exhibit a bearded horseman, who carries a long sceptre over his left shoulder, and apparently a phiále in his right hand 4. On one specimen in the British Museum (fig. 5) 5, probably struck in Hadrian's time, this equestrian figure is radiate. Dr B. V. Head conjectures that it is not the emperor, but Zeus Panámaros conceived as a solar deity 6. The identification of the rider as Zeus might be supported by the fact that some imperial bronze coins of Stratonikeia have as their reverse type Zeus enthroned with a sceptre in one hand, a phiále in the other (fig. 6) 7. And the radiate crown would be appropriate to Zeus 'of the live-long Day,' whether he was regarded as a sun-god or not.

The precinct found by MM. Deschamps and Cousin occupied the summit of a steep hill furrowed by ravines.

Fig. 4. Fig. 5. Fig. 6.

1 … is found in Bull. Corr. Hell. 1888 xii. 97 no. 12, ib. p. 98 no. 16, ib. p. 101 no. 21, ib. p. 487 nos. 63, 65,66, ib. p. 488 nos. 72, 75, 78 ff.

2 …occurs in Corp. inser. Gr. ii no. 27I5a, Bull. Corr. Hell. 1887 xi. 29 no. 41, ib. p. 376, ­1888 xii. 488 nos. 68, 69, 70. ib. p. 489 no. 101, ib. p. 490 nos. 105. 109, 1890 xiv. 371, Lebas-Waqdington Asie Mineure no. 518. Cp. Kaibel Epigr. Gr. no. 834…

3 Hesych. … Photo lex…. Aisch. P.v. … Not the god 'of the Day-light' (E. Meyer), nor the god 'of the luminous atmosphere' (P. Foucart), nor merely 'a divinity of the light' (L. R. Farnell): see Hofer loc. cit. 1493,

4.Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Caria etc. pp. lxxi f. 151 pl. 24, 1, p. 153 pl. 24, 4, p. 154 pl. 24, 5, pp. 156, 158 pl. 24, 10. I figure a specimen in my collection.

5 Ib. pp. lxxii, 153 pl. 24, 4.

6 Ib. p. lxxii. Mr G. F. Hill kindly informs me (Aug. 11, 1910) that he too takes the rider to be Zeus.

7 Imhoof-Blumer Monn. gr. p. 316 no. 87a (Hadrian), id. Gr. Munzen p. 200 no. 625

(Hadrian), Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Carla etc. p. 159 pl. 24, 11 (Severus Alexander).

Zeus Panámaros, Panémeros, Panemérios

20

It contained three temples, that of Zeus Panámaros, that of Hera Teleía 1, and a building called the Komýrion, the name of which recalls the title of Zeus Kómyros at Halikarnassos 2. Corresponding with the two temples of Zeus and the one of Hera were three public festivals, the Panamareia, the Komyria, and the Heraia.

The principal festival of the place was the Panamareia, an annual affair, which at first lasted for ten days 3 and later Jor a whole month 4. It began with a procession from the precinct at Panamara to the council-chamber at Stratonikeia 5. And, since the ten days of the festival were known as the 'Sojourn' (epidemía) of the god 6, it has been concluded that the image of Zeus paid an actual visit to the neighbouring town. This visit appears to be identical with the 'Entry of the horse' mentioned in a local in­scription 7, so that Dr Hofer is doubtless right in regarding the rider on the coins of Stratonikeia as Zeus entering the town on horseback 8. His entry was the signal for a great outburst of rejoicing. Citizens and strangers alike received at the hands of the priests largesse of oil for gymnastic contests and baths, besides perfume, corn, meat, and money. The merry-making was kept up day and night during the 'Sojourn' of the god 9.

1 Bull. Corr. Hell. 1887 xi. 389 110. 5…

8 O. Hofer in Roscher Lex. myth. iii. 1494…

9 Bull. Corr. Hell. 1887 xi. 376 no. I, 24 ff., 380 no. 2, 12 ff., 385 no. 3, 12 ff., 1888 xii. 102 no. 22, 13 ff., 250 n. 2,1891 xv. 186 'no. 130a, 25 ff., 188 no. 131, 8 ff., 198 no. 140, 12 ff.

Zeus Panámaros, Panémeros, Panemérios

21

The Komyria lasted for two days only 1 and involved certain mysteries 2. Since the inscriptions speak of the 'Ascent' (ánodos or anábasis) of the god in this connexion 3, MM. Deschamps and Cousin infer that the Komyria was essentially the return-journey of Zeus from Stratonikeia to Panamara 4. Mr M. P. Nilsson, however, points out that the 'Ascent' is said to take place in the sanctuary, not to it, and conjectures that Zeus then paid a visit to his wife 5. Probably we should do well to combine these views and hold that the 'Ascent' of the god from Stratonikeia to Panamara culminated in the sanctuary on the mountain-top, where Zeus was annually married to his bride. On this occasion the men were entertained by the priest in the Komýrion and the women separately in the sanctuary 6. Wine was served out in abundance - no distinction being made between citizens, Romans, foreigners, and slaves. Money-gifts and portions of sacrificial meat were likewise distributed with a lavish hand. Booths were erected for the accom­modation of the celebrants. Sirup and wine were even provided by the road-side for old and young 7. And the horse that had served the god, presumably in the procession, was duly dedicated to him 8. In short, the whole account, so far as it can be reconstructed from the inscriptions, reads like that of a joyous wedding cortege.

The Heraia was another important festival involving a long programme of games 9, religious shows 10, and mystic rites 11. It seems to have been celebrated yearly and on a grander scale once every four years 12. The rendezvous was the temple of Hera.

1 Bull. Corr. Hell. 1887 xi. 380 no. 2, 19 f., 385 no. 3, 34 f.

2 Bull. Corr. Hell.1887 xi. 380 no. 2, 16 f., 385 no. 3, 26 f., cp. … mentioned in 1891 xv. 186 no. 130, 11 ff., 188 no. 131, 13.

3 Bull. Corr. Hell.1887 xi. 384, 10 …

4 Bull. Corr. Hell. 1891 xv. 178. So O. Hofer in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 1495. & Nilsson Gr. Peste p. 2g.

6 Bull. Corr. Hell.1887 xi. 385 no. 3, 281 f., 1891 xv. 186 no. 130A, nlf., 1904 xxviii. 24 no. 2, 6 ff.

7 Bull. Corr. Hell.1887 xi. 380 no. 2, 17 ff., 385 no. 3, 30 ff. 1904 xxviii. 24 no. 2 …

8 Bull. Corr. Hell. 1891 xv. 174 f.= 1904 xxviii. 247 no. 57. II …

9 Bull. Corr. Hell. 1891 xv. 174= 200 no. 141, 8 ff. …

10 Bull. Corr. Hell. 1891 xv. 173=204 no. 145, 4 f. …

11 Bull. Corr. Hell. 1891 xv. … cp. 1894 xxviii. 241 no. 48, 6 …

12 This is deduced by M. P. Nilsson op. cit. p. 28 from the fact that the inscriptions employ two distinct formulae, viz. …

22

Zeus Panámaros, Panémeros, Panemérios

The priest and priestess invited all the women, whether bond or free, and gave them a banquet with plenty of wine and a present of money for each guest 1. They also furnished a repast for the men 2. It is at first sight puzzling to find this apparent duplication of the Komyria. But, if - as we shall later see reason to suppose 3 - Zeus was not originally the consort of Hera, it is likely enough that he had his own marriage-feast to attend and she hers 4. At Panamara, even when Zeus was paired with Hera, the two celebrations were on the foregoing hypothesis kept up side by side. This bizarre arrangement had its practical advantages, and it obviously made a powerful appeal to the appetites of the mob.

The priest and priestess who presided over these wholesale entertainments were acting not merely as public host and hostess but as the visible representatives of the god and goddess. Their inauguration was a function lasting four days and involving gymnasiarchal duties, in particular the distribution of oil for the gymnasia and the baths 5; It is called the 'reception of the crown 6' or 'reception of the god 7'; and the officials themselves are described as 'receiving the crown of the god 8' or 'receiving the god 9.' The termination of their office, the tenure of which was annual 10, is correspondingly called the 'putting off of the crowns 11.' Not improbably 'these persons wore a golden crown decorated with a small image of their deity. Crowns of the sort are mentioned in literature 12 and figured both on coins of Tarsos 13 and on portrait-­heads from Ephesos 14 and elsewhere 15.

1 Bull. Corr. Hell. 1887 xi. 376 no. 1, 31 ff., 1891 xv. 181 no. 113, 5 ff., 198 no. 140,

14 ff., 100 no. 141, 7 f., 104 no. 145, 31 f., 1894 xxviii. 40 no. 13 B, 1 ff.

2 Bull. Corr. Hell. 1891 xv. 174 …

3 Infra ch. iii.

4 The evidence of the published inscriptions suggests, but does not prove, that the Heraia at Panamara was a marriage-feast. Such was in all probability the character of the Heraia at Argos (infra ch. iii).

5 Bull. Corr. Hell. 1887 xi. 377.

6 … Bull. Corr. Hell. 1891 xv. 173, 186 no. 130 A, 18 f., 198 no. 140, 11 f., 1904 xxviii. 37 no. 21, 8 f.

7 … Bull. Corr. Hell. 1891 xv. 173, 191 no. 135, 5, 192 no. 136, 7 f., 1904 xxviii 143 no 51, 6f.

8 … Bull. Corr. Hell. 1887 xi. 375 no. 1, 9 ff., 384 no. 3, 7 f.

9 … Bull. Corr. Hell. 1887 xi. 380 no. 2, 11.

10 Bull. Corr. Hell. 1891 xv. 169.

11 … Bull. Corr. Hell. 1888 xii. 102 no. 22, 15 f., 1891 xv. 173.

12 Suet. v. Domit. 4, Tertull. de cor. mil. 13, Athen. 211 B.

13 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Lycaonia etc. pp. 198, 208 pl. 36, 11, p. 110 pl. 37,8, F. Imhoof-Blumer in the Journ. Hell. Stud. 1898 xviii. 180 f. pl., 13. H. G. F. Hill 'Priester-Diademe' in the Jahresh. d. oest. arch. Inst. 1899 ii. 147 f. fig. 135.

14 G. F. Hill ib. p. 145 ff. pl. 8.

15 Daremberg-Saglio Dict. Ant. ii. 1513 and 1525 fig. 1986 (a priest of Bellona); Helbig Guide Class. Ant. Rome i. 151 f. no. 221=A. J. B. Wace in the Journ. Hell. Stud. 1905 xxv. 94 f. ('a priest of the cult of one of the later Diadochi') = Amelung Sculpt. Vatic. ii. 4751 f. no. 275 pl. 63; Helbig op. cit. i. 309 f. no. 425 (an archigallus); D. Simonsen Skulpturer og Indskrifter fra Palmyra i Ny-Carlsberg Glyptothek Kjobenhavn 1889 p. 16 f. pl. 7 f.

Zeus Panámaros, Panémeros, Panemérios

23

One odd rite deserves to be noticed. Many of the inscriptions found at Baïaca record the dedication of human hair 1. The custom was for the dedicator to erect, either inside the temple of Zeus or outside it in the sacred precinct, a small stéle of stone containing the tress or tresses in a cavity sometimes closed by a thin marble lid (fig. 7) 2. Those that could not afford such a stéle would make a hole in the stone wall, or even in the corner of another man's slab, and inscribe their names beside it. MM. Deschamps and Cousin. point out that the dedi­cants were invariably men - not a single woman's name occurs 3; that the dedica­tion was always made to Zeus, never to Hera; that the occasion is sometimes specified as the Komyria and the place once at least as the Komýrion - the Heraia and the Heraîon are not mentioned at all; that slaves were allowed to participate in this act of devotion; and that the act itself might be repeatedly performed by the same person 4. These scholars suggest that the votive hair may have been offered by those who were initiated into the mysteries of the Komyria 5.

If we may judge from analogous customs existing here and there throughout the Greek world 6, the rite was probably connected with marriage or with arrival at a marriageable age.

Fig. 7.

1 Bull. Corr. Hell. 1888 xii. 487 ff. nos. 60-120.

2 Ib. p. 480.

3 The conjecture of Frazer Pausanias iii. 280 f. is, therefore, in part mistaken.

4 Bull. Corr. Hell. 1888 xii. 486.

5 Ib. p. 487.

6 Ib. pp. 481-484, Daremberg-Saglio Dict. Ant. i. 1358, 1362, Frazer Pausanias ii. 534 f., iii. 2791f., iv. 128, Golden Bough: The Magic Art i. 281 f., Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rei. p. 913 f. The fullest collection of evidence from the Greek area is that of W. H. D. Rouse Greek Votive Offerings Cambridge 1902 pp. 240-245. See too G. A. Wilken 'Ueber das Haaropfer und einige andere Trauergebrauche bei den Volkern Indonesien's' in the Revue Coloniale Internationale 1886 iii. 225 ff., 1887 iv. 353 ff. Dr Wilken explained the rite as a substitute for human sacrifice, the hair being deemed the seat of the soul. Dr Frazer suggests that the gift of hair was tantamount to a gift of virility or fertility. Dr Rouse regards hair-offering as a 'practice connected with puberty.' Dr Gruppe concludes that the rite was originally 'vorzugsweise eine Initiationszeremonie.' I incline to think that we have in this custom the relics of a puberty-rite once widespread throughout Greece, and that further proof of the practice may be found in the terms [koros, kori]… for 'young man, young woman,' literally 'shaveling' ([keiro] 'I shave'). My friend Dr Giles kindly informs me that this derivation is quite possible, and that the words in question should be grouped as follows: … Ionic … Doric … etc. … Ionic … Doric … (Collitz-Bechtel Gr. Dial. Inschr. i. 143 no. 373 …) and … 'barber' … (Hesych. s.v,); … 'hair­cutting' 'tress' … He refers me to F. Solmsen in the Zeitschrift fur vergleich­ende Sprachforschung 1888 xxix. 128 f., who conjectures that … became … by analogy with … That this whole series of words was interrelated had already been guessed by the ancients: see et. Mag. p. 534, 4 ff. … ib. p. 533, 57 f. … So ib. p. 519, 36 f., et. Gud. pp. 338, 8 f., 341, 40 ff. The foregoing derivation strongly supports Miss J. E. Harrison's contention that the [kourites] were the youug initiates of the tribe (see her cogent article in the Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1908-1909 xv. 308-338). Archemachos of Euboia frag. 8 (Frag. hist. Gr. iv. 315 f. Muller) ap. Strab. 465 states that the Kouretes of Chalkis … This may be a speculation based on … (Il. 2. 542). But it was certainly believed in the fifth century B.C. that the … got their name from their peculiar coiffure: Aisch. frag. 313 Nauck … Agathon Thyestes frag. 3 Nauck… Cp. et, mag. p. 534, 14 ff. … et. Gud. p: 341, 1 ff., Hesych, S.v…Eudok. viol. 518 … =Eustath. in Il. p. 165, 81f. At Athens the third day of the Apatouria was called [koureotis] say the lexicographers - not merely because the [kouroi and kourai]… were then enrolled on their phratry-lists (Souid. S.v…), but also because on that day children's hair was cut and dedicated to Artemis (Hesych. S.v. … ) or the … had their hair cut and were enrolled in their phratries (Souid. S.v. …). The sacrifice offered for those of full age, … was termed [koureion] in the case of the boys [gamilia] in that of the girls (Poll. 8, 107). These terms point to an original puberty-rite of hair-clipping. Further, Miss Harrison notes that the Athenian [epheboi] presented Herakles with a big cup of wine … and then clipped their hair (Athen. 494 F, Hesych. s.v. …  Phot. lex. S.v. … Eustath. in Il. p. 907, 19, Favorin, lex. p. 469, 20 f.; cp. Poll. 3. 51, 6. 12, who connects the rite with the Apatouria). The exact character of such tonsures can seldom be determined. Yet there is a certain amount of monumental evidence available. In Minoan art youthful figures, both male and female, often have a single curl hanging over the forehead (e.g. Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1900-1901 vii. 56 f. fig. 17, Mon. d. Litzc. 1908 xix. 15 ff. pl. I f.): was this the … of the Kouretes? The … appear on an archaic sherd from Aigina, which shows a man's head beardless and bald on top, but with bushy hair behind tied in a bunch on the neck (F. Diimmler in the Jahrb. d, kais. deutsch. arch. Inst. 1887 ii. 10 f. pl. 2, 3) and also on certain oblong plates of gold found, at Corinth, which represent Theseus slaying the Minotaur and Ariadne standing at his back, both figures being bald on top, but long-haired behind (A. Furtwiingler in. the Arch. Zeit. 1884 p. 106 ff. pl. 8, 1-7): this Was known as the … since Theseus at Delphoi shaved the front of his head only (Plout. v. Tim. 5, Eustath. in Il. p. 165, 7 f.). The head of a Lapith from the west pediment of the temple of Zeus at Olympia has a smooth surface reserved in the hair above the middle of the forehead (Olympia iii, 83 fig, 136): G. Treu ib. assumes an upright tongue attached to a fillet (cp. a stele in the Naples collection figured by Collignon Hist. de la Sculpt. gr. i. 256, tbe Lapiths on a vase published by H. Heydemann Mittheil­ungen aus den Antikensammlungen in Ober- und Mittelitalien Halle 1879 pl. 3, 1, etc.), but admits that there is no trace of the fillet. On the shaved moustache of the Spartans as a tribal mark see infra ch, i § 3 (f). The relation of [Kairos] to this group of words is dealt with in Append. A.

Aithér as the abode of Zeus

25

As such it tends to confirm our conjecture that the Komyria was the marriage-feast of Zeus 1.

It is probable that the crowds which in Roman, times thronged the precinct looked upon the Komýria as the' Hair'-festival; for the published dedications, sixty or so in number, regularly describe the votive hair as kóme or kómai. This appears, to be another case of an obvious Greek meaning thrust upon an unobvious Carian term. It is thus comparable with the name of Zeus Panámaros himself 2.

§ 2. Zeus and the Burning Sky.

(a) Aithér as the abode of Zeus.

As a bright sky-god Zeus lived in the aithir or 'burning sky 3.' Homer and Theognis speak of him as 'dwelling in aithér 4.' And a notable line in the Iliad says:

Zeus' portion was

Broad heaven in the aithér and the clouds 5.

Hence, when he punished Hera, he hung her up 'in the aithér' and

1 In Anth. Pal. 6. 242 Krinagoras records the dedication of his brother's first beard

… Dr Rouse op. cit; p. 241 says: 'Agamemnon in perplexity tore out handfuls of hair as an offering. to Zeus' (Il. 10. 15 f. …). But this strange couplet has been variously interpreted. Eustath. in Il. p. 786, 46 ff. presses the preceding metaphor to mean that, just as Zeus thundered, rained, and snowed, so Agamemnon groaned, shed tears, and scattered his hairs broadcast! Probably the whole passage is due to some bombastic rhapsode, who was trying to outdo the more commonplace phrase… (W. Leaf ad loc.).

2 Supra p. 18. A puzzling epithet, perhaps another example of the same inter­linguistic phenomenon, is that given in the Bull. Corr. Hell. 1891 xv. 186 no. 130A, … MM. Dechamps and Cousin take… to be an indeclinable divine title, which has given rise to such personal names as Bull. Corr. Hell. 1888 xii. 487 no. 60 (Panamara) … Bull. Corr. Hell. 1887 xi, n no. 6, 5 f. (Lagina) … Corp. inscr. Gr. iv no. 8753 (Pergamon)… But to Greek ears … spelled 'Silver,' and silver was the metal specially assigned to Zeus by the Byzantines (infra ch. i § 6 (g) on Iupiter Dolichenus).

3 L. Meyer Handb. d. gr. Etym. ii. 91, Prellwitz Etym. Wiirlerb. d. Cr. Spr.2 p. 15,

Boisacq Dict. etym. de la Langue Gr. p. 23.

4 Il. 2. 412, 4, 166, ad. 15. 5230, Theogn. 757 …

5 Il. 15. 192 Zeus … See infra ch, ii § 6.

Zeus Aithérios, Zeus Aíthrios

26

the clouds, 1.' On one occasion he sent a portent to the Achaeans 'out of aithér 2,' on another he helped Hektor 'from aithér 3,' on another he came near to flinging Hypnos 'from aithér' into the sea 4. Euripides in his Melanippe the Wise made one of the characters cry:

I swear by holy aithér, home of Zeus 6.

Aristophanes after the manner of a caricaturist slightly distorts the phrase and ridicules the poet for saying 'aithér, room of Zeus 6.' Again in his Chrysippos Euripides wrote an invocation of earth and sky beginning

­

Mightiest Earth and aithér of Zeus 7

­

and in another fragment described Perseus as­

The Gorgon-slayer that winged his way to the holy aithér of Zeus 8.

The Latin poets followed suit and used the borrowed word aether to denote the habitual abode of Iupiter 11.

(b) Zeus Aithérios, Zeus Aíthrios.

Writers of both nationalities call Zeus (Iupiter) aithérios, (aetherius), 'god of the burning sky 10' - an epithet which gains importance from the fact that it was a cult-title possibly in Arkadia 11 and certainly in Lesbos. A decree found at Chalakais, on the site of the ancient town Hiera, records the sacred offices held by a certain Bresos, among them the priesthood of Zeus Aithérios 12. Aristotle in his treatise On the Universe links with Aithérios the epithet Aíthrios, 'god of the Bright Sky 13.' This too was a cult-title at Priene in Karia.

1 Il. 15. 18 ff.

2 Il. II. 54.

3 Il. 15. 610 interpol.

4 Il. 14. 258.

5 Eur. Melanippe frag. 487 Nauck…

6 Aristoph. thesm. 271. quotes the line correctly, but ran. 100 and 311 substitutes … which reduces the sublime to the ridiculous.

7 Eur. Chrys. frag. 839. Nauck. quoted infra ch. ii. § 9 (e) ii. For the combination cp. frag., 101. 3 Nauck…

8 Eur. frag. 985 Nauck.

9 E.g. Verg. Aen. 12. 140 f., Ov. fast; 2. 131, Val. Flacc. 2. 117 ff., Sil. It. 15. 363 f.,

Stat. Theb. 5. 177 C.

10 Ant It. Pal. 9. 453. I Meleagros, Nonn. Dion. 7. 267 (ib. 312 …), 18. 263, Mousaios 8, Loukian. … 4, Theod. Proof. ep. 2. 3 (not. et extr. viii. 2 p. 184), Anon. Ambr. 19  (Schol Studemund anectd. i. 265), Schol. B. L. Il. 15.610. Cp. Niket. Eug. 5. 108 Boissonade …

Ov. Ibis 476, Lucan. 5. 96, Stat. silv. 3. 1. 108, Theb. 1. 704, 11. 207, Ach. 2. 53, IIias Latina 536 (Bahrens Poetae Latini minoris iii. 34), Priscian. 1. 126 (Bahrens op. cit. v. 269).

11 Ampel. 9 cited infra p. 27 n. 3.

12 Inscr. Gr. ins. ii no. 484. 9 f. ... O. Holfmann 'Die Griechischen Dialekte Gottingen 1893 ii. 119 f. no. 168.

13 Aristot. de mund. 7. 401 a 17 …

Zeus Identified with Aithér

27

A small marble altar found there and dating from the first century of our era or later is inscribed:

[Dios Aithriou]

Of Zeus Aithrios 1.

Another altar of similar provenance, period, and size is adorned with a bay-wreath, beneath which is the inscription:

…

Themistokles

son of Menandros

to Zeus Aithrios

(in fuifilment of) a vow 2.

(c) Zeus identified with Aithér (sometimes with Aér) in Philosophy and Poetry.

Lying at the back of such usages is the half-forgotten belief that Aithér, 'the Burning Sky,' itself is Zeus 3. Zoïsm 4 dies hard; and this belief can be traced here and there throughout the whole range of Greek literature. In particular, it has left its impress on philosophy and poetry.

Pherekydes of Syros, one of the earliest writers of Greek prose, has preserved for us some exceedingly primitive notions with regard to Zeus, or Zâs as he terms him. Of these I shall have more to say: for the moment we are concerned with the tradition that by Zeus Pherekydes understood aithér, 'the burning sky,' or ignis, 'fire 5.' He may doubtless have given some such interpretation of his own cosmological myth.

1 F. Hiller von Gaertringen Inschriften von Priene Berlin 1906 no. 184.

2 Id. ib. no. 185.

3 As Zeus [Amarios] presupposed [amaria=Zeus] so Zeus [Aitherios] presupposes [aithir=Zeus] Hes. theog. 124 (Cornut. theol. 17 p. 28, 6 f. Lang) makes Aithér the brother of Hemera, as does Hyg. fab. praef. p. 9, 2 Schmidt (Dies and Aether), cp. Cic. de nat. deor. 3 Aither and Hemera appear fighting side by side on the frieze of the great Pergamene altar to Zeus: see Die Skulpturen des Pergamon-Museums in Photographien, Berlin 1903 pl. 10, Pergamon iii. 2. 31 ff. Atlas 12 6. In Cic. de nat. deor. 3. 53 f. Aether is father of an Arcadian Iupiter, cp. Ampel. 9 Ioves fuere tres. primus in Arcadia, Aetheris filius, cui etiam Aetherius cognomen fuit: hic primum Solem procreavit, Lyd. de mens. 467 p. 121, 25 f.,Wunsch … Pan was the son of Oinoë by Aither (Pind. ap. Maxim. Holobol. in Syringem p. 1. 12 b 15 f. Dubner, Araithos frag. 5 ap, schol. Eur. Rhes. 36 = Frag. hist. Gr. iv. 319 Miiller: cp. Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 1390 n. 5), or of Oineis by Aither (schol. Theokr. 1.121) or by Zeus (Aristippos frag. 2 ap. schol. Theokr. 1. 3 and Eudok. viol. 747=Frag hist. Gr. iv. 327 Muller).

4 By zoïsm I mean what Mr J. S. Stuart Glennie means by 'zoönism' and Mr R. R. Marett by 'animatism' - the primitive view that things in general, including inanimates, possess a mysterious life of their own.

5 Hermias irrisio gentilium philosophorum 12=H. Diels Doxographi Graeci Berolini 1879 p. 654, 7 ff. ... Probus in Verg. ecl. 6. 31 p. 355 Lion Pherecydes... inquit, … ignem ac terram <ac> tempus significans; et esse aethera, qui regat terram, qua regatur tempus, in quo universa pars moderetur.

28

Zeus identified with Aither

But the tradition that he actually did so is late; and so mixed up with Stoic phraseology that it would be unsafe to build upon it 1.

Whatever Thales of Miletos meant by his statements that 'all things are full of gods 2' and, that even inanimates, to judge from the load-stone and amber, have life 3, it is at least clear that his teaching was in a sense zoïstic. It is therefore of interest to find that Herakleitos, the greatest of his followers, uses the expression 'Aithrios Zeus' as a direct equivalent of 'the Bright Sky.' In a fragment preserved by Strabon he writes:

The limits of Morning and Evening are the Bear,

and over against the Bear is the boundary of Aíthrios Zeus.

Nay more, may we not venture to assert that Herakleitos' cardinal doctrine of the universe as an Ever-living Fire 5 is but a refinement upon the primitive conception of Zeus the Burning Sky? For not only does the philosopher speak of his elemental Fire as, Keraunos, 'the Thunderbolt 6,' a word peculiarly appropriate to Zeus 7, but he actually applies to it the name Zén or Zeus 8.

1 This was seen by E. Zeller op. cit. i. 91 n. 3.

2 Aristot. de anima 1. 5. 411a 8, Plat. legg. 899 B, Diog. Laert. 1. 27, Aet. 27. 11.

3 Diog. Laert. 1. 24, Aristot. de anima 1. 2. 405 a 20 f.

4 Herakl. ap. Strab. 3 ... =frag. 30 Bywater, 120 Diels. On the interpretation of these words consult E. Zeller A History of Greek Philosophy trans. S. F. Alleyne London 1881 ii. 46 n. 1, who renders 'the sphere of bright Zeus,' and J. Burnet Early Greek Philosophy London and Edinburgh 1892 p. 136 n. 23, who says: 'It seems to me to be simply the clear noon-day sky, put for …'

5 … Herakl. frag. 20 Bywater, 30 Diels.

6 Herakl. ap. Hippolyt. ref. haer. 9. 10 .. =frag. 28 Bywater, 64 Diels, cp. Kleanth. h. Zeus … Philodem. … Elas 6 p. 70 Gomperz ...

7 Infra ch. ii § 3 (a) i.

8 Herakl. ap. Clem. Ai. strom. 5. 14 p. 404, i. Stiihlin (Euseb. praep. ev. 13. 13..42)… =f frag. 65 Bywater, 32 Diels. Schuster punctuates after … (Rhein. Mus., 1854 ix. 345), Cron after... (Philologus N.F. 1889 i. 208 ff.). Bernays transposes... (Rhein. Mus. 1854 ix. 256 f.). … Bywater with Euseb. cod. … Mullach. Probably … in order to suggest a connexion with … 'to live" (supra p. 11 n. 5). That Herakleitos called his first principle Zeus, appears also from Chrysipp. ap. Philodem. … 14 p. 81 Gomperz … Clem. Al. paed. 1. 5 p. 103, 6 Stiihlin …

Zeus identified with Aithér

29

The author of the pseudo-Hippocratean work On Diet borrows both the style and the tenets of the enigmatic Herakleitos, when he declares:

All things are the same and not the same:

light is the same as Zen, darkness as Aides,

light is the same as Aides, darkness as Zen 1.

The Stoics, whose physical theories 'were profoundly influenced by those of Herakleitos, held that matter alone has real existence. But matter is not inert and dead. It can act as well as be acted upon, thanks to a certain tension or elasticity (tónos), which is found to a greater or less degree in all matter. This tension is described by a variety of names, among them those of Constructive Fire 2, Aithér 3, and Zeus 4: Krates, a distinguished Greek gram­marian who was also a Stoic philosopher 5, held that Aratos of Soloi, who began his astronomical poem, the Phaenomena with a famous invocation of Zeus, was in reality invoking the sky 6: he added that it was reasonable to invoke the air and aithér, since in them were the stars.

1 Hippokr. de victu, I. 5 (vi. 476 Littre=i: 633 Kuhn) …

2 …Stob. ecl. I. 25. 5 p. 213, 15 ff. Wachsmuth, W. I. 26. Ii p. 2%9, 12 f. Wachsmuth = Zenon frag. 71 Pearson; ib. 1. 1. 29b p. 37, 20 ff; Wachsmuth. Clem. Al. strom. 5. 14, p. 393, 1 ff. Stiihlin, Diog. Laert. 7. 156, Cic. de nat. deor. 2. 57 ignem... artificiosum, cp. ib. 3, 37 naturae artificiose ambulantis, Acad. 1. 39 ignem, Tert. ad nat. 2. 2 euius (ignis) instar vult esse naturam Zeno = Zenon frag. 46 Pearson. Again, Zenon spoke of God as the Fiery Mind of the Universe (Stob. ecl. 1. 1. 29b p. 35, 9 Wachsmuth) or as Fire (August. adv. Acad. 3. 17. 38) = Zenon frag. 42 Pearson.

3 Cic. de nat. deor. 1. 36 zeno...aethera deum dicit, Acad. 2. 126 Zenoni et reliquis fere Stoicis aether videtur summus deus, Minuc. Fel. 19, 10 Cleanthes...modo aethera... deum disseruit. Zenon...aethera interim...vult omnium esse principium, Tert. adv. Marcian. 1. 13 deos pronuntiaverunt...ut, lena aerem et aetherem=Zenon frag. 41 Pearson; Cic. de nat. deor. 1.37 Cleanthes...ardorem, qui aether nominator, certissimum deum indicat, Laet. div. inst. 1. 5 Cleanthes et Anaximenes aethera dicunt esse summum deum= Kleanthes frag 15 Pearson; Chrysippos ap. Cic. de nat. deor. 1. 39 deum dicit esse...aethera. Cp. Slob. ecl. 1. 1. 29b p. 38, 2 f. Wachsmuth …

4 Cic. de nat deor. 1. 36 neque enim Iovem; neque Iunonem, neque Vestam, neque quemquam, qui ita appellator, in deorum habet numero (sc. Zeno), sed rebus inanimus atque mutis per quandam significationem haec docet tribula nomina=Zenon frag. 110 Pearson; Minuc. Fel. 19. 10 Zenon...interpretando Iunonem aera, Iovem caelum, Neptunum, mare, ignem esse Vulcanum et ceteros similiter deos elementa  esse monstrando = Zenon frag: III Pearson; Chrysippos ap. Philodem. …=H. Diels Doxograpci. Graeci Berolini 1879 p. 546 b 24 f. … Diog. Laert. 7. 147 … Chrysippos ap. Stob. ecl. 1. 1. 26 p. 31, 11 ff. Wachsmuth Zeus … Chrysippos ap. Cle. de nat. deor. 1 .40 aethera esse eum, quem homines Iovem appellarent: etc.

5 Souid. s.v. … ii. 395 a 14 ff. Bernhardy.

6 Krates ap. schol. Caes. Germ. Aratea p. 379, 11  ff. Eyssenhardt. The same interpretation is put upon the phrase by Macrob. Sat. 1. 18. 15, in somn. Scip. 1. 17. 14.

30

Zeus identified with Aithér

Homer - he said - had called the sky Zeus 1; as had Aratos elsewhere 2; Hesiod 3 and Philemon 4 had used the same word of the air. Other rationalists propounded similar explanations 5; for allegory is ever popular with those who have outgrown their creeds. Thus what had once been a piece of genuine folk-belief was first taken up into a philosophical system by Herakleitos, then pressed into the service of various Stoic speculations, and finally treated as a commonplace by allegorists and eclectics.

The comedians of course lost no opportunity of deriding such vagaries. Philemon, the first representative of the New Attic Comedy, is known to have penned a play called The Philosophers in which he made mock of Zenon the Stoic 6. When, therefore, we find that the prologue to one of his other comedies was spoken by a personage named Air and identified with Zeus, we may fairly suspect a travesty of Stoic teaching. The personage in question announces himself as follows:

One who knows everybody and everything

That everyone did, does, or ever will do,

And yet no god, and yet no man, am I.

Air, if you please, or Zeus if you prefer it!

For, like a god, I'm everywhere at once.

I'm here in Athens, at Patras, in Sicily,

In every state and every house, indeed

In each man Jack of you. Air's everywhere

And, being everywhere, knows everything 7

1 Il. 19. 357.

2 Arat. phaen. 223 f. … with schol.

3 Hes. o.d. 267, cp. schol. Arat. phaen. 1 p. 49, 24 Bekker.

4 Philemon frag. incert. 2. 4 Meineke: infra p. 30.

5 E.g. schol. Il. 15. 21 A.D., 188 B. L., Lyd. de mens. 4, 22 p. 80, 15 ff. Wunsch, ib. 4.34 p. 91., 181f., Servo in Verg. ecl. 10.27. Herakleitos, a late Stoic, in his quaest. Hom. pp. 23, 14 ff., 35, 14 ff., 37, 1 f., 38, 1, 52, 19 ff., 57, 16 ff., 60, 7 ff., 62, 3 ff.; 64, 1 ff. Soc. Philol. Bonn. also equates Zeus with … A last echo of Herakleitos the Ionian is audible in Lyd. de mens. 4, 21 p. 80, 4 … Cornut. theol. 19 p. 33, 12 ff. Lang … Tert. ad Marcion. 1. 13 vulgaris superstitio...figurans Iovem in substantiam fervidam et Iunonem eius in aeriam, etc.

6 Diog. Laert. 7. 27, Clem. Al. strom. 2. 20 p. 179, 8 ff. Stahlin, Souid. s.v. …

i. 726a 10 Bernhardy=Philemon Philosoph frag. (Frag. com. Gr. iv. 29 f. Meineke).

7 Stob. ecl. 1. 1. 32 p. 39, 9 ff. Wachsmuth, Vita Arati ii. 438, schol. Caes. Germ. Aratea p. 380, 1 ff. Eyssenhardt, et. mag. p. 389, 38 ff. where … is a mistake for… =Philemon frag. incert. 2 Meineke. With this identification of Zeus and… cp. Krates supra p. 29, Chrysippos ap Philodem. … 13 = H. Diels Doxogr. p. 546 b 36 ff. … Lyd. de mens. 4. 176 p. 183, 9 Wunsch ZEUS …ib. 1. 101 p. 6, 25 …Diogenes of Apollonia, a belated follower of Anaximenes, likewise equated Zeus with …Philodem. …= H. Diels Doxogr. p. 536 b 2 ff... The same equation is found many centuries later in Tzetz. alleg. Od. 6. 132 …

Zeus identified with Aithér

31

Another philosopher, who availed himself of the belief that the fiery sky is Zeus, was Empedokles of Agrigentum. This remarkable thinker recognised four elements or 'roots' of things, viz. Fire, Air, Earth, and Water; particles of which were combined and separated by the moving forces of Friendship and Enmity. In the extant fragments of his poem On Evolution he clothes his ideas in mythological language, speaking of the elements as Zeus, Here, Aïdoneus, and Nestis respectively, and of the moving forces as Aphrodite (Kypris) and Ares (Eris). Thus he writes:

For first hear thou the four roots of all things:

Bright Zeus, life-bringing Here, Aïdoneus,

And Nestis, whose tears flow, as a fount for men 1.

The author of the compilation On the Dogmas of the Philosophers, a work wrongly ascribed to Plutarch 2, quotes the second line as commencing with the words 'Zeus Aithér' instead of  'Zeus argés,' i.e. 'Zeus the Burning Sky' instead of 'Zeus the Brilliant.' But that is perhaps an emendation on the part of a copyist familiar with Stoic phraseology and ignorant of the poet's vocabulary 3. The word argés means 'bright' or 'brilliant' and is used by Homer five times of the thunderbolt hurled by Zeus 4, once of the shining

1 Empedokl. frag. 6 Diels …

2 See e.g. W. Christ Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur Munchen 1911 ii. 1. 391.

3 Plout. de Plac. phil. 1. 3, 20 ZEUS …MSS. The passage is cited from Plutarch by

Euseb. praep. ev. 14. 14. 6, where the MSS. have … Herakleitos the Stoic in his exposition of the line (quaest. Hom. p. 38, 1 ff. Soc. Philol. Bonn.) says … But there is no doubt that …is the true reading: see H. Diels Podarum philosophorum fragmenta Berolini 1901 p. 108. With the pseudo-Plutarch's comment … cp.. the erroneous derivation of ZEUS from …in et. mag. p. 409, 4 f., et. Gud. p. 230, 30, Clem. Rom. Hom. 4, 24 (ii. 17 Migne), 6. (ii. 201 Migne), Athenag. supplicatio pro Christianis 6 p. 7 Schwartz and 22 p. 26 Schwartz, Prob. in Verg. ecl. 6. 31. p. 351, interp. Serv. in Verg. Aen. 1. 47, cp. Arnob. adv. nat. 3. 30 flagrantem vi flammea atque ardoris inextinguibili vastitate, Lact. div. inst. 1. 11 a fervore caelestis ignis, Myth. Vat. 1. 105 Iovem...id est ignem; unde et ZEUS (quod est vita sive calor) dicitur, ib. i. 3. Iovem...id est ignem...Graece Iuppiter ZEUS dicitur, quod Latine calor sive vita interpretatur, quod videlicet hoc elementum caleat; et quod igni vitali, ut Heraclitus vult, omnia sint animata. See also supra p. 30 n. 5.

4 Il. 8. 133. Od. 5. 128, 131, 7. 249, 12. 387; Cp. … in Il. 19. 121; 20; 16, 22. 178.

Zeus as god of the Blue Sky

33

It is usual to suppose that in such passages Euripides was writing as a disciple of Anaxagoras. But, though Euripides was certainly influenced by Anaxagoras 1, and though Anaxagoras in his cosmo­gony derived the world from the reciprocal action of a rare warm bright dry principle termed aithér and a dense cold dark moist principle termed aér 2, yet inasmuch as the philosopher nowhere calls his aithér by the name of Zeus, his influence on the poet is not here to be traced. Nor yet can these Euripidean passages be ascribed to Orphic teaching. For the Orphic Zeus was pantheistic and only identified with aithér in the same sense as he is identified with all the other elements of Nature 3. Thus Aischylos in his Heliades writes probably under Orphic influence:

Zeus is the aithér, Zeus the earth, and Zeus the sky,

Zeus the whole world and aught there is above it 4.

Orphic poems describe aithér as the 'unerring kingly ear' of Zeus 5, or as 'holding the ever tireless might of Zeus' high palace 6'; but a direct identification of Zeus with aithér is attributed to Orpheus, only by Ioannes Diakonos, a late and untrustworthy author 7. What then was the source of Euripides' teaching in the matter? Possibly Herakleitos' use of 'Aíthrios Zeus' for 'the Bright Sky 8'; but possibly also the old zoïstic conception that lay at the base of all these philosophical superstructures.

(d) Zeus as god of the Blue Sky in Hellenistic Art.

Pompeian wall-paintings have preserved to us certain Hellenistic 9 types of Zeus conceived as god of the blue sky. He is characterised, as such by the simplest of means. Either he wears a blue nimbus round his head, or he has a blue globe at his feet, or he is wrapped about with a blue mantle.

1 See P. Decharme 'Euripide et Anaxagore' in the Rev. Et. Gr. 1889 ii. 234 ff.

2 E. Zeller A History of Greek Philosophy trans. S. F. Alleyne London 1881 ii. 354 ff.

3 Orph. frag. 123, 10 ff. Abel ...

4 Aisch. Heliades frag. 70 Nauck …

5 Orph. frag. 123, 19 ff. Abel.

6 Orph. h. Aith. 5. Abel.

7 Io. Diak. in Hes. Theog. 950 = Orph. frag. 16, f. Abel.

8 Supra p. 28. For the influence of Herakleitos on Euripides see A. E. Haigh The Tragic Drama of the Greeks Oxford 1896 pp. 234, 272.

9 Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus p. 190.

The Blue Nimbus

34

i. The Blue Nimbus

In a painting from the Casa del naviglio. (pl i. and Frontispiece) l, now unfortunately much faded, a fine triangular composition of Zeus enthroned is seen against a red background. The god's right hand, raised to his head, betokens thoughtful care. His left hand holds a long sceptre. His flowing locks are circled by a blue nimbus 2. Wrapped about his knees is a mantle which varies in hue from light blue to light violet. His sandalled feet are placed on a footstool, beside which is perched his eagle, heedfully turning its head towards its master. The throne has for arm rests two small eagles and is covered with green drapery. Immediately­ behind it rises a pillar rectangular in section and yellowish grey in colour, the sacred stone of Zeus. We have thus in juxtaposition the earliest and the latest embodiment of the sky-god, the rude aniconic pillar of immemorial sanctity and the fully anthropo­morphic figure of the Olympian ruler deep in the meditations of Providence 3.

The same striking combination occurs on a well-mouth of Luna marble in the Naples Museum (pl. ii.) 4. Here too we see Zeus seated in a pensive attitude, his right hand supporting his head, his left placed as though it held a sceptre.

1 Helbig Wandgem. Camp. p. 30 f. no. 101. Uncoloured drawings in the Real Museo Borbonico Napoli 1830 vi pl. 52, W. Zahn Die schonsten Ornamente und  merkwurdigsten Gemiilde aus Pompeii, Herkulanum und Stabiae Berlin 1811 ii pl. 88. E. Braun Vorschule der Kunstmythologie Gotha 1854 pl. 11, Overbeck op. cit. Atlas pl. 1, 39, Muller-Wieseler ­Wernicke Ant. Denkm. i. 48f. pl. 4, II (with the fullest bibliography), alib. My pl. i is a reproduction of Zahn's drawing on a smaller scale. My Frontispiece is a restoration of the painting based, partly on the full notes as to colouring given by Zahn. partly on a study of the much better preserved paintings from the same atrium (Helbig Wandgem. Camp. p. 50 no. 175, p. 98 no. 392, cp. p. 47 no. 162), especially of the wonderful enthroned Dionysos (Herrmann Denkm. d. Malerei col. pl. 1).

2 L. Stephani Nimbus und Strahlenkranz St Petersburg 1859 p. 13 f. (extr. from the Memoires de l'Academie des Sciences de St. Petersbourg. vi Serie. Sciences-politiques, histoire, philologie. ix. 361 ff.).

3 Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus p. 190 compares the thoughtful attitude of Zeus on the Naples well-mouth (infra n. 4) and on a medallion of Lucius Verus (infra ch. i § 5 .(b)). Wernicke op. cit. i. 48 f. objects that in the Pompeian painting the arm of Zeus is not supported on the back of the throne, but raised to his head in a Roman gesture of 'meditative care' (sinnende Fiirsorge) like that of Securitas on imperial coins (e.g. Muller­Wieseler Denkm. d. alt. Kunst i. 80 pl. 67, 362: list in Rasche Lex. Num. viii. 333-402, Stevenson-Smith-Madden Dict. Rom. Coins pp. 726-728) or that of Minerva in the pediment of the Capitoline temple (Wernicke op. cit. i. 43; 52 pl. 5, 1, Overbeck op. cit. Atlas pl. 3; 20, Durm Baukunst d. Etrusk. 2 p. 102 f. figs. 112 f.). For more pronounced, but less dignified, gestures of the sort see C. Sittl Die Geburden der Griecnen und Romer Leipzig 1890 p. 47 f.

4 Guida del Mus. Napoli p. 94 f. no. 2890 figured in the Real Museo Borbonico Napoli 1824 i pl. 49. Overbeck op. cit. Atlas pl. 3016. My pl. ii is a drawing from the cast at Cambridge.

Plate I

Zeus in a wall-painting from the Casa del Naviglio.

See page 34 ff.

Plate II

Zeus on a well-mouth at Naples.

See page 34 ff.

The Blue Nimbus

35

There is again a pillar beside him: on it rests his eagle, the lightning-beater, turning towards him and spreading its wings for instant flight.

Both designs are clearly variations (the one chromatic, the other plastic) of a common original by some sculptor of repute, who - to judge from the abundant but not as yet exaggerated locks of the god, his earnest deep-set eyes, his broad athletic shoulders, the naturalistic gesture of his right hand, and the multi­facial character of the whole work - may well have been Lysippos. The Italian provenance of the wall-painting and the well-mouth suggest that this Lysippean masterpiece was executed for some city in Italy. Our only further clue is the presence of the pillar as an essential feature of the composition. Now pillar-cults of Zeus lasting on into the classical period are of extreme rarity. There was, however, one such cult, of which I shall have more to say 1, at Tarentum in south Italy. If it could be shown that Lysippos made an image of the Tarentine pillar-Zeus, it would be reasonable to regard that image as the prototype of our later figures. At this point Pliny may be brought forward as a witness.­

A propos of colossal statues he says: 'Yet another is that at Tarentum, made by Lysippos, forty cubits in height. It is note­worthy because the weight is so nicely balanced that, though it can be moved by the hand - so they state - yet it is not overthrown by any gale. The artist himself is said ­to have provided against this by placing a pillar a little way off on the side where it was most necessary to break the violence of the wind 2.' Lucilius 3 and Strabon 4 mention that the statue in question represented Zeus and was set in a large open market-place. Whether it was seated we are not definitely told and cannot certainly infer 5. On the one hand, its great height and carefully calculated balance suggest a standing figure (cp. fig. 8) 6.

Fig. 8.

1 Infra ch. ii § 3 (a) ii (a).­

2 Plin. nat. hist. 34. 40 talis et Tarenti factus a Lysippo, XL cubitorum. mirum in eo

quod manu, ut ferunt, mobilis ea ratio libramenti est, ut nullis convellatur procellis. id quidem providisse et artifex dicitur modico intervallo, unde maxime flatum opus erat frangi, opposita columna.

3 Lucil. frag. 380 Baehrens ap. Non. Marc. s.v. 'cubitus' p. 296, 14 ff. Lindsay Lysippi Iuppiter ista transibit quadraginta cubita altu Tarento. ­

4 Strab. 278 … (sc. Tarentum) …

5 Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus p. 57.

6 Muller-Wieseler Wernicke Ant. Denkm. i. 58 pl. 5, II, a brown paste of late Roman work at Berlin (Furtwangler Geschict Steine Berlin p. 122 no. 2642 pl. 24) shows Zeus leaning his left arm on a pillar and holding a phiále his right hand. Upon

36

The Blue Nimbus

On the other hand, Lysippos' intention may well have been to eclipse the Olympian Zeus of Pheidias by a seated colossus of yet vaster bulk. Moreover, both Strabon 1 and Pliny 2 speak in the next breath of another 'colossal' bronze made by Lysippos for the Tarentines: this represented Herakles without weapons, seated and resting his head on his left hand 3 - a fitting pendant to a Zeus in the Pompeian pose. Pliny's curious remark about the weight being moveable by hand might refer to some accessory such as the eagle of Zeus; and his idea that the pillar set up beside the statue was intended to break the force of the wind is due to an obvious misunderstanding of the sacred stone. In short, the evidence that our painting and bas-relief presuppose Lysippos' famous work, though not conclusive, is fairly strong.

In this connexion it should be observed that Apulian vases - Tarentine vases, as Prof. Furtwangler called them on the ground that they were much used, if not manufactured, at Tarentum 5, - ­more than once represent an ancient cult of Zeus by means of a simple pillar closely resembling that of the Pompeian painting or that of the Neapolitan relief. Thus a vase in the Louvre (fig. 9) 6 depicts Hippodameia offering a phiále to her father Oinomaos, who is about to pour a libation over a primitive squared pillar before starting on the fateful race with Pelops. An amphora from Ruvo, now in the British Museum, (pl. iii.) 7, has the same scene with the pillar is perched his eagle. In the field to right and left of his head are a star (sun ?) and a crescent moon. The god is flanked by two smaller figures of the Dioskouroi, each with lance in hand and star on head. This design probably represents a definite cult-­group e.g. at Tarentum, where the worship of the pillar-Zeus may have been combined with that of the Dioskouroi. If Lysippos' colossal Zeus (supra p. 35) was a standing, not a seated, figure, the Berlin paste perhaps gives us some idea of it.

Fig. 9.

1 Strab. 278.

2 Plin. nat. hist. 34. 40.

3 Niketas Choniates de signis Constantinopolitanis 5 p. 859 f. Bekker. The type is

reproduced on an ivory casket (s. ix-x): see A. Furtwangler in the Sitzungsber. d. konig. bayer. Akad. d. Wiss. Phil.-hist. Classe 1902 pp. 435-442, O. M. Dalton Byzantine Art and Archaeology Oxford 1911 pp. 122, 216.

4 Cp. what he says about the stag of Kanachos' Apollon in nat. hist. 34. 75.

5 Furtwangler Masterpieces of Gk. Sculpt. p. 109 f., Furtwangler-Reichhold Gr. Vasenmalerei i. 47, ii. 107 (giving both appellations), 139 (reverting to the older nomenclature). See further H. B. Walters History of Ancient Pottery London 1905 i. 486.

6 Arch. Zeit. 1853 xi. 44 f. pl. 54, 2.

7 Brit. Mus. Cat. Vases iv. 164 f. no. F 331, Ann. d. Inst. 1840 xii. 171 ff. pls. N, O, Arch. Zeit. 1853 xi. 42 ff. pl. 54, 1, Class. Rev. 1903 xvii. 271 f. fig. 1. These illustrations being inexact, I have had a fresh drawing made. My friend Mr H. B. Walters in a letter dated May 15, 1911 writes - 'The following parts of the principal subject are restored: Oinomaos from waist to knees and left side of chlamys. Myrtilos all except head and shoulders, right hand and part of left arm. Aphrodite lower part of right leg and knee with drapery. There are also bits of restored paint along the lines of fracture. All the rest is quite trustworthy, except that I am a little bit doubtful about the [DIOS] inscription. The [D] is certainly genuine, but the other letters look suspicious, especially the [S].'

Plate III

Pillar-cult of Zeus on an amphora from Ruvo.

See page 36 ff.

The Blue Nimbus

37

In the centre a four sided pillar with splayed foot and moulded top bears the inscription Dios (the pillar) of Zeus 1.' It rises above, and probably out of the altar, over which Oinomaos, faced by Pelops, is in act to pour his libation. The king is flanked by Myrtilos, his faithless charioteer;

Fig. 9.

1 [DIOS] here is commonly supposed to mean '(the altar), of Zeus.' Overbeck G Kunstmytk. Zeus p. 5 f. fig, 1 objects that in this case the word would have been written on the blank side of the altar, and prefers to supply … If, however, the pillar actually rises out of the altar (as does the female herm on the Dareios-vase: Fuitwangler-Reichhold op, cit. ii. 148 pl. 88), the distinction ceases to be important; the altar is virtually the base of the' pillar. An interesting parallel is furnished by a series of bronze weights found at Olympia - ­the very spot represented on the vase (Olympia v. 801-824). They are shaped like an altar of one, two, three, or four steps, and are regularly inscribed [DIOS] sometimes [DIOS IERON], or with the addition of a cult-title… cp. Paus. 5. 10., H. B. Walters in Brit. Mus. Cat, Bronzes p. 361 no. 3008, followed by E. Michon in Daremberg­ Saglio Dict Ant iv. 552 n. 59, suggests … Some of them are further decorated with a thunderbolt, or with an eagle attacking a snake. If these weights really represent an altar and not merely - as is possible - a pile of smaller weights, that altar was pre­sumably the great altar of Zeus, which is known to have been a stepped structure formed from the ashes of the thighs of the victims sacrificed to Zeus (Paus. 5. 13, 8 ff.). Fig. 10 is a specimen inscribed [DIOS] (Brit. Mus Cat., Bronzes p. 49 no., 327). Copper coins of Nikaia in Bithynia; struck under Domitian, show a flaming rect­angular altar inscribed … (Morell. Thes. Num.lmp. Rom. ii. 483 f. iii. pl. 21, 21, cp. ii. 502 iii. pl. 26, 26; Waddington-Babelon-Reinach Monn. gr. d'As. Min. i. 406 pl. 67, 16). Others, struck under Trajan, have a large altar ready laid with wood: there is a door in the front of the altar and beneath it the word … (Hunter Cat. Coi,ts ii. 247). Others again, under Antoninus Pius, have a flaming altar inscribed … with … in the exergue (Waddington-Babelon-Reinach op. cit. i.407 pl. 68, 3). Early altars were often inscribed with the name of the deity in the genitive case (E. Reisch in Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. i. 1681).

38

The Blue Nimbus

the claimant, by Hippodameia, whom an older woman - possibly her mother 1 - leads forward by the wrist. Aphrodite and Eros appropriately complete the group. On the wall in the background hangs a white pîlos with a sword, and to either side of it two human heads - one that of a young man named Pelág(on) 2 wearing a Phrygian cap with lappets, the other that of a youth called Períphas: these are the heads of former suitors vanquished and slain by Oinomaos.

Other vases, which repeat the scene with variations, show a more developed form of the pillar-Zeus. A kratér with medallion handles from Apulia, likewise in the British Museum (pl. iv, 1) 3, again illustrates the compact of Oinomaos with Pelops before the altar of Zeus. Here too the central figures are flanked by Myrtilos and Hippodameia 4; the former bears armour, the latter a bridal torch.

Fig. 10

1 Not Peitho, as I suggested in Class. Rev. 1903 xvii. 272 (following P. Weizsacker in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 776), for she is white-haired. H. B. Walters in the Brit. Mus. Cat. Vases iv. 165 rightly says Sterope.

2 Paus. 6. 21. 11.

3 Brit. Mus. Cat. Vases iv. 132 ff. no. F 278, Bull. Arch. Nap. 1858 vi. 145 ff. pls. 8-10, Class. Rev: 1903 xvii. 272 fig. 2. My pl. iv, 1 and 2, are from a fresh drawing of the vase.

4 Not Aphrodite, as S. Reinach supposes (Rep. Vases i. 495)

Plate IV

1. Pillar-cult of Zeus on a kratér from Apulia (obverse). See page 38 f.

2. Pillar-cult of Zeus on a kratérfrom Apulia (reverse). See page 39 n. 1.

Plate V

Pillar-cult of Zeus on a kratérfrom Lecce (the 'Cawdor vase'). See. page 39.­

The Blue Nimbus

39

Herakles is present as founder of the Olympic games: The Altis or 'Grove' - is indicated by a couple of tree stumps to right, and left, while the two doves hovering above them are probably the equivalent of Aphrodite and Eros in the last design 1. It will be noticed that the four-sided pillar with its altar-base is now topped by a statue of Zeus, who stands clad in chitón and himátion, his left hand leaning on a sceptre, his right raised as if to hurl a bolt. A second kratér of the same sort, found in 1790 near Lecce and known as the 'Cawdor vase' because purchased for a thousand guineas by Lord Cawdor, is now in the Soane Museum at 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields. It exhibits a somewhat later moment ­the sacrifice by Oinomaos (pl. V) 8, Pelops and Hippodameia have started. But the king still stands at the altar, holding a phiále, a wreath and a flower in his right hand, a spear in his left, while a youth (Myrtilos ?) brings up a ram for the sacrifice. On the right of this group sits a retainer with armour; on the left a female figure wearing diadem, ear-ring, and necklace (Sterope?) approaches with a basket, a fillet, and three epichýseis. The altar is horned, and above it rises a pillar with moulded top, on which is placed a small undraped image of Zeus advancing with uplifted bolt. Between Zeus' and Oinomaos a small prophylactic wheel is seen suspended 4.

Similarly on a Campanian amphora from Capua, now at Dresden, Orestes stabs Aigisthos in the presence of Elektra (fig. 11) 6. Aigisthos has apparently fled for refuge to an altar-base of Zeus 6,

1 In Class. Rev. 1903 xvii. 272 I accepted Minervini's contention (Bull. Arch. Nap. 1858 vi. 148 f.) that these doves should be identified with those of the Dodonaean Zeus, who spoke his oracles …(Soph. Trach. 172 with schol. ad loc.). But, though Aphrodite's doves are ultimately comparable with those of Zeus, we must not suppose any such recondite significance here.

2 The opposite side of the same vase, which depicts the capture of Troy, shows inter alia Neoptolemos stabbing Priamos as he clings to a very similar pillar-altar of Zeus (pl. iv, 2): infra n. 6.

3 J. B. Passeri Picturae Etruscorum in Vasculis Rome 1775 iiii pl. 282 ff. H Moses A Collection of Vases… London 1814 pl. 23, J Britton 'The Union of Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting... London 1827 p 51 Title page fig. 1, 6, A general descscription of Sir John Soan’s Museum London 1876 p 5 fig., T. Panofka in the Abh. de berl. Akad.1858 Phil-hist, Classe pls. 1, 2 no. 5, L. Stephani, in, the Compte rendu, St Pet. 1863 p. 268 n. 1, 1868 p. 169 A. Conze in the Arch. Zeit. 1864 xxii And p 165; Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyih. Zeus pp; 6, 208 f., 602, A. Michaelis Ancient Marbles in Great Britain Cambridge 1882 p 481. My illustration of the-top register (7 ¼ inches high) was drawn over photographic blueprints taken by Mr W.E. Gray of Bayswater.

4 On these prophylactic wheels see infra ch. i § 6 (d) i (ε).

5 G. Treu in the Jahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch. Inst. 1890. v Arch. Anz p. 80, O. Hofer in Roscher-Lex. Myth. iii 969.

6 The scene as conceived by the vase-painter differs from the literary tradition (cp. however Eur. El. 839 ff.): it was perhaps inspired by the death of Priamos at the altar of Zeus Herkeîos (supra p. 39 n. 2).

The Blue Nimbus

40

whose archaic statue, holding thunderbolt and eagle surmounts a pillar on the right 1. Before it upon the wall hangs a shield. These vases prove that the pillar-cult of Zeus as conceived in south Italy passed from the aniconic to the iconic stage without discarding the primitive pillar. They thus afford a fair parallel to the painting from Pompeii, though there we have Zeus by the pillar and here Zeus on the pillar.

It remains to speak of the blue nimbus. Despite the express denial of L. Stephani 2, there is something to be urged for the view put forward by E. G. Schulz, that painters varied the colour of the nimbus in accordance with the character of the god they portrayed, and that a blue nimbus in particular suited Zeus as representative of the aithér 3. It is - I would rather say - a naive device for depicting Zeus as a dweller in the blue sky, and is therefore no less suitable to other denizens of Olympos 4.

Christian art retained the symbol with a like significance. A fourth century painting from the top of an arcosolium in the Roman Catacombs shows Elias ascending to heaven in his chariot of fire.

1 A milder type of pillar-Zeus, with Phiále in right hand and sceptre in left, occurs on a krater from Gnathia, now at Bonn (infra ch. i § 6 (d) i (ζ).

2 L. Stephani Nimbus und Straklenkranz St Petersburg 1859 p. 96 (extr. from the Memoires de l'Academie des Sciences de St.-Petersbourg. vi Serie. Sciences politiques, histoire, philologie. ix. 456).

3 Bull. d. Inst. 1841 p. 103 … On the meaning of gold, silver, red, green, and black nimbi in later art see Mrs H. Jenner Christian Symbolism London 1910. p. 91 f.

4 Blue nimbi are attached to the following deities: Aphrodite (Helbig Wandgem. Camp. nos. 118?, 291, 317), Apollon (Helbig nos. 189?, 232, 4, Sogliano Pitt. mur. Camp. no. 164?), Demeter (Helbig no. 176 'blaulich'), Dionysos (Helbig no. 388), Helios (Sogliano no. 164?), Hypnos (Helbig no. 974. blaulich, zackig'), Kirke (Helbig no. 329) Leda (Helbig no, 143), Selene (Sogliano no. 457 'azzurognolo'), young god with white or golden star above him (Helbig nos. 964, 971), young radiate god (Helbig no. 969, Sogliano no. 458; cp. Helbig no. 965 youth with blue radiate crown and white star above), mountain-nymphs (Helbig no. 971), wood-nymph (Sogliano no. 119), radiate female figure with bat's wings (Sogliano no. 499) or bird's wings (Sogliano no. 500). See also Stephani op. cit. pp. 19, 22, 23, 47, 49, 65.

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41

The saint has a blue nimbus about his beardiess head and obviously per­petuates the type of Helios 1. An interesting miniature on linen of about the same date comes from a priestly mitre found at Panopolis (Achmim); On it we see Christ as a youthful brown­haired figure, standing in a blue robe trimmed with carmine and holding a cross in his right hand: he too has a blue nimbus round his head 2, A clavus of polychrome woolwork, found on the same site but in a Byzantine grave of the sixth century or thereabout, represents a white-robed saint between two trees: his left hand holds a staff, and his head is circled by a blue nimbus 3. The magnificent mosaic on the triumphal arch of S. Paolo fuori le mura at Rome, which was designed in the middle of the fifth century but has undergone substantial restorations, culminates in the bust of Our Lord wearing a golden radiate nimbus, rimmed with dark blue 4.

ii. The Blue Globe.

The blue nimbus marked Zeus as a dweller in the blue sky. More intimate is the connexion denoted by another symbol in the repertory of the Pompeian artist, the blue orbis 5 or globe.

1 J. Wilpert Die Malereien der Katakomben Roms Freiburg 1903 pl. 160, 2, infra ch. i § 5 (f).

2 Forrer Real lex. p. 485 fig. 401.

3 Id. ib. p. 939 pl. 292, 1.

4 G. B. de Rossi Musaici cristiani e saggi deipavimenti delle chiese di Roma anieriori al secolo xv Roma 1899 pl. 413, L. von Sybel Christliche Antike Marburg 1909 ii. 328 pl. 3 (after de Rossi), W. Lowrie Christian Art and Archeology New York 1901 p. 311. On the blue nimbus in Christian art see further O. M. Dalton Byzantine Art and Archaeology Oxford 1911 p. 682.

5 The word is found in the description of a silver statue of Jupiter Victor, which stood on the Capitol of Cirta: Corp. inscr. Lat- viii no. 6981 = Dessau Inscr. Lat. set. DO. ' 4921G (Wilmanns .Ex. inscr.\ Lat. no. 2736… Cp., however, Amm. Marc., 11. 14, sphaeram quam ipse (sc. Constantius in dextera manu gestabat, 25. 10. 2 Maximian statua Caesaris amisit repente sphaera maeream formatam in speciem poliquam gestabat., Souid. s.v. … also uses the term … (infra p. 52 n. 4).

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42

This occurs in a painting from the Casa dei Dioscuri (pl. vi) 1. Against a red ground we see Zeus seated on a throne, which is draped in shimmering blue. Its arm-rests; of which one is visible, are supported by carved eagles. A violet-blue mantle with gold-embroidered border covers the lower part of his figure. The right hand resting on his knee holds a thunderbolt; the left is raised ­and leans on a sceptre banded with gold. Before him is his eagle looking up to him in an attitude of attention. Behind hovers Nike in a light violet chitón, with a green veil over her left arm, placing a golden bay-wreath on the head of the god. Beside him is a blue globe on a square base.

An engraved chalcedony of imperial date, now in the Berlin collection (fig. 12) 2, repeats the motif with slight variations. The right foot, not the left, is advanced, and the globe is omitted, perhaps to leave room for the inscription.

With regard to this interesting composition two questions may be mooted. What were its antecedents? And what were its consequents?

The facing type is certainly suggestive of a cult-statue; and we observe, to begin with, that our figure bears a more than superficial resemblance to the Iupiter Capitolinus of Apollonios, a chryselephantine copy of Pheidias' Zeus made for the temple dedicated by Q. Lutatius Catulus in 69 B.C. 3 The main features of Apollonios' Iupiter were recovered by A. Michaelis from a torso at Naples and from sundry early drawings by Heemskerck, Giuliano da Sangallo, and dal Pozzo 4. The right hand probably held a sceptre, but not. high enough for the upper arm to assume, a horizontal position. The left hand was lowered and probably grasped a thunderbolt. The right foot was thrust forward till it projected horizontally beyond the footstool of the throne.

Fig. 12.

1 Helbig Wandgem. Camp. p. 31 no. 102, Guida del Mus Napoli p. 346 no., 1461, W. Zahn Die schonsten Ornamente etc. iii pl. 14 (coloured, but including Zahn's restoration of the head and wings of Nike), V. Duruy History of Rome English ed. London 1884: ii pl. 10 (coloured). Uncoloured drawings in the Real Museo Borbonico Napoli 1835 xi pl. 39, E. Braun Vorschule der Kunstmythologie. Gotha 1854 pl. 14, Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus Atlas pl. 1, 40 (after Braun). My pl. vi is a reduced copy of Zahn's colour-plate with a fresh restoration of Nike's head and wings.

2 Furtwangler Geschicht. Steine Berlin p. 108 f. no. 2306 pl. 21, Miiller-Wieseler­Wernicke Ant. Denkm. i. 49 pl. 4, 12.

3 H. Jordan Topographie der Stadt Rom im Alterthum Berlin 1885 i. 2.25 ,no 24, O. Richter Topographie der Stadt Rom 2 Munchen 1901 p. 125, Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. iii. 1534, Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus p. 61 f., id. Gr. Plastik4 ii. 431.

4 A. Michaelis in the Jahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch. Inst. 1898 xiii. 92 ff.

Plate VI

Archelaos 0129 ff. Relief signed Y

See page 43

Plate VII

Zeus enthroned on the ara Capitolina.

See page 43

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43

The left foot was drawn back till it rested only on its toes; The himátion covered the top half of the god's left arm, and the end of it hung down between his knees. Now all, or almost all, these traits are to be found in an extant reliefthe consideration of which would have materially strengthened Michaelis' case - I mean the principal face of the so-called ara Capitolina. This beautiful monument represents on its four sides scenes from the life of Zeus, and has by way of climax Zeus enthroned among the other denizens of Olympos (pl. vii) 1. The form of the god is precisely that described by Michaelis, except for the unimportant circumstance that the sculptor has here chosen to bring forward the left rather than the right foot. The com­paratively low position of the arm holding the sceptre; the somewhat unusual arrangement of a thunderbolt grasped by, the left hand, the feet thrust forward and drawn back respectively, the himátion swathing the whole of the upper arm - all, these characteristics are present, together with a head of would-be fifth-century type admirably suited to a copy of the Olympian Zeus 2. I take it, therefore, that the seated Zeus of the ara Capitolina is on the whole our best evidence for the aspect of Apollonios' Jupiter Capitolinus 3. If this be so, it becomes probable that the latter, like the former, had a large globe placed on the left hand side of his throne.

Next we have to compare the type of Zeus attested by the Pompeian wall-painting and the intaglio at Berlin with that of Iupiter Capitolinus thus determined. The two, types have un­doubtedly much in common. Both show a seated Zeus, half-draped in a himátion, holding, a sceptre in his raised, a thunderbolt in his lowered hand. The pose of the feet and legs is similar - not to say - identical; and the Pompeian Zeus at least agrees with the

1 Helbig Guide Class. Ant. Rome i. 379 f. no. 515, Friederichs-Wolters Gipsabgusse p. 815 f. no. 2142, Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus pp. 170, 175 ff., Hera pp. 129, 137 ff., Atlas pl. 1, 49, (Zeus only), E. Braun Vorschuleder Kunstmythologie Gotha 1854 pl. 5, Baumeister Denkm.iii. 2139 fig. 2397.

2 The substitution of a fillet for a wreath is noteworthy, since Petillius Capitolinus was accused of carrying off the wreath of Iupiter Capitolinus (Acron and Porphyrion ad Hor. sat. 1. 4. 94). This accusation was a time honoured joke (Plaut. Men. 941, Trin. 83 ff.).

3 The colossal statue of Nerva seated, as Iupiter in the Rotunda of the Vatican (Helbig Guide Class. Ant Rome i. 217 no. 303) looks like an adaptation of the same type, as Miss M. M. Hardie of, Newnham College pointed out, to me. But both arms with the mantle covering the left shoulder are restorations by Cavaceppi, and the lower half belongs to another seated male figure. A similar adaptation of the type maybe seen in the Berlin 'Trajan' (Ant. Skulpt. Berlin p. 144 no 354), a seated emperor of the first century A.D. (head not belonging; arms, feet, etc. much restored). Cp.also the Augustus of Ankyra (Gaz. Arch. 1881-1882 vii. 73 ff. pl. 13).

The Blue Globe

44­

Iupiter Capitolinus in the fall of its drapery between the knees as also in the presence of the big globe to the left of the throne. Nevertheless close inspection reveals important points of difference. The wall-painting and the intaglio give Zeus a fourth-century, not a fifth-centruy, head. They palce the thunderbolt in his right hand, the scepter in his left, not vice versa. They raise the hand leaning on the sceptre till the upper arm is horizonatal. Consequently they despense, either wholly or in part, with the covering of the arm. Lastly, they introduce anentirely new feature, Nike appearing behind the throne and wrerathing the head of the god. These similarities and differences can be readily explained,, if we suppose that the wall-painting and the intaglio have preserved to us a later modification of the type of Iupiter Capitolinus. We know that Catulus’ temple was burnt by the Vitelliani or their opponenets in the eventful year 69 A.D. 1 And we know that Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of ount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. It is reasonable to conjecture that the new stature of Iupiter Capitolinus necessitated by the disaster of 69 would be during the first decade of its existence a favourite theme with the painters of the day. On this showing we may well believe that he Pompeian painting represents the cult-statuer of Iupiter Capitolinus in the temple which Vespasian began to build in 70 A.D. 2 Confirmation of the surmise is not far to seek. The reverse of a copper coin struck by Vespasian shows the façade of the new building (fig. 13) 3. between its central columns is seen a statuer of Iupiter seated in exactly the same pose and holding exactly the same attributes as in the Pompeian painting. The globe at the side of the Victory behind are omitted on account of the small scale of the design. But that they were present in the temple itself can hardly be doubted 4.

Fig. 13.

1 Tac. hist. 3. 7ff., Plout. v. Public. 15, Suet. Vitell.15, Euseb. chron. ann. Abr. 2086, Aur. Vict. de Caes. 8. 5, 9. 7, Kedren. hist. comp. 217 A (i. 380 Bekker).

2 Tac. hist. 4. 53, Plout. v. Public. 15, Suet. Vesp. 8, Dion Casso 66. 10, Euseb. chron. ann. Abr. 2087, Aur. Vict. de Caes. 9. 7, Kedren. hist. comp. 217 A (i. 380 Bekker). Suetonius' expression nolle deos mutari veterem formam is satisfied by the general resemblance of the Vespasianic Iupiter to his predecessor.

3 Drawn from a specimen in my possession. See further T. L. Donaldson Architectura Numismatica London 1859 p. 6 ff. no. 3 (pl.), Morell. Thes. Num. Imp. Rom. ii. 314, pl. 13, 23, 375f. pl. 10, 9, Cohen Monn. emp. rom.2 i. 495 f.

4 The Victory may have stood on a column behind the throne of Iupiter. Cp. e.g. copper coins of Ptolemais in Phoinike, struck by Septimius Severus etc., which show Nike on a column behind Tyche. crowning her with a wreath in a tetrastyle temple (Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Phoenicia p. 133 pl. 16, 15, p. 135 ff. pl. 17, 4, 9).

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45

Vespasian's building did not last for long. Another great con­flagration occurred in 80 A.D. and burnt it to the ground 1. It was rebuilt by Titus and Domitian 2, and, thus restored, had a longer lease of life. Despite some damage done by lightning and fire in the reign of Commodus 3, it remained substantially the same building till the fall of the western empire 4. To determine the type of Domitian's Iupiter is not easy, since the silver coin that expressly commemorates the rebuilding is undecisive 5, while the ordinary issues of this emperor in silver 6 and copper 7 may have been influenced by Vespasian's coin.

However, it is probable that succeeding centuries saw sundry minor changes introduced. Thus there is reason to think that the globe, originally at the left side of the throne, came to be held in the god's right hand. A coin of Neapolis in Samaria, struck by Caracalla, shows Iupiter Capitolinus on a throne facing us. He holds a globe in his right hand, a long sceptre in his left, and is flanked by Iuno and Minerva (fig. 14) 8. Similarly, coins of Capitolias, a town near Gadara founded in the reign of Nerva or Trajan 9, have the same deity enthroned in an octostyle temple, the gable of which supports a solar chariot.

Fig. 14. Fig. 15.

1 Dion Cass. 66. 24 …

2 Corp. inscr. Lat. vi no. 2059. 11 ff. (=aeta Eratrum Arvalium for Dec. 7. 80 A.D.).

Plout. v. Public. 15, Suet. Domit. 5. Eutrop. 7. 23.5, Aur. Vict. de Caes. 11. 4. Chronogr. ann. 354 p. 646 Mommsen (Chron. min. i. II 7 Frick).

3 Euseb. chron. ann. Abr. 2201.

4 Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. iii. 1533.

5 Eckhel Doctr. num. vet. 2 vi. 377 f., Stevenson-Smith-Madden Dict. Rom. Coins p. 170 fig.

6 Morell. Thes. Num. Imp. Rom. ii. 432 pl. 9. 1.

7 Morell.Thes. Hunt. Imp. Rom. ii. 455 pl. 14. I4 first brass; id. ib, ii. 467 pl. 17.25 second brass...

8 F. De Saulcy Numismatique de la terre sainte Paris 1874 p. 257 pl. 13, 5. 9 Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc.. iii.1529.

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Iupiter again holds a sceptre in his left hand, a globe in his right (fig. 15) 1. It seems likely that in the Capitoline temple at Rome Victory still held ­her wreath over the head of the god; for not only do coins of Antoninus Pius and others show the emperor seated on a curul… chair with a globe in one hand and a sceptre in the other 2, but such coins sometimes add a Victory hovering behind him with a wreath in her outstretched hand (fig. 16) 3; Gold coins of the later Roman emperors frequently exhibit a design of kindred origin. For example, Valentinianus I and his son sit side by side, holding a starry globe between them, while Victory with spread wings is seen in the background behind their throne (fig. 17) 4. These representations imply on the one hand that the emperor has stepped into the shoes of Iupiter, on the other hand that his duties descend in unbroken succession from occupant to occupant of the imperial seat. Both conceptions could be further illustrated from Roman coinage. Frequently from the time of Commodus to that of Diocletian we find Iupiter delegating the globe to his human representative (fig. 18) 5.

Fig. 16. Fig. 17.

1 H Norisius Chronologica (Opera omnia: tomus secundus) Veronae 1729 p. 338 fig., Eckhe Doctr. num. vet.2 iii. 329, Rasche Lex. Num. ii. 341, Suppl. i. 1626. The specimen here figured after Norisius is a copper coin of Alexander Severus: inscribed … (= the date, reckoned from 97/98 A.D.). The British Museum possesses a very similar specimen, but in poor preservation.

2 K. Sitt Der Adler und die Weltkugel als Attribute des Zeus (Besonderer Abdruck aus dem vierzehnten Supplementbande der Jahrbucher fur classische Philologie) Leipzig 1884 p. 49.

3 Rasche Lex. Num. x. 1300. The illustration is from a first brass of Antoninus Pius

in my collection. TR POT XV COS IIII and S C.

4 From a specimen in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. See Cohen Monn. emp rom. 2 viii. 93 no. 43, Stevenson. Smith-Madden Dict. Rom. Coins p. 867. VICTORIA

AVGG and TR . OB .

5 Rasche Lex. Num. iii. 1464, Sitt op. cit. p. 49. The illustration is from a coin of Probus in my collection…

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47

Sometimes, as in the case of Trajan and Hadrian, it is the emperor who passes on the symbol to his Successor (fig. 19) 1.

Yet another modification of the same cult-statue produced the type of Iupiter enthroned with his left foot planted on the globe. This may be seen from sundry late sarcophagus-reliefs supposed to portray the birth of Apollon 2. The best-preserved of them is that of a sarcophagus-lid in the Villa Borghese. The central scene (fig. 20) 3, with which alone we are here concerned, shows Iupiter enthroned in heaven. Once more he sits facing us, with a sceptre in his raised left and a thunderbolt in his lowered right hand 4. But this time the globe is transferred from his left side to a new position beneath his left foot. On either side of him are a boy and a girl interpreted as the youthful Apollon and Artemis 5. They in turn are flanked by Iuno with her sceptre and Minerva with her helmet and spear. In short, we have before us the heavenly region re­presented by the three Capitoline deities and their new proteges.

That the Iupiter of this relief is in truth only a variation of the Vespasianic type, appears from a curious circumstance noted by

Fig. 18. Fig. 19.

1 Rasche Lex. Num. iii. 15, 1464, Sittl op. cit. p. 49. The illustration is from a coin of Hadrian in my collection. …

2 Raoul Rochette Monumens inedits d'antiquite figuree Paris 1833 p. 401 ff. pl. 74, 1

and 2 (birth and death of an Eleusinian mystic), 141. Heydemann in the Arch. Zeit 1869 xxvii. 11 f. pl. 16, 1-4 (the story of Eros and Psyche), C. Robert in Hermes 1887 xxii. 460-464, id. in the Jahrb. d. kai. deutsch. arch. Inst. 1890 v. no n, 6, id. Sark. Relfs. iii. I. 39 ff. pl. 6-7, 33, 33a (scenes relating to the birth of Apollon). Robert's view is accepted by Helbig Guide Class. Ant. Rome ii. 145 f. no. 921 and, in part at least, by Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Apollon pp. 368-370 Atlas pl. 3, 18, K. Wernicke in Pauly­Wissowa Real-Enc. ii. 108, B. Sauer in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 1975 f., H. Steuding ib. ii: 2091, 2118.­

3 Redrawn from Arch. Zeit. 1869 xxvii pl. 16, 3 with the help of Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Atlas pl. 3, 18. The lines of restoration are taken from Eichler's drawing in C. Robert Sark.-Relfs. iii, 1.40 fig 33.

4 The thunderbolt is due to the restorer (Robert op. cit. iii. 1. 41), but is probably­ correct.

5 Large parts of the Artemis are modern, viz. the head, the left fore-arm with its pyxís, the right fore-arm, the left leg, and the right foot.

 [## missing 48-49]

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A somewhat similar type, that of the Father or the Son seated on a large globe, occurs in church-mosaics of the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries 1.

Fig. 23. Fig. 24.

1 J. Ciampinus Vetera Monimenta Roma 1747 i. 271 ff. pl. 77 (S. Agatha in Subura=S. Agata dei Goti at Rome, 460-468 A.D.), ii. 72 f. pl. 19 (S. Vitalis=S. Vitale at Ravenna, 547 A.D.) ii. 101 ff. pl. 28 (S. Lactantius in Agro Verano=S. Lorenzo fuori le mura. 578-590 A.D.). On the relation of the globe to the rainbow in early mediaeval art see O. M. Dalton Byzantine Art and Archaeology Oxford, 1911 p. 672.

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For example, the right lateral apse in the Mausoleo di S. Costanza near the Via Nomentana at Rome - a work dated by de Rossi shortly after 360 A.D. - shows God the Father, not only with a blue nimbus and a blue robe, but also seated on a blue globe, as he presents the scroll of the law to Moses (fig. 23) 1. Similarly the apse of the church of S. Teodoro at the foot of the Palatine - circ. 600 A.D. - has God the Son seated on a blue globe spangled with gold stars between St Peter, who presents S. Teodoro, and St Paul presenting another saint hard to identify (fig. 24) 2. This type too in all probability derives from a pagan prototype 3. Silver and copper coins of Ouranopolis, a town founded by Alexarchos, brother of Kassandros on, the peninsula of Akte, represent Aphrodite Ouranía seated on a globe (fig. 25) 4. On autonomous copper coins of Klazomenai the philosopher Anaxagoras is seen sitting on a globe (fig. 26) 5; on an imperial copper of the same town he holds a small globe in his, extended right hand, while he sets his left foot on a cippus 6. A silver coin of Domitia Longina, wife of the emperor Domitian, shows a child seated on a globe and surrounded by seven stars (fig. 27) 7. The child has been identified as the empress' son, who was born in 73 A.D. and died young 8. He is here represented as the infant Zeus of Crete.

Fig. 25.

1 G. B. de Rossi Musaici cristiani e saggi, dei pavimenti delle chiese di Roma, anteriori

al secolo xv Roma. 1899 pl, 3.

2 Id. ib. pl. 17.

3 Demetrios Poliorketes was represented on the proskénion of the theatre at Athens … (Douris frag. 31=Frag. Hist Gr. ii. 477 Muller ap. Athen. 536 A; Eustath., in Il. p. 570. 9 f.). This, however, does not imply that Demetrios was seated on a globe.(Sittl, op. cit. p. 44), but that he was upbome by an anthropomorphic figure of Oikouméne: cp. the relief by Archelaos (infra ch. i § 5, (b)), the gemma Augustea at Vienna (Furtwangler Ant. Gemmen i, pl. 56, ii. 257). and above, all, the great Paris cameo, id. ib. i pl. 60 ii. pl. 69).

4 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Macedon etc. p.133 f., Head Hist. num. 2, p. 206; I figure a

specimen in my possession.

5 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Ionia, p. 28 pl. 7, 4. JJ Bernoulli Griechisch Ikonographie

Munchen 1901 i. 118 Munztaf 2.

6 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Ionia p. 33 pl. 7, 9. Bernoulli op. cit. i. 118 Munztaf. 2, 3.

7 Stevenson-Smith-Madden Dict. Rom. Coins p. 341. My illustration is from a cast of the specimen in the British, Museum.

8 Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. v. 1513 f.

52

The Blue Globe

A Cretan copper struck under Trajan, has the same motif (fig. 28) 1: Zeus as a child sits on the globe with a goat at his side and seven stars above his head. The idea was popularised by coins of Antoninus Pius (fig. 29) 2 and Commodus, on which occurs the fine figure of Italia enthroned on a starry globe as mistress of the world.

The symbol of the globe was still further Christianised, when Valentinianus I added a cross on the top of it 3. In this form it occurs on the coins of many of the later Roman emperors 4. An obvious exception is afforded by Julian the Apostate, who sub­stituted a small figure of Victory for the cross 5. The globus cruciger, or globe and cross, is again a constant emblem of Christian sovereignty on Byzantine coins 6. As the 'orb' of mediaeval and modern regalia it has survived to our own times 7. We have now passed in review the different conditions under which the globe is associated with Zeus: It remains to ask what was the origin of the symbol, and what was its significance.

Fig. 27. Fig. 28. Fig. 29.

1 Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus p. 330 Münztaf. 5, 2, J. N. Svoronos Numismatique

de la Crete ancienne Macon 1890 i. 348 pl. 35, 1.

2 Rasche Lex. Num. iv. 1002 f., Stevenson-Smith-Madden Dict. Rom. Coins p. 488

fig. The illustration is from a first brass of Antoninus Pius in my collection.

3 Sittl op. cit. p. 49 f. states that Constantine had already placed the Christian mono­gram upon the globe (but Cohen Monn. emp. rom.2 vii. 231 no. 14 was struck after his death). On coins of Nepotianus (350 A.D.) etc. we see Roma enthroned holding a globe surmounted by the monogram (Cohen op. cit.2 viii. 2 no. 2 fig., W. Lowrie Christian Art and Archaeology New York 1901 p. 241 fig. 82, a, Roscher Lex. Myth. iv. 153).

4 A list is given by Rasche Lex. Num. iii. 1464 Cp. Souid. s.v. …

5 Rasche loc. cit.

6 Brit. Mus. Cat. Byz. Coins ii. 654 s.v. 'Globus.'

7 Ducange Gloss. med. et info Lat. ed. 1886 vi. HI s.v. 'palla' cites from Gotefridus Viterbiensis the couplet - Aureus ille Globus Pommum vel Palla vocatur, Quando coronatur, Palla ferenda datur.

The Blue Globe

53

Its origin appears to have been twofold. On the one hand, the type of the infant Zeus seated on a globe surrounded by stars is of Greek extraction. On the other hand, most of the representa­tions considered above can be legitimately derived from the cult-­statue of Iupiter Capitolinus, which, had at its left side a ball resting on a pedestal or pillar. This was a definitely Roman adjunct: it had no counterpart in the temple of Zeus at Olympia.

Enquiry might be pushed further. The:; temple of Iupiter Capitolinus was, as is well known, essentially an Etruscan building. Now a ball resting on a pedestal or pillar occurs in Etruscan art sometimes as a grave-stéle 1, sometimes as a sacred land-mark or boundary-stone 2. Such monuments varied much in shape and size. A fine example from Orvieto, now in the Museum at Florence, consists of a rectangular moulded base topped by a spheroidal black stone (fig. 30) 3. Another, in the Orvieto Museum, is a cone of tufa, hollow inside, and bears an inscription (Tinia Tinscvil) which connects it with Tinia, the Etruscan Iupiter (fig. 31) 4. Are we then to infer that in the cella of Jupiter Capitolinus, side by side with the most august statue in Rome, there was a grave-stéle, or a boundary stone? The fact is luckily beyond question 5. When the foundations of the temple were first laid by Tarquinius Priscus, the god Terminus - otherwise known as Iupiter Terminus - was already in possession of the site and resisted the process of exauguration. Hence the ancient boundary-stone that passed as his image was allowed to remain in close proximity 6 to the statue of Iupiter Capitolinus. Moreover, a small opening was contrived in the roof above it, since sacrifices to Terminus had to take place in the open air.

1 Durm Baukunst d. Etrusk.2 p. 128 fig. 141, Raoul Rochette op. cit. pp. 141 n. 5, 402, 405. These balls on pillars were originally Grabphalli (Forrer Realex, p. 297): see A. Koerte in the Ath. Mitth. 1899 xxiv. 6ff. pl. 1, 1, A. Dieterich Mutter Erde Leipzig and Berlin 1905 p.104 f.

2 Raoul Rochette op. cit. p. 404 f. pl. 75 (a funeral urn in the museum at Volterra): G. Korte I Relievi delle Urne Etrusche Berlino 1890 ii. I. 97 pl. 38, 3 describes and figures the object on the pillar as 'un vaso tondo.' Cp. the stone balls on our lodge-gates (see, however, S. Baring-Gould Strange Survivals.3 London 1905 p. 53).

3 L. A. Milani in the Rendiconti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei: Classe di Scienze Morali, Storiche e Filologiche. Serie Quinta. Roma 1900 ix. 295 fig. 4, Studi e materiali di archeologia e numismatica Firenze 1902 i. 60 f. fig. 226. A similar Grabaufsatz from Orvieto, now at Berlin, is an elliptical block of polished serpentine resting on a moulded base of trachyte (Ant. Skulpt. Berlin p. 481 no. 1244 fig.).

4 Milani locc. citt; ix. 293 fig. 3 cp. ib. p. 294 'un cono tufaceo vuoto internamente,' i. 60 f. fig. 227. Cp. J. Six' Der Agyieus des Mys' in the Ath. Mitth. 1894 xix. 340 ff.

5 The evidence is collected by Preller-Jordan Rom. Myth.3 i. 255 f., Wissowa Rel. Kult. Rom. p. 124 f., C. Hulsen in Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. iii. 1532.

6 Dion. Hal. 3. 69…

The Blue Globe

54

Lactantius asserts that the rude stone worshipped as Terminus was that which Saturn was said to have swallowed in place of Iupiter 1. This confusion suggests that Terminus' stone had a round top to it - as was in fact the case, if I am right in my conjecture with regard to the globe of Iupiter Capitolinus.

But, it will be asked, if this globe was originally the stone of Terminus, how came it to be regarded as a symbol of the sky? Partly, I suppose, because it was a round object standing under the clear sky; but partly also because a globe on a pillar was used by Greek astronomers as a model of the sky 3.

Fig. 30.

1 Lact. div. inst. 1. 20.

2 In Roman art the stone of Kronos is figured as a half-egg on the top of a short pillar (infra ch. ii § 10 (d)).

4 See F. Hultsch in Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. ii. 1853 f.

The Blue Globe

55

Thus imperial copper coins of Samos figure Pythagoras seated or standing before a globe, which rests on a pillar, and pointing to it with a rod 1.

Enthroned as master in the realm of knowledge with a long sceptre in his left hand and a himátion loosely wrapped about him

Fig. 31.

1 L. Burchner in the Zeitschr. f. Num. 1882 ix. 121 ff., Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Ionia pp. 373, 376, 381, 390, 392, pl. 37, 14, J.J. Bernoulli Griechische Ikonographie München 1901 i. 75 Munztaf. 1, 21 and 23.

The Blue Globe

56

He is, as J.J. Bernoulli points out, a decidedly Zeus-like personage (fig. 32) 1. similar in pose and pretension is the figure of Hipparchos on imperial coppers of Nikaia in Bithynia 2. And analogous scenes could be cited from Roman mosaics 3.

Lastly – to pass from the origin to the significance of the symbol – we observe that the globe is coloured blue in the Pompeian painting 4, blue 5 or blue-green 6 in the Roman mosaics. Obviously therefore it signifies the sky rather than the earth, a conclusion confirmed by the fact that it came to be banded with the astronomical zones (figs. 25, 27), or quartered into templa and spangled with stars (figs. 22, 24, 29, 33 7).

iii. The Blue Mantle.

A third method of characterising Zeus as god of the blue sky may perhaps be detected in the practice of giving him a blue or bluish mantle.

Zeus with the blue nimbus had his knees enveloped in a himátion of gleaming violet lined with blue 8. Zeus with the blue globe wore a violet-blue cloak with a blue gold-embroidered border and sat on a throne mantled in greenish blue 9.

Fig. 32. Fig. 33.

1 Bernoulli op. cit. i. 75 'in zeusartiger Haltung' Münztaf. 1, 21.

2 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Pontus etc. p. 167 pl. 33, 9, Bernoulli op. cit. i Munztaf. 2, I5, ii. 186.

3 E.g. one from Pompeii now at Naples, and another from Sarsina now in the Villa Albani (Bernoulli op. cit. ii 34 ff. figs. 3 f.). One at Brading in the Isle of Wight is published in the Transactions of the Royal Institute of British Architects 1880-81 p. 138 f. with pl.

4 Supra p. 42. Several other paintings of the same provenance represent a globe among the attributes of Zeus (eagle, thunderbolt, sceptre, wreath, mask of Zeus): see Helbig Wandgem. Camp. p. 31 f. nos. 105, 106, 108-112, Sogliano Pitt. mur. Camp. p. 19 no. 72.

5 Supra p. 51, L. von Sybel Christliche Antike Marburg 1909 ii. 329 (S. Agata dei Goti).

6 J. Ciampinus Vetera Monumenta Romae 1747 ii. 101 ff. pl. 28 (S. Lorenzo fuori le mura).

7 From a third brass of Constantine the Great (Cohen Monn emp. rom.2 vii. 231 f.) in my collection. The globe, with three stars above it, rests on an altar inscribed … (votis vicennalibus). The legend is BEATA TRANQVILLITAS. In the exergue STR (signata Treveris) is the mint-mark of money struck at Treves. See further Stevenson-Smith-Madden Dict. Rom. Coins p. 125.

8 Supra p. 34.

9 Supra p. 42.

The Blue Mantle

57

A decorative panel with black ground from the Casa dei bronzi shows him clad in a

sky-blue wrap and sitting on a seat which is draped in reddish brown 1. An important painting of the hieròs gámos from the Casa del poeta tragico represents Zeus seated on a rock with a light violet robe hanging like a veil over his hair and thrown loosely round his shoulders, back, and legs 2. Again, a picture of Zeus drawing lots has him enthroned with a peacock a blue himátion about his knees 3. The splendid wall-painting of a youthful fair-haired Zeus found in the Casa dei Vettii similarly shows the god with a peacock-blue himátion round his legs 4. Other Pompeian examples portray him seated, his legs wrapped in a red mantle with a blue 5 or green 6 border. A painting from Herculaneum gives him a whitish nimbus and drapes him from the waist downwards in a reddish himátion; but it is to be observed that here Zeus is represented as reclining among the clouds with a rainbow arched above him and a background of blue sky 7. Finally, in a fresco of the Hadrianic age, found at Eleusis, he is once more seen on a throne, his legs swathed in a violet-blue himátion edged with green 8.

It would seem, then, that Hellenistic art normally depicted Zeus as wearing a mantle of violet-blue. And this in all probability corresponded with cult-practice. Alexander the Great is known to have worn a purple cloak, when he masqueraded as Zeus Ámmon 9. Anaxenor, a famous musician of Magnesia on the Maiandros in the days of M. Antonius the triumvir, was clad in purple by his fellow-countrymen as priest of Zeus Sosípolis 10.

1 So Zahn Die schonsten Ornamente etc. ii pl. 54 (coloured). According to Helbig Wandgemalde etc. p. 31 no. 103, his garment is reddish and his seat covered with a blue robe.

2 Helbig op. cit. p. 33 f. no. 114, infra ch. iii § I (a) iii.

3 Sogliano op. cit. p. 19 f. no. 73, Arch. Zeit. 1868 xxvi. 35 pl. 4.

4 So A. Sogliano in the Mon. d. Linc. 1898 viii. 1163 f. fig. 11 ('le gambe coperte di mantello paonazzo'). A. Mau in the Rom. Mitth. 1896 xi. 113 had stated that the robe was red with a blue border ('in veste rpssa con margine turchino'). A fine, though uncoloured, photographic reploduction is given by Herrmann Denkm. d. Malerei pl. 46, 2. See further J. Six in theJahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch. Inst. 1910 xxv. 155.

5 Sogliano op. cit. p. III no. 75.

6 Id. ib. p. 110 no. 74.

7 Helbig op. cit. p. 311 f. no. 113. H. Roux-M. L. Barre Herculanum et Pompei Paris 1870 ii. 184 f. pl. 54, Guida del Mus. Napoli p. 289 no. 1259.'

8 [Eph Arch]. 1888 pl. 5, supra p. 2 n. 2, Collignon Hist. de la Sculpt. gr. i. 528 says:

'le bas du corps couvert d'un himation bleu.'

9 Ephippos ap. Athen. 537 …

10 Strab. 648, infra p. 58 n. 6.

The Blue Mantle

58

And a Roman dedication to Iupiter Purpurio may be taken that the god wore a purple garb 1.

The first and most obvious explanation of this conventional colouring is the fact that Zeus was king of all; and, as such, would, of course wear the purple or blue of royalty. If we pursue the enquiry and ask why royal robes were blue or purple, we enter the region of conjecture. In its origin perhaps the usage was prophylactic, red (i.e. blood-colour) 2 passing into purple, and purple, into blue.

But, whatever the ultimate significance, it is probable that by Hellenistic times, if not earlier, a fresh meaning had been read into the ancient custom, the purple or blue robe of Zeus and of his earthly representative being interpreted as a symbol of the sky 3. Hence in both cases it came to be spangled with golden stars. At Elis the god Sosipolis was painted as a boy clad in a starry chlamýs 4. His name recalls the Zeus Sosípolis of Magnesia on the Maiandros 5, who is known to have had a sacred purple robe 6. It is highly probable that these two divinities were alike related to the Cretan Zeus 7. Again, Demetrios Poliorketes, who posed as Zeus 8, had a dark-tinted chlamýs inwoven with stars of gold and with the twelve signs of the zodiac 9.

1 Corp. inscr. Lat. vi no 424=Dessau Inscr. Lat. set. no. 3040 (found at Rome near

the Monte Testaccio) :

LICINIA          LICINIA          OCTAVIA

QVINTA         PVRPVRIS      SATVRNIN

(A thunderbolt)                         (Three female figures standing)              (A patera)

IOVI .              OPTIMO .       MAXIMO

PVRPVRIONI

It is commonly assumed that Iupiter Purpurio took his name from one of the three dedicants, Licinia Purpuris (Preller-Jordan Rom. Myth.3 i. 208 n. 1): it should be further assumed that the god was clad in purple.

2 See my note in the Journ. Hell. Stud. 1898 xviii p. xliv f., W. Headlam ib. 1906 xxvi. 268 ff. F. von Duhn 'Rot und Tot' in the Archiv f. Rel. 1906 ix. 1 ff.

3 This conception is illustrated with a wealth of examples from ancient, mediaeval, and modern life by Dr R. Eisler Weltenmantel und Himmelszeit Munchen 1910, to whose diligent collection of materials I am much indebted, though I cannot always agree with his conclusions.

4 Paus. 6. 25.4; cp. 6. 20. 2 ff.

5 Dittenberger Syll. inscr. Gr.2 no. 553, 48, 51 f., Head Hist. num. p. 892.

6 Anaxenor the kithara-player of Magnesia as a token of high honour was painted in the purple robe of Zeus … (Strab. 648), supra p. 57.

7 See Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 142, p. 1526 n. 6.

8 Plout. v. Demetr. 10, 42, Clem Al. protr. 4. 54. 6 p. 42, 24 ff.. Stahlin. See Folk Lore 1904 xv. 302 f.

9 Douris frag. 31 (Frag. hist. Gr. ii. 477) ap. Athen. 535 F, Plout. v. Demetr. 41.

The Blue Mantle.

59

‘Scipio, when he triumphed in 201 B.C., was dressed according to ancestral custom in a purple garment with golden stars woven into it 1’; and, as triumphing general, he would be clad in the tunica palmata, and the toga picta of Iupiter 2. Nero after his Greek agonistic successes entered Rome in the triumphal car of Augustus, wearing a purple robe and a chlamýs sprinkled with golden stars 8. These are but a few out of many, who in their day as victorious kings or kingly victors, aped the style and claimed the honours of the sky-god. Martianus Capella in his high-flown way tells how Iupiter himself, when assuming his robes of state, 'over a garment of glittering white drew a glassy vesture, which, dotted here and there with starry eyes, shone with quick quivering fires 4.'

In this connexion we may notice a representation of the sky, which appears repeatedly in Roman art 5, but has been traced back to a Hellenistic source 6. The half-length figure of a bearded man is seen holding a mantle arched above his head. E.Q. Visconti 7, proposed to name him 'le Ciel,' i.e. Caelus, the Latin rendering of the Greek Ouranós; and this proposal has been universally adopted, for the mantle-bearer, though never accompanied by an inscription, clearly symbolises the sky. He is, as Prof. von Duhn observes, a Zeus-like figure 8. Indeed, the Roman writers from Ennius downwards make Caelus first the grandfather and then the father of Iupiter 9. Nay more, oriental, especially Syrian 10, worshippers identified him with Iupiter himself 11.

1 Appian. Pun. 66.

2 Liv. 10. 7. 10, Suet. Aug. 94, Iuv. 10. 38 f., Ael. Lamprid. Alexander Severus 40. 8, Iul. Capitol. Gordiani tres 4, 4, Vopisc: Probus 7. 7. 4 f. Serv. in Verg. ecl. 10. 27. See further Frazer Lect. Hist. Kingship p. 197 ff.

3 Suet. Ner. 25. Dian Cass. 63. 20 calls it … which as J. E. B. Mayor on Iuv. 10. 38 points out - is the phrase used by Plout. v. Aem. Paul. 34 of the triumphal robe.

4 Mart Cap. 6. dehinc vesti admodum candidae obducit amictus hyalinos, quos stellantibus oculis interstinctos crebri vibratus ignium luminabant.

5 O. Jahn Archaologische Beitrage Berlin 1847 p. 85 n 28 and in the. Ber. sachs, Gesellsch d. Wiss. 1849 p. 63 ff., Matz-Duhn Ant. Bildw in Rom, ii. 185 no. 2711, 429 f. no. 3315 f., 445 ff. no. 3341, iii. 4 f. no. 3449, R. von Schneider in the Arch. ep. Mitth. 1895 xviii. 185 f.

8 H. Dressel Funj Goldmedaillons aus dem Funde von Abukir Berlin 1906 pp 25-31; (extr. from the Abh. d. berl. Akad. 1906) makes it highly probable that the superb portrait of Alexander the Great on the obverse of a gold medallion found in Egypt (ib. p. 9 f. pl. 2, C), though executed in the third century A.D., reproduces with fidelity a cameo of the Hellenistic age. If so, then, as Eisler op. cit. i. 65 points out, the sky-god in the centre of Alexander's shield is our earliest monumental evidence of the-type.

7 Visconti Mus. Pie-Clem. iv. 159 f.­

8 Matz-Duhn op. cit. iii. 5.

9 G. Wissowa in Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. iii. 1276 f.

10 E. Cumont in Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. i. 696 f.

11 Corp. inscr. Lat. vi no. 81 =Dessau Inscr. Lat. sel. no. 3949 OPTVMVS . MAXIMVS . CAELVS . AETERNVS . IYP[pi]TER . IVNONI . REGINAE . MINERVAE . IVSSVS . LIBEN[S] DEDIT . PRO . SALVTEM . SVAM . M . MODIVS . AGATHO . ET . PR[O] FAVSTI . PATRONI . HOMINIS . [S]ET . HELPIDIS . SVAES . CVM . S[uis]. Dessau, however, reads optumus maximus .. Caelus aeternus, Iupp[i]ter, and thinks that optumus maximus was a later addition intended to be taken with Iuppiter. He interprets [s] as s[ancti?]. See further Cumont Textes et mons. de Mithra ii. 104, 233, ff.

The Blue Mantle

60

Hence his type affected that of Iupiter, who on the column of Trajan appears as a half-length figure with arched mantle launching a thunderbolt against the Dacians (fig. 34) 1 - a design destined to influence both Raphael 2 and Michelangelo 3.

By a curious, duplication, not to say triplication, Caelus with his mantle spread above him is seen immediately beneath the throne of Iupiter ona sarcophagus at Amalfi (fig. 35) 4, and on another in the Villa Medici at Rome 5. This conception too was taken over by Christian art 6. The famous sarcophagus of Iunius Bassus, a prefect of Rome who died in 359 A.D., shows the same personification of the sky supporting, not Jupiter with a thunder­bolt enthroned, between Juno and Minerva or between Sol and Luna, but Christ with a roll enthroned between Saint Peter and Saint Paul (fig.36) 7. Another fourth-century sarcophagus in the

1 C. Cichorius Die Reliefs der Traianssaule Berlin 1896 ii. 116 f. pl. 19.

2 A. P. Oppe Raphael. London 1909 pl. 174; 2 ‘The third day’ and pl. 182, 1 'God appearing to Isaac' in the Loggia of the Vatican.

3 G. S. Davies Michelangelo London 1909 pl. 36 'The separation of land and sea'

and pl. 37 'The creation of Adam' in the Sistine Chapel at Rome.

4 M. Camera Istoria della citta e costiera di Amalfi Napoli 1836 p. 40 ft. pl. 3 (poor), E. Gerhard Antike Bildwerke Munchen Stuttgard & Tubingen 1828-1844 p. 371 pl. 118 (Caelus with a rayed crown rises from the sea, adjoining which is the figure of Mother Earth.)

5 O. Jahn in the Ber. sachs. Gesellsch. d. Wiss. 1849 Phil.-hist: Classe pl. 4 Wien. Vorlegebl. A pl. 11, 3, Robert Sark.-Relfs. ii. 13 ff. pl. 5. 11 and 1 ff, Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 1625 f. figs. 10 and 10a.­

6 See O. Jahn Archaologische Beitrage Berlin 1847 p. 85 n. 28 and F. Piper Mythologie der christlichen Kunst Weimar 1851 ii. 44 ff.

7 The sarcophagus stands now in the crypt of the Vatican and in such a position that it cannot be well photographed. Illustrations of the whole front side are given e.g. by A. Bosio Roma Sotterranea Roma 1632 p. 45 (good), G. Bottari Sculpture e pitture sagre Rama 1731 i. 35 ff. pl. 15 (fair), E. Pistolesi Il Vaticano aescritto ed illustrato Roma 1829 - 1838 ii pl. 19, E. Guhl und J. Caspar Denkmuler der Kunst etc. Stuttgart 1851 ii. 56 f. pl. 36, 8, W. Lowlie Christian Art and Archeology New York 1901 p. 262 fig. 100, K. Woermann Geschichte der Kunst Leipzig and Vienna 1905 ii. 58 pl. 10, and of the central group in the upper register by F Munter Sinnbilder und Kunstvorstellungen fur Alten Christen Altona 1825 ii. 85, A. N. Didron Iconographie chretienne Paris 1843.

61

Fig. 35. Fig. 36.

The Blue Mantle

62

Lateran Museum repeats the type 1 which was probably a stock pattern. A last trace of it may be detected in a painting at Lucca by Fra Bartolommeo. God the Father, enthroned in heaven, uplifts his right hand in blessing and holds in his left, an open book inscribed A ω. Beneath his feet is a small cherub over­arched by drapery 2.

That such drapery really represents the sky may be proved by the fact that on a coin commemorating the consecratio or apotheosis of the elder Faustina (fig. 37) 3 the empress, carried up to heaven by the eagle of Iupiter, has the same wind-blown mantle spangled with stars. Again, the drapery held by Caelus in a relief at Berlin (fig. 38) 4 is not merely an arc, but almost a complete circle enclosing other concentric circles - an obvious symbol of the sky.

Fig. 37. Fig. 38.

1 W. Lowrie op. cit. p. 266 f. fig. 102.

2 S. Reinach. Repertoire de peintures du moyen age et de la renaissance Paris 1905 i. 606, 1.

3 Cohen Monn. emp. rom.2 ii. 427 no. 185 fig. My illustration is from a cast of a specimen in the British Museum.

4 Ant Skulpt. Berlin, p. 364 f. no 900, a fragmentary relief of white Italian marble. The subject is uncertain: two female figures approach Iupiter, and one of them clasps his knees (in supplication?); the god is seated on the top of a square pillar, Caelus appearing below his footstool.

Wolf-god or Light-god?

3. Zeus Lykaios.

(a) Wolf-god or Light-god?

63

On the summit of Mount Lykaion in Arkadia was a far-famed cult of Zeus Lýkaios. Tradition said that Lýkaios, son of Pelasgos, had founded the town of Lykósoura high up on the slopes of the mountain, had given to Zeus the surname of Lýkaios, and had­

instituted the festival called Lýkaia 1. On the significance of this group of names scholars are by no means agreed. Some take them to be pre-Greek or non-Greek 2. Thus Fick maintains that they represent a Hittite tribe to be identified with the Lycaonians and Lycians of Asia Minor 3, while Berard argues, for a Phoenician cult comparable with that of Baal 4. Most critics, noting the essentially Greek aspect, of the names in question are content to seek an explanation in the language of Greece. But even here opinions are divided. Some, starting from the undeniable fact that the wolf (lýkos), plays a part in the local myths 5, hold that Zeus Lýkaios, was in some sense a 'Wolf-god 6.' This view, however, is open to a grave, objection.

1 Paus. 8. 11. 1, Aristot. frag. 594 Rose ap. schol. Aristeid. p. 323, 12 f. Dindorf, schol. Eur. Or. 1647, mann. Par. ep. 17 p. 8 Jacoby, Plin. nat. hist. 7. 205.

2 P. Weizsacker in Roscher Lex Myth. ii. 2173.

3 A. Fick Vorgriechische Ortsnamen Gottingen 1905 pp. 92, 132.

4 V. Bérard De l'Origine des cultes arcadiens (Bibliotheque des écoles francaise d'Athenes et de Rome Paris 1894 lxvii) pp. 48-93. Cp. also J. A. Hartung Die Religion und Mythologie der Griechen Leipzig 1865-1866 iii. 6, 76 ff., W. Mannhardt 'Wald- und Feldkulte2 Berlin 1904-1905 ii. 342, 346.

5 Infra pp. 70 ff., 71 ff.

6 F. Creuzer Symbolik und Mythologie 3 Leipzig and Dalmstadt 1841 iii. 76f. [Lykaios=Lykoergos], Lupercus, 'Protector against the Wolf.' J. A. Hartung op. cit. iii. 6, 117 n. 45 [Lykaios] 'Wolf-god,' the wolf ([Lykos] connected with [lyssa]) denoting fierceness. O. Jahn, 'Uber Lykoreus' in the Ber. sachs. Gesellsch. d. Wiss. 1847 Phil.-hist. Class. p. 423 drew a parallel between Zeus [Lykaios] of Mt. Lykaion and Zeus [Lykoreios] of Mt. Parnassos (Steph. Byz. s.v. …), pointing out that in the myths of both localities the 'wolf' symbolises the exiled founder of the cult. W. Immerwahr Kult. Myth. Arkad. i. 2I ff. and W. H. Roscher in theJahrb. f. class. Philol. 1892 xxxviii. 705 follow O. Jahn. O. Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p: 805 likewise takes Zeus [Lykaios] to be Zeus god of 'wolves' i.e. exiles (ib. p. 918 n. 7). H. D. Muller Ueber den Zeus Lykaios Gottingen 1851 p. 13 ff. and in his Mythologie der griechischen Stamme Gottingen 1857-1861, ii. 78 ff. [Lykaios], 'Wolf-god,' the wolf being a symbol of his chthonian character (ib. p. 93f.). V. Jurgiewicz. De Jove Lycaeo, Odessae 1859 pp. 1-32 reaches the same conclusions as H. D. Muller, adding Slavonic and Germanic parallels (ib. p. 19 ff.). Others with more circumspection abandon the slippery path of symbolism. W. Mannhardt Wald- und Feldkult ii. 336 ff. explains the [Lykaia] as a solstice-­festival involving a processIon of 'Harvest-wolves' (cp. the Hirpi Sorani). W. Robertson Smith in The Encyclopadia Britannica 9 Edinburgh 1886 xxi. 136 s.v. 'Sacrifice,' Lectures on the Religion of the Semites 2 London 1907 p. 366 n. 5, regards Zeus [Lykaios] as the god of a totemic Wolf-clan. L. R. Farnell Cults of Gk. States i. 41 is disposed to accept his theory. J. G. Frazer on Paus. 8. 38. 7 (iv. 386) says: 'The connexion of Lycaean Zeus with wolves is too firmly established to allow us seriously to doubt. that he is the wolf­-god.' C. W. Vollgraff De Ovidi mythopoeia Berolini 1901 pp. 5-36 holds that the ritual of Zeus [Lykaios] and the myth of [Lykaon] presuppose the Arcadian cult of a sacred wolf, to which human victims were offered.

64­

Wolf-god or Light-god?

The word Lýkaios cannot be derived from lýkos: it must be an adjective formed from a sub­stantive lýke 1. But there is in Greek no such word as lýke, 'wolf'; and, if there were, it would mean a she-wolf 2: whereas the myths of Mount Lýkaion mention none but he-wolves. Far more probable is the theory of those who understand Lýkaios as 'god of Light 3.' The word lýke is quoted by Macrobius as an old Greek word for 'day-break 4,' and its compound amphi-lýke is used in the Iliad of twilight 5.'

1 Adjectives in [-aios] naturally derive flom a- stems. The only exceptions are words like …which have been formed on the analogy of …etc. and so go back to locatives in [-ai] (K. Brugmann Griechische Grammatik 3 Munchen 1900 p. 181: see also F. Bechtel in Collitz-Bechtel Gr. Dial.-Inschr. iii. 2. 507 no. 5295 and O. Hoffmann Die Makedonen Gottingen 1906 p. 173 f.). But [Lykaios], even if we write it as …can hardly be thus explained as a locatival formation.

2 'A she-wolf' is regularly …never …See W. Pape Etymologisches Worterbueh der griechischen Sprackh, zur Ubersicht der Wortbildung nach den Endsylben Berlin 1836 p. 36. Lyk. Al. 481 …is criticized as a gross blunder by Tzetzes ad loc. …

3 C. O. Muller The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race trans. H. Tufuell and G. C. Lewis Oxford, 1830 i. 326 ff., id. Prolegomena zu einer wissenschaftlichen Mythologie Gottingen 1825 p. 290 f. J. F. Lauer System der griechischen Mythologie Berlin 1853 p. 150 ff:, Gerhard Gr. Myth. p. 161 f., K. Schwenck Die Mythologie der Griechen Frankfurt a/M. 1843 p. 19 id. in the RHein. Mus. 1839 vi. 541 C., Welcker Gr. Gotterl. i. 210, L.-F. A. Maury Histoire des Religions de la Grece antique Paris 1857-1859 i. 58 ff., L. Preller in Pauly Real-Enc. iv. 589, P. Welzel De Iove et Pane dis, Arcadicis Vratislaviae 1879 pp. 4, 22 ('luce enim clarius est Iove … eundem esse ac Dies ­pitrem et …eundem ac Lucetium' cp. Macrob. Sat. 1. 15. 14), Preller-Robert Gr. Myth. i. 127. E. Meyer Forschungen zur alien Geschichte Halle 1892 i. 61 (followed by C. Albers De diis in locis editis cultis apud Graecos Zutphaniae 1901 p. 33 f.) argues that 'ein in Wolfsgestalt verehrter Gott zum Lichtgott, Zeus geworden ist,' but that the names... etc. 'sind Ableitungen von dem verschollenen nomen ...und haben mit...nichts zu thun.' The latest and most efficient champion of the 'light'-theory is H. Usener Gotternamen Bonn 1896 pp. 177 -216, who holds that … was an ancient god of light 'replaced by Zeus ..and Apollon …

4 Macrob. Sat. I. 17. 37 ff. prisci Graecorum primam lucem, quae praecedit solis exortus, … appellaverunt &c….id temporis hodieque …cognominant. Etc.

5 Il. 7. 433 …with schol. …and Eustath. in Il. p. 689, 15 ff. …adding derivations from …'darkness' and …'a wolf-skin' as also ib. p. 809, 40 ff.

Wolf-god or Light-god?'

65

They belong to a well-known family of words with numerous relatives in both Greek and Latin 1. Indeed, our word 'light' is of kindred origin.

But etymology, unless supported by ritual and myth, can afford no certain clue to the nature of an ancient deity. Fortunately in the present case that support is forthcoming. Zeus Lýkaios was sometimes at least conceived as a sky-god, for his' priest acted as rain-maker to the district 2. Again, Achaios the tragedian, a younger contemporary of Sophokles, appears to have spoken of Zeus Lýkaios as 'starry-eyed' (astérǒpos) 3. An epithet of similar formation and of the same meaning (asterōpós) is used by Euri­pides of the aithér or 'burning sky' in connexion with Zeus 4. This suggests that Zeus Lýkaios was a god of the aithér. Indeed, Creuzer long since pointed out that Zeus Lýkaios is none other than the Arcadian Zeus 5, whom Cicero and Ampelius describe as the son of Aether 6. H. U sener further observes that, just as a Boeotian myth makes Lykos succeed his brother Nykteus on the throne 7, so the Arcadian myth makes Lykaon succeeded by his son Nyktimos, the inference being that both pairs of names denote the alternation of 'daylight' (lyk-) and 'darkness' (nykt-) 8, If Zeus Lýkaios was thus a god of daylight, certain statements made by Pausanias à propos of his cult gain a fresh significance. Lykósoura founded by Lykáon was 'the first city that ever the sun beheld 9.'

1 Prellwitz Etym. Worterb. d. Gr. Spr. pp. 266, 275 cites for the stronger form of the root the Latin lux, luceo, luna, for the weaker, the Greek [amphilyki, lykabas] 'year' (lit: 'light-circuit' : Fick in the Gott. Gel. Anz. 1894 clvi. 240 cp. Hesych. …'twi-light,'… 'lamp,' etc. See further L. Meyer Handb. d. gr. Etym, iv. 519 ff. who adds …'twi-light,' and Walde Lat. etym. Worterb. s.v. luceo p. 349 f. who connects … 'white marble' with the same group of words.

2 Infra p. 76.

3 Achaios Azanes frag. 2 Nauck 2 ap. schol. Eur. … (MSS. … cp. F. G. We1cker Die Griechischen Tragodien Bonn 1841 iii. 963 Arcad. p.67, 13 Barker vouches for the accent … the analogy of… 'bright-eyed,' suggests …

4 W. H. Roscher in the Jahrb. f. Class. Philol. 1892 xxxviii, 705 supposes that … denotes' the god of lightning'…

4 Eur. Ion 1078 f. … Cp. Kritias Sisyphus frag. 1, 33 Nauck 2 ap. Plout. de plat. philos. 1.6 and Sext. adv. math. 9, 54 …

5 F. Creuzer Symbolik und Mythologie 3 Leipzig and Darmstadt 1841 iii. 74 f.

6 Cic. de nat. deor. 3. 53, Ampel. 9. Cp. supra p. 27 n. 3.

71nfra ch. i § 7 (d).

8 H. Usener Gotternamen p. 199. The myths are collected and analysed in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 2169 ff., 2183 ff., iii. 492 ff., 498 f. W. H. Roscher Selene und Verwandtes Leipzig 1890 p. 140 ff. regards Nykteus and Lykos as personifications of the Evening and the Morning-star: he is followed by Worner in the Lex. Myth. iii. 496 f.

9 Paus. 8. 38. 1.

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Wolf-god or Light-god?

On the very top of Mount Lýkaion was a mound of earth, known as the altar of Zeus Lýkaios, from which the greater part of the Peloponnese was visible: before the altar stood two columns bearing gilded eagles and 'facing the sun-rise l.' Finally, Pausanias says: 'Of the wonderful things to be seen on Mount Lýkaion the most wonderful is this. There is a precinct of Zeus Lýkaios on the mountain, and no man is allowed to enter it. Should anyone disregard the rule and enter, he cannot possibly live longer than a year. It was said too that within the precinct all things, both beasts and men, alike cast no shadow. Consequently, when a beast takes refuge in the precinct, the hunter will not break in along with it, but waits outside and looking at the beast sees no shadow cast by it. Now at Syene on the frontier of Aithiopia, so long as the sun is in the sign of Cancer, shadows are cast neither by trees nor by animals; but in the precinct on Mount Lýkaion there is the same lack of shadows at all times and seasons 2.' This marvel, which is attested by other grave and respectable authors 3, though sceptics were not wanting 4, probably hangs together with the Py­thagorean belief that 'the souls of the dead cast no shadow and do not wink 5.' The shadowless creature would on this showing be the man or beast already devoted to death. Dr Frazer, com­menting on the passage quoted above from Pausanias, writes: 'Untutored people often regard the shadow as a vital part of a man and its loss as fatal. This belief is still current in Greece.

It is thought that to give stability to a new building the life of an animal or a man is necessary. Hence an animal is killed and its blood allowed to flow on the foundation stone, or the builder secretly measures a man's shadow and buries the measure under the foundation stone, or the foundation stone is laid upon a man's shadow.

1 Paus. 8. 38. 7. cp. Pind. Ol. 13. 152 ff. with schol. ad loc. and ad Nem. 10. 87, Polyb. 4. 33. 2, and infra p. 83 f. L.-F. A. Maury Religions de la Grece i. 59, following K. O. Muller Prolegomena zu einer wissenschaftlichen Mythologie Gottingen 1825 p. 290 f. and W. Baumlein in the Zeitschrift fur die Alterthumswissensckaft 1839 vi. 1193. in­ferred that Zeus [Lykaios] was a solar god. But K. Schwenck in the Rhein. Mus. 1839 vi. 541 f. already urged that he was a light-god rather than a sun-god.

2 Paus. 8. 38. 6..

3 Theopompos ap. Polyb. 16. 12. 7 quoted below, schol. Kallim. h. Zeus 13 … (sc. to the birth-place of Zeus on the mountain in Parrhasia) …

4 Polyb. 16. 12. 7, Plout. Quaestt. Gr. 39.

5. Plout. ib. On shadowless ghosts see J. von Negelein in the Archiv f. Rel. 1902 v. 18 ff.

Wolf-god or Light-god?

67

It is supposed that the man will die within a year - ­obviously because his shadow is believed to be buried under the building 1.' Trespassers on the precinct of Zeus Lýkaios not only lost their shadows, but were actually put to death 2. Plutarch states that such persons were called 'deer' (élaphoi) 3, that if they had entered the precinct voluntarily they were stoned to death, and that if they had entered it through ignorance they were sent away to Eleutherai 4. But, if the ultimate explanation of the shadowless precinct on Mount Lýkaion lies in the connexion once thought to exist between shadow and soul, it by no means follows that this was the explanation given by Greeks of the classical period. They may well have forgotten the real meaning of a belief to which they still clung and have attributed it to some irrelevant cause. That is what in point of fact they did; Polybios the historian, who as a native of Megalopolis would take a personal interest in matters Arcadian, writes as follows anent certain Carian superstitions: 'It appears to me that such tales are only fit to amuse children, when they transgress not merely the limits of probability but those of possibility as well. For instance, to assert that some bodies when placed in light cast no shadow argues a state of extreme obtuseness. Yet Theopompos has done this; for he declares that those who enter the holy precinct of Zeus in Arkadia cast no shadow, which is on a par with the, statements that I mentioned just now 5.' Theopompos, then, the historian of Chios, explained the miracle of Mount Lýkaion by saying that beasts and men on the summit cast no shadow because they were there 'placed in light 6.' This can only mean that a divine light encircled the mountain-top and made all shadows impossible.

1 J. G. Frazer on Paus. 8. 38. 6 (iv. 384) citing B. SchmIdt Das Volksleben der Neugriechen Leipzig 1871 i. 196 f. See also infra ch. i §6 (g) vi. The way for this explanation was prepared by Plout. loc. cit. F. G. Welcker Kleine Schriften Bonn.

1850 iii. 161, E. L. Rochholz Deutscher Glaube und.Brauch im Spiegel der heidnischen Vorzeit Berlin 1867 i. 119, H. D. Muller Mythologie der griechischen Stamme Gottingen 1869 ii. 96 f. On the identification of soul with shadow. see further E. B. Tylor Primitive Culture London 1891 i. 430 f., cp. 85 f., W. Wundt Volkerpsychologie Leipzig 1906 ii. 2. 40 ff., 84 ff.).

2 Pseudo-Eratosth. catast. 1, schol. Arat. Phaen. 91, schol. Caes. Germ. Aratea p. 381, 16 ff. Eyssenhardt, Hyg. poet. astr. 2. 1, 2. 4.

3 They may have been dressed as deer before being chased or killed. To the examples of human … that I collected in the Journ. Hell. Stud. 1894 xiv. 133 ff. should be added the stag-mummers of Syracuse (schol. Theokr. …p. 5. 7 ff. Ahrens) and the man disguised as a stag, slain and eaten, in an epic fragment dealing with Dionysos (F. G. Kenyon in H. van Herwerden's Album Gratulatorium Trajecti ad Rhenum 1902 p. 137 ff. and A. Ludwich in the Berl. Philol. Work. Jan. 3, 1903 p. 27 ff.).

4 Plout. quaestio Gr. 39.

5 Polyb. 16. 12. 6 ff..

6 Id. 16. 12. 7 …

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Wolf-god or Light -god?

Mount Lýkaion, in fact, resembled Olympos as described in the Odyssey 1, and was itself caned Olympos. Pausanias says: 'They speak of it also as Olympos, while others of the Arcadians name it the Sacred Peak 2.' This Olympic glory, though not, as Theopompos' presumably held and as Roscher 8 certainly holds, the true explanation of the shadowless precinct, would be in thorough keeping with the character of Zeus Mount Lýkaios, in fact, resembled as a god of light.

(b) Peloponnesian coin-types of Zeus Lýkaios.

It is almost certainly Zeus Lýkaios whose figure appears on the federal silver coinage of Arkadia throughout the greater part of the fifth century B.C. 4 These coins bear on their reverse side the legend Arkadikon, more or less abbreviated, and appear to have been struck by the Heraeans as presidents of the national Arcadian games held on Mount Lýkaion 5. Early specimens show Zeus seated on a throne with a himátion wrapped about his waist: he holds a sceptre in one hand, and over the other flies an eagle (figs. 39, 40) 6. On later specimens the back of the throne terminates in a swan's neck (figs. 41, 42) 7, and the eagle occasionally flies to­wards Zeus (fig. 43) 8. Sometimes a thunderbolt is held on the lap of the god (figs. 43, 44) 9.

1 Od. 6. 41 ff. Eustath. in Od. p. 1550, 63 …

2 Paus. 8. 38. 2. An Arcadian Olympos is mentioned by schol. Ap. Rhod. 1. 598, cp. Servo in Verg. Aen. 8. 352. Hyg.fab. 225 p. 132f. Schmidt. Roscher (Jahrb. f. Class Philol. 1892 xxxviii. 706) and Mackrodt (Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 848, 24 f.) understand Apollod. 2. 5. 8 … of Mount Ljkaion, cp. Pedias. 21.

3 W. H. Roscher Die Schattenlosigkeit des Zeus-abatons auf dem Lykaion in the Jahrb. F. class. Philol. 1892 xxxviii. 701-709.

4 Head Hist. num.2 p. 447 f., Babelon Monn. gr. rom. ii. 1. 843 ff. pl. 38, 8-18, Brit, Mus Cat. Coins Peloponnesus p. 169 ff. pl. 31, 11-24, pl. 32. 1-9, Gardner Types of Coins pl. 3, 15, 16, 43, Overbeck Gr. Kuntstmyth. Zeus pp, 26 f., 155, Munztaf. 2, 1-3. Cp. infra p. 90.

5 This was first shown by Imhoof-Blumer Monn. gr. p. 196.

6 Babelon Monn. gr. rom. ii. 1. 843 ff. pl. 38, 8, 9, 12, Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Peloponnesus p. 169 f. pl. 31, 11-15, P. Gardner Types of Gk. Coins pl. 3, 43. I figure two specimens from my collection.

7 Fig. 41 is from a specimen in the British Museum, fig. 42 from another in my collection.

8 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Peloponnesus p. 171 f. pl. 31, 23 (fig. 43), pl. 32; 3, Imhoof-Blumer Choix de monn. gr. (1871) pl. 2, 76, iii. in the Zeitschr. f. Num. 1876 iii. 291 pl. 7, 3 and 4, Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus Munztaf. 2, 2 a.

9 Babelon Monn. gr. rom. ii. I. 845 ff. pl. 38, 13 describes a specimen in the Luynes collection on which Zeus holds corn-ears (fig. 44). I take the object in his right hand to be a thunderbolt, as did F. Imhoof-Blumer in the Zeitschr. f. Num. 1876 iii.-290 pl. 7, 2.

Peloponnesian coin-types of Zeus Lýkaios

69

Sometimes, but rarely, he is repre­sented as standing with himátion, sceptre and eagle (fig. 45) 1. After the victory of Epameinondas at Leuktra in 371 B.C. the Arcadian League was reconstituted and issued coins with the types of Zeus Lýkaios and Pan Lýkaios 2. The obverse design of the silver statér (fig. 46) is a magnificent head of Zeus wearing a bay-wreath: the reverse (figs. 47, 48) is Pan seated on a rock, over which he has spread his Cloak; he is human except for his horns and holds in his right hand a throwing-stick (lagobólon), while a pipe (sŷrinx) lies, at his feet. The rock is inscribed Oly- … or Olym­… 3, and in one die (fig. 49) Chari- … 4. There can be no doubt that the laureate head is that of Zeus Ljkaios.

Fig. 39. Fig. 40. Fig. 41. Fig. 42. Fig. 43. Fig. 44. Fig. 45.

Fig. 46. Fig. 47. Fig. 48. Fig. 49.

1 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Peloponnesus p. 169 pl. 31, 10 (fig. 45), Babelon Monn. gr. Rom. ii. 1. 849 f. pl. 38, 18. F. Imhoof-Blumer publishes a similar specimen in his Choix de monn. gr. 1871 pl. 2, 79 and in the Zeitschr. f. Num. 1876 iii. 292 pl. 7, 7.

2 On Pan [Lýkaios] see Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 2168, 30 ff., iii. 1350 f.

3 Head Hist. num. 2 pp. 444 f., 450, Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Peloponnesus pp. lix, 173 pl. 32, 10, P. Gardmir Types of Gk. Coins pl. 8, 32 and 37, Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth; Zeus pp. 93, 105 f., G. F. Hill Historical Greek Coins London 1906 p.72 f., pl. 5. 37; Figs. 46-47 and fig. 48 are 'drawn from two specimens in the British Museum.'

4 F. Imhoof-Blumer in the Zeitschr. f. Num. 1874 i. 128 n. 3, ib. 1876 iii: 288 f. pl. 7. 1 (in the Hague collection), cp; ib. 1875 ii 6. 139 ff., 246 ff., and in the Num. Zeitschr. 1884 xvi. 264 Pl. 5, 7 (at Klagenfurt, from the same die). I figure the latter specimen.

70

Peloponnesian coin-types of Zeus Lýkaios

It used to be commonly supposed that the rock inscribed Oly-, or Olym-, was the Arcadian Olympos, i.e. Mount Lykaion. Prof. Brunn alone maintained that the inscription was the signature of the die-­engraver 1. Since the publication of the specimens reading Chari-, Brunn's view has met with almost universal acceptance 2. Recently, however, Dr Head has suggested that Olym- and Chari- may be abbreviated names of festivals for which the coins were issued 3. Still, the old view is not definitely disproved. It remains possible that the name of the mountain, placed on the coin for purposes of identification 4, was afterwards replaced by the name of a self­-satisfied engraver.

(c) Human sacrifice to Zeus Lykáios.

Across the brightness of Mount Lykaion we have already seen one cloudlet pass. Such was its awful sanctity that the wilful intruder upon the holy ground was doomed to die, while even the unintentional trespasser must needs be banished. But those who knew more intimately the ritual of the mountain-top were aware that a gloom far deeper than this habitually hung about it. There is indeed a persistent rumour of human sacrifice in connexion with the cult. For the said ghastly tradition Platon is at once our earliest and our most explicit authority. Sokrates in the Republic remarks that at the sanctuary of Zeus Lykáios he who tasted the one human entrail, which was cut up and mixed with the entrails of other victims, was believed to become a wolf 5. The author of the Platonic Minos implies that human sacrifice occurred on Mount Lykáion 6; Theophrastos - as quoted by Porphyrios and Eusebios - ­states that it was offered at the festival of the Lykaia 7.

1 H. Bronn Geschichte der griechischen Kunstler Stuttgart 1859 ii. 437.

2 E.g. F. Imhoof-Blumer loc. cit., Head Hist. num. p. 373.

3 Head Hist. num.2 p. 445 cp. …on coins of Elis, and suggests the 104^th Olympiad celebrated by the Arcadians in 364 B.C. He interprets [XAPI] of the Charisia or Charitesia, festivals of the Charites, and notes that Charisios was the founder of Charisiai in Arkadia (Paus. 8. 3, 4).

4 Cp. … on a coin of Ephesos figured infra ch. i§ 5(b). It should also be noticed that the reverse-type of a unique tetradrachm of Messana, now at Berlin, shows a similar figure of Pan, with his lagobólon and a hare (symbol of the city): the god is seated on a rock, over which he has thrown his fawn-skin, and by him is the inscription [PAN] (G. F.HiIl Coins of Ancient Sicily London 1903 p. 13 ff. pl. 8, 15). If [PAN] describes Pan, presumably [OLYM] may describe Olympos.

5 Plat. rep: 565 D, cp. Polyb. 7. 13. 7, Isid. Grigg. 8. 9. 5.

6 Plat. Min. 315 C.

7 Theophr. ap. Porphyr. de abst. 2. 27 and Euseb. praep. ev. 4. 16. 10. But see infra p. 76 n. 3.

Human sacrifice to Zeus Lýkaios

71

Pausanias veils the ugly fact by a decent circumlocution: 'On this altar they offer secret sacrifices to Lycaean Zeus, but I did not care to pry into the details of the sacrifice. Be it as it is and has been from the beginning 1.'

The concurrent testimony of these writers may be held to prove that Zeus Lýkaios was indeed served with human flesh, but it hardly enables us to determine how long this hideous custom survived. Theophrastos, who succeeded Aristoteles as head of the Peripatetic school in 322 B.C., says - 'up to the present time'; and he is in general a trustworthy witness. But whether we can infer from the guarded language of Pausanias that five centuries later, in the reign of the refined and philo­sophical Marcus Aurelius, the same gruesome rite was still kept up seems to me at least very questibnable 2. It would of course be talked about for many generations after it had been as an actual practice mitigated, superseded, or simply discontinued.

We should like to know more of the cannibal who was turned into a wolf. And here fortunately further evidence is forthcoming. We have in fact three parallel accounts, which deserve to be studied side by side. They unfold a most remarkable sequel:

PLINY nat. hist. 8. 81-82.

'Euanthes, who holds a high place among the authors of Greece, reports the following tradition as derived from Arcadian writings. A man belong­ing to a clan descended from a certain Anthos is chosen by lot and led to a particular pool in that locality. Here he hangs his clothes on an oak-tree, swims across, and goes off into desert places, where he is transformed into a wolf and for nine years associates with other wolves of the same sort. If during this time he has abstained from attacking men, he returns to the same pool and, having swum across it, gets back his shape look­ing nine years older than before. The story adds that he resumes the same clothing. The lengths to which Greek credulity will run are really amazing. Any falsehood, however outrageous, has its due attestation. Again, Skopas, Writer of a work on Olympic Victors, relates that De­mainetos the Parrhasian at a human sacrifice, which the Arcadians were even in his day making to Zeus Lýkaios, tasted the entrails of the boy that had been immolated and thereupon turned into a wolf; but that in the tenth year he was restored to athletics, came back, and won a victory in the boxing-match at Olympia.'

SAINT AUGUSTINE de civ. Dei 18. 17.

'To prove this, Varro narrates other equally incredible tales - that of the notorious magician Kirke, who likewise changed the comrades of Odysseus into ani­mals, and that of the Arcadians, who were taken by lot, went across a particular pool, 'and there turning into wolves lived with beasts like themselves in the desert places of that locality. But, if they did not feed on human flesh, then after nine years had gone by they swam once more across the same pool and were transformed into men again. In conclusion he has actually mentioned by name a certain De­mainetos, asserting that he, having tasted the sacrifice of an immo­lated boy, which the Arcadians were wont to make to their god Lýkaios, was thereupon changed into a wolf; and that in the tenth year he was restored to his own form, practised boxing, and won in a match at Olympia.'

PAUSANIAS 6.8.2.

As to a certain boxer named Damarchos, if Parrhasian of Arkadia by race, I was not pre­pared to believe - with the exception of his victory at Olympia - the story told by sundry braggarts. For they say that he changed from a man into a wolf at the sacrifice of Zeus Lýkaios, and that in the tenth year after­wards he became a man again.'

1 Paus. 8. 38. 7 trans. J. G. Frazer.

2 From Plin. nat. hist. 8. 82. Scopas qui Olympionicas scripsit narrat. Demaenetum Parrhasium in sacrificio, quod Arcades Iovi Lycaeo humana etiamtum hostia faciebant, immolati pueri exta degustasse etc: (infra p. 72 n. 3) E Meyer Forschungen zur alten Geschichte Halle 1892 i. 53 n. 1 infers that the human sacrifice, still kept up in the days of Demainetos, had been already abandoned when the Olympionicae was written.

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Human sacrifice to Zeus Lýkaios

Pliny and Saint Augustine are obviously drawing from the same well, viz. Varro 1. Only, whereas Pliny cites Varro's sources without Varro's name, Saint Augustine cites Varro's name without Varro's sources. The sources in question are both satisfactory for our purpose - the ascertaining of popular belief. Euanthes was an author of repute, and moreover bore a name which is known to have occurred in Arkadia 2: he professedly follows Arcadian writers. Skopas 3 was probably wrong about the victor's name;

1. Varro de gente populi Romani. frag. 17 (Hist. Rom. frag. p. 233 f. Peter).

2 Collitz-Bechtel Gr. Dial.-Inschr. i. 357 no. 1247 B3 cp. 20. C. MuIler Frag. hist. Gr. iii. 11 no. 33 would read Neanthes for Euanthes. But see Jacoby in Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. vi. 846.

3 C. Muller Frag. hist. Gr. iv. 407 suggests that Pausanias derived the story of Damarchos from Euanoridas of Elis, whose …he had just mentioned (Paus. 6. 8. 82). Muller further conjectures that in Plin. nat. hist. 8. 82 we should read itaque Euanoridas qui Olympionieas scripsit (MSS. item, or ita or itaque copas, whence Jan cp. Scopas, Schwartz in Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. i. 896 Harpocras, Gelenius' Agriopas). But again see Jacoby in Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. vi. 845, and cp. Plin. nat. hist. index to 8 Euanthe apoca or apocha (so MSS.: Scopa Jan, Agriopa Gelenius, Agrippa vulg.) qui … Immerwahr Kult. Myth. Arkad. p. 13 f. pushes Muller's speculation one stage further and proposes to identify Euanthes with Euanoridas, whom he calls 'Euanoridas-Euagriopas-Euanthes Agrippa'!

Human sacrifice to Zeus Lýkaios

73

for Pausanias read and copied the actual inscription on the man's statue-base 1. But whether the name was Demainetos or Dam­archos makes no difference to us: the story told of him is identical.

Varro's statement, as, evidenced by the foregoing extracts, is twofold. It contains on the one hand Euanthes' general account of the Arcadian custom, on the other Skopas' particular exemplification of it. Comparing the two, we at once detect a discrepancy. Both agree that a man became a wolf for a period of nine years, after which he returned to human shape. But, whereas Euanthes speaks of him as having been chosen by lot, Skopas describes him as having tasted the entrails of an im­molated boy. This discrepancy would indeed vanish altogether, if we assumed that the method of selection indicated by Platon in a passage already quoted - 'he who tasteq the one human entrail,' etc. - might be viewed as a kind of cleromancy or sortition. But it is better to suppose that the casting of lots was a later and more civilized substitute for the arbitrament of the cannibal feast.

Be that as it may, Euanthes has preserved various, details Of primitive import. He tells us that those who thus cast lots among themselves (and therefore, presumably, those who at an earlier date gathered about the banquet of human flesh) belonged to a clan descended from a certain Anthos. Now H. W. Stoll 2 and J. Topffer 3 have pointed out that the names Ánthos, Ánthas, Ánthes, Ántheos were given in sundry parts of the Greek world to mythical figures of a common type - the handsome youth who comes early to a cruel death just because he personifies the short-lived vegetation of the year 4. One of these 'Flower' - heroes, Anthas or

1 Pans 6. 8. 2. Both …(Collitz-Bechtel op. cit. i. 352 no. 1231 B 26, 38, C 42) and …(ib. i. 341 no. 1189 A minor 15, 358 no. 1246 D4) are Arcadian names.

2 H. W. Stoll in Roscher Lex Myth. i. 369 f.

3 J. Topffer in Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. i 2358.

4 Thus Anthos, son of Hippodameia and Autonoos the ruler of a neglected and therefore barren land, was attacked and eaten by his father's horses, which he had driven from their scanty pasture: he was transformed by Zeus and Apollon into the bird: [anthos], and as such still retains his hostility to horses (Ant. Lib. 7: see also D'Arcy W. Thompson A Glossary of Greek Birds Oxford 1895 p. 33). Anthos, eponym of Anthedon or Anthedonia the old name of Kalaureia, was lost as a child but found again by his brother Hyperes acting as cup-bearer to Akastos or Adrastos at Pherai (Mnasigeiton ap. Plout. quaestt. Gr. 19). Anthes, son of Poseidon and eponym of Anthana, was slain by Kleomenes, brother of Leonidas, who flayed him and wrote on his skin…(Philostephanos frag. 8, ap. Steph. Byz. s.v. … but see C. Muller's note in Frag. hist. gr. iii. 30). Antheias, son of Eumelos, was killed by falling from the car of Triptolemos (infra ch. i § 6 (d) i (β)). Antheus, son of Antenor, was a beautiful youth loved by Delphobos and Alexandros, but accidentally struck and slain by the latter (Tzetz. in Lyk. Al. 132). Antheus, a prince of Halikarnassos, served as a hostage under Phobios, ruler of Miletos: Kleoboia or Philaichme, wife of Phobios, loved him and, unable to compass her desires, asked him to recover a tame partridge or a golden trinket for her from a deep well, and while he was doing it dropped a heavy stone on the top of him (parthen. narr. am. 14).

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Human sacrifice to Zeus Lýkaios

Anthes, the son of Poseidon, was driven out of Troizen and founded Halikarnassos 1. His descendants the Antheadai 2 formed a priestly clan which, as we happen to know from an inscription found at Halikarnassos 3, managed the cult of Poseidon in that city for over five hundred years. Poseidon was worshipped at the mother-city Troizen as Poseidon Phytálmios 4 so that the functions of the Antheadai were almost certainly concerned with the propa­gation of vegetable life 5. Arguing from analogy, I conclude that in Arkadia likewise the descendants of Anthos were a priestly clan, charged with the upkeep of vegetation in connexion with the cult of Zeus Ljkaios 6.

That the 'Flower'-hero might be associated with Zeus no less than with Poseidon we see from an inscription of Roman date found at Athens 7. It is a list of persons combining to build a gymnasium 'for Zeus Keraiós and Anthas.' Mr J. G. C. Anderson, who published this inscription with a careful commentary, remarked that many of the contributing members bore Boeotian names. He therefore proposed to identify Zeus Keraiós with Zeus Ámmon of Thebes 8

1 Strab. 374, 656, Steph. Byz. s.v. …

2 Steph. Byz. s.v. …

3 Corp. inscr. Gr. ii no. 2655, Dittenberger Syll. inscr. Gr.2 no. 608, Michel Recueil d'Inscr.gr. no. 877.

4 Paus. 2. 32. 8, Bull. Corr. Hell. 1893 xvii. 98 no. 18 : see further Q. Hofer in O Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 2490. The inscription from Halikarnassos records the priests …

5 See J. Topffer in Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. i. 2358 ff.

6 On Zeus … with corn-ears see supra p. 68 n. 9.

7 Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1896-1897 iii. 106 ff. no. 1…

8 Paus. 9. 16. 1, cp. Kaibel Epigr. Gr. no. 833. 1 … (Alexandreia) no. 835. 5 ...(Beirut), Phaistos ap. schol. Pind. Pyth. 4. 28 Zeus …

Human sacrifice to Zeus Lýkaios

75

and to regard Anthas either as a separate personage, the eponym of Anthedon in Boiotia 1, or more probably as a cult-title of Zeus comparable with that of Zeus Anthaleús, who is mentioned in a sacrificial calendar from the Epakria district 2. The cult would thus be one of a Zeus presiding over animal and vegetable fertility, a god presumably worshipped by a guild of farmers. Mr Anderson's conclusion is sound, though his premises are shaky. I doubt whether Zeus Keraiós is a mere synonym of Zeus Ámmon. His 'horns' may be those of a bull, not a ram. In that case he resembled Zeus Ólbios, a god of fertility who in northern Greece had bovine horns 3, or Zeus Xénios (?) of Kypros, to whom the horned Kerástai were wont to sacrifice strangers till Aphrodite, offended at their savagery, changed them all into bullocks 4. Again, O. Hofer objects that, if Anthas had been merely a. cult-epithet, we should have expected a repetition of the name Zeus before it 5. But this objection only brings into clearer light the indisputable fact that in Attike the hero Anthas stood in intimate relation to Zeus. Anthos occupied a like position on Mount Lykaion.

Now Anthos, son of Autonoos arid Hippodameia, deprived his father's horses of their pasture and was therefore devoured by them 6 - a fate recalling that of Lykourgos, king of the Thracian Edonoi, who in order that his land might not remain barren was taken by his subjects to Mount Pangaion and there destroyed by horses 7. That a similar end overtook Anthos on Mount Lykaion is at least a permissible conjecture; for the charred bones found nowadays on the summit of this mountain 6 are said by the peasants to be 'the bones of men whom the ancients caused to be here trampled to death by horses, as corn is trodden by horses on a threshing-floors.

Conjecture apart, there is good reason to think that in time of drought Zeus Ljkaios was placated with the sacrifice of a boy.

1 He is called Anthas (Paus. 9. H. 5. Steph. Byz. s.v. …), Anthios (schol. Il. 2. 508, Eustath. in Il. 271, 13 ff.), Anthedon (Steph. Byz. and Eustath. locc. citt.), and Anthes (Herakleid. Pont. ap. Plout. de musica 3); for all these local heroes are obviously one and the same.

2 Am. Journ. Arch. 1895 x. 210, J. de Prott Leges Graecorum sacrae Lipsiae l896 Fasti sacri p. 46 ff. no. 26, 47...

3 Infra ch. ii § 9 (h) ii (ζ)

4 Ov. met. 10. 120 ff., Lact. Plat. narr. fab. 10. 6, infra loc. cit.

5 O. Hofer in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 2491.

6 Supra p. 73 n. 4.

7 Apollod. 3. 5. 1, Folk-Lore 1904 xv. 312 f. Other examples of men done to death by horses with a like intent are cited in the Class. Rev. 1904 xviii. 82, Folk-Lore 1904 xv. 388 n. 92. See further S. Reinach 'Hippolyte' in the Archiv f. Rel. 1907 x. 47-60 = id. Cultes, Mythes et Religions Paris 1908 iii. 54-67.

8 Infra p. 82.

9 J. G. Frazer on Paus. 8. 38. 2 (iv. 382).

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Human sacrifice to Zeus Lýkaios

Theophrastos indeed is reported to have said that this took place 'at the Lykaia' 1 - an expression which, strictly taken, denotes the regular festival celebrated probably at the beginning of May 2. But the context of that very passage implies that human sacrifice, at least as exemplified by the cults of the Arcadian Zeus and the Carthaginian Kronos, was not a rite recurring at stated intervals but the last resort of a starving populace, practised only when crops failed and famine was imminent 3. Even then the responsible clan devolved its blood-guiltiness upon a single man, who expiated his crime by disappearing from the neighbourhood. He hung his clothes upon a certain oak, swam across an adjoining pool, and was lost to sight in the wilderness beyond. What happened to him there nobody knew. It was whispered that he became a were-wolf.

The same combination of drought, oak-tree, and water occurs again in Pausanias' account of rain-magic on Mount Lykaion. It appears that, when the ground was parched and the trees blasted by the heat, the priest of Zeus Lýkaios took the branch of an oak-tree, stirred with it the water of the spring Hagno, and so caused the long-desired shower to fall 4. It can hardly be doubted that the oak-tree and the pool of the one case are the oak-tree and the spring of the other.

1 Supra p. 70 n. 7.

2 P. Welzel De Iove et Pane dis Arcadicis Vratislaviae 1879 p. 23 n. 5 on the strength

of Xen. 1. 2. 10 … (at Peltai) … See also Immerwahr Kult. Myth. Arkad. p. 20 f.

3 Theophrast. ap. Porph. de abst. 2. 27 … The excerpt in Euseb. praep. ev. 4. 16. 10 agrees with this verbatim, but is shorter, including only … The words … are, I think, either a loose expression for 'in the rites of Zeus Lýkaios' or - less probably - a blunder for … due to haste and inattention on the part of Porphyrios, who did not realise that … is needed to balance …and that both together are contrasted as extraordinary sacrifices with the ordinary ritual described in the words … On the other hand M. Mayer in Roscher

Lex. Myth. ii. 1503 f. holds that the words … are corrupt and have expelled the name of some locality.

4 Infra ch. ii § 9 (a) iii.

77

If so, we have every right to say that an oak-tree sacred to Zeus Lýkaios grew beside the spring Hagno. The primitive cults of Greece, as of other lands, constantly associated a holy tree with a holy well.

The simple folk of Arkadia were acorn-eaters 1. Pelasgos, their first king, - says Pausanias 2 - 'introduced as food the fruit of oak-­trees, not of all oaks, but only the acorns of the phegós oak. Since his time some of the people have adhered so closely to this diet that even the Pythian priestess, in forbidding the Lacedaemonians to touch the land of the Arcadians, spoke the following verses:­

There are many acorn-eating men in Arcadia

Who will prevent you; though I do not grudge it you.'

Plutarch goes further and declares that there was a certain kinship between the Arcadians and the oak-tree: they believed that they were the first of men to spring from the ground, just as it was the first of trees 3. But the relation of the oak to Zeus on the one hand and to his devotees on the other is a subject to which we shall have to return. For the present I pass on, noting merely that the existence of a clan whose business it was to promote vegetation at an ancient centre of oak-worship, if viewed in connexion with this alleged 'kinship' between the worshippers and the tree, is a phenomenon curiously suggestive of totemism. A rite so unusual and impressive as the human sacrifice on Mount Lykaion had of course its explanatory myth. I quote again the garrulous but profoundly interesting Pausanias. From Pelasgos, introducer of the acorn-diet, he slips on to Pelasgos' son Lykaon, who gave to Zeus the surname Lýkaios and founded the Lycaean games. 'In my opinion,' he continues, 'Lycaon, was contemporary with Cecrops, king; of Athens, but the two were not equally sage in the matter of religion. For Cecrops was the first who gave to Zeus the surname of Supreme, and he refused to sacrifice anything that had life; but he burned on the altar the national cakes which the Athenians to this day call pélanoi.

1 Hdt., 1. 66, Paus. 8. 1. 6, 8. p. 6, Ail. var. hist. 3. 39, Plout. v. Coriol. 3, Artemid. oneirocr. 1. 15 (citing Alkaios frag. 91 Bergk…). Philostr. v. Apoll. 8. 7 p. 310 Kayser, Nann. Dion. 3. 287 Galen de alimentorum facultatibus 1. 38 (vi. 611 Kuhn), cp. de probis pravisque alimentorum sucis 4 (vi. 778 Kuhn). See further P Wagler Die Eiche in alter und neuer Zeit Wurzen 1891 i: 34 ff. Acorns figure frequently on coins of Mantineia (Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Peloponnesus p. 184 f. pl. 34. 19 - 24, 24 - 28).

2 Paus.8. 1. 6 trans. J. G. Frazer.

3 Plout. quaestio Rom. 91 … That this 'kinship' with the oak was no mere metaphor appears from Lykophron's mention of the Arcadians as…(Al. 480: Tzetz. ad loc. has…) and the myth of Arkas and the oak-nymph Chrysopeleia (Class. Rev. 1903 xvii. 185).

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Human sacrifice to Zeus Lýkaios

Whereas Lycaon brought a human babe to the altar of Lycaean Zeus, and sacrificed it, and poured out the blood on the altar; and they say that immediately after the sacrifice he was turned into a wolf. For my own part I believe the tale: it has been handed down among the Arcadians from antiquity, and probability is in its favour. For the men of that time, by reason of their righteous­ness and piety, were guests of the gods, and sat with them at table; the gods openly visited the good with honour, and the bad with their displeasure. Indeed men were raised to the rank of gods in those days, and are worshipped down to the present time. …But in the present age, when wickedness is growing to such a height, and spreading over every land and every city, men are changed into gods no more, save in the hollow rhetoric which flattery addresses to power; and the wrath of the gods at the wicked is reserved for a distant future when they shall have gone hence. In the long course of the ages, many events in the past and not a few in the present have been brought into general discredit by persons who build a superstructure of falsehood on a foundation of truth. For example, they say that from the time of Lycaon downwards a man has always been turned into a wolf at the sacrifice of Lycaean Zeus, but that the transforma­tion is not for life; for if, while he is a wolf, he abstains from human flesh, in the ninth year afterwards he changes back into a man, but if he has tasted human flesh he remains a beast for ever 1.'

The myth of Lykaon has come down to us through various channels with a corresponding variety of detail. A useful con­spectus is drawn up by O. Gruppe 2, from which it appears that the sacrifice was offered either by Lykaon himself (this was the common tale) 3 or by his sons (a variant meant to save the face of Lykaon). The victim is described occasionally as a guest of Lykaon 5, or a Molossian hostage 6, more often as a child 7

1 Paus. 8. 2. 2-6.

2 Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 920 n. 4.

3 It went back to Hesiod (pseudo-Eratosth. catast. 8, schol. Arat. phaen. 27,. Eustath. in Il. p. 302, 18 f. Cp. Hes. frag. 136 Flach).

4 Apollod. 3.8. 1, Hyg. fab. 176, Nikolaos Damask. frag. 43 (Frag. hist. Gr. iii. 378 Muller), Souid. s.v. ... schol. Lyk. Al. 481, pseudo-Hekat. frag 375 (Frag. hist. Gr. i. 31 Muller) ap. Natal. Com. 9. 9.

5 Servo in Verg Aen. 1. 731, Myth. Vat. 2. 60.

6 Ov. met. 1. 226 f.

7 Paus. 8. 2. 3 … Nikol. Dam. and Souid. locc. citt. …

Human sacrifice to Zeus Lýkaios

79

of the neighbourhood 1, more often still as Lykaon's son 2 Nyktimos 3 or grandson Arkas 4. The child was according to one account sacrificed on the altar of Zeus 5, but according to the usual version dished up for his consumption at table 6. Punishment for this, impious act fell on Lykaon, who was transformed into a wolf 7, or struck by lightning 8, or had his house struck by lightning while he himself became a wolf 9. Some said that his sons suffered with him, all alike being killed by lightning 10, or that they were killed by lightning and he changed into a wolf 11; some even said that the sons were punished as guilty and not the father 12. Many added that the flood followed in consequence of the crime 13.

These rillets of tradition cross and, recross one another with such complexity that it is difficult to map them or to make out which after all is the main stream. Nevertheless it seems certain that many, if not most, of them derive from distant sources of genuine folk-lore. Probably we shall not be far wrong, if ­anticipating the results of a later section - we attempt to rewrite the story thus. Lykaon, king of the country and representative of Zeus Lýkaios, was as such held responsible for the weather and the crops 14. If the land were distressed with drought, the king, in accordance with primitive custom 15, must be put to death, passing on his divine rights and duties to a less impotent successor. In course of time this stern rule was modified 16; The king might sacrifice his son, or grandson, or the son of one of his subjects, or even, by a further relaxation, a stranger from afar in lieu of his own life.

1 Apollod. 3. 8. …Tzetz. in Lyk. Al. 481 ... pseudo-Hekat. loc. cit…

2 Interp. Serv. in Verg. ecl. 6. 41, Arnob. adv. nat. 4, 24.

3 Clem. Al. frag. 2. 36. 5 p. 27, 19 ff. Stahlin, Nonn. Dion. 18, 20 ff., schoI. Lyk.

Al. 481.

4 Pseudo-Eratosth. catast. 8, Hyg. poet. astr. 2, 4, schol. Caes. Germ. Aratea 89.

5 Paus. 8. 2. 3.

6 Zeus had come in the guise of a working-man (Apollod. 3. 8. 1, Tzetz. in Lyk. Al. 481, pseudo-Hekat. loc. cit.) or stranger (Nikol. Dam. and Souid. locc. citt.),

7 Paus. 8. 2. 3, Servo in Verg. Am. 1.731, Myth. Vat. 1. 17, 2. 60.

8 Interp. Servo in Verg. ecl. 6. 41.

9 Pseudo-Eratosth. catast. 8, Hyg. poet. astr. 2. 4, schol. Caes. Germ. Aratea 89, Ov. met. 1. 230 ff., Lact. Plac. in Stat. Theb. 11. 128.

10 Apollod. 3.81, Tzetz: in Lyk. AI. 481. The youngest, Nyktimos, escaped, for Ge held up her hands, clasped the right hand of Zeus, and assuaged his anger.

11 Hyg. fab.176.

12 Nikol. Dam. and Souid. locc. citt., schol. Lyk. Al. 481. A second version given by schol. Lyk. ib. states that Zeus destroyed the sons of Lykaon with lightning till Ge stretched forth her hand and interceded for them, and that he turned some of them into wolves (cp. pseudo-Hekat. 1oc. cit.).

13 Apollod. 3. 8. 2, Tzetz. in Lyk. Al. 481, interp Serv in Verg. ecl. 6. 41; Myth.

Vat. 1. 189.

14 Frazer Golden Bough 2 i. 154 ff., The Magic Art i. 396 ff.

15 Id. ib. 2 i. 158 f., 3The Magic Art i. 352 ff.

16 Id. ib.2 ii. 55 f., 3 The Dying God p. 160 ff. See also Folk-lore 1904 xv. 392 ff.

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Human sacrifice to Zeus Lýkaios

He thus discharged his original debt; but only to incur another of equal magnitude. For by slaying his son or grandson or subject he would render himself liable to the early law of bloodshed 1. If a man slew a member of an alien tribe or city, ­he must either be slain himself in return or else pay a sufficient blood-price. But if he slew a member of his own tribe or city; no blood-price was allowed: he must be put to death, or - it was the only possible alternative - flee into perpetual exile. The king, therefore, taken in this dilemma, sought to escape by the expedient of the common feast, which enabled him to share his guilt with others. The feasters in turn transferred it to a single member of the 'Flower'-clan. And he had forthwith to pay the penalty otherwise incumbent on the king; he had, that is, either to die the death or to flee the country.

It would seem, then, that the myth of Lykaon has in effect preserved the first stages of a custom whose final form is given in the statements of Skopas and Euanthes. Not often does an aetiological myth supply so satisfactory an aítion. Viewing the story as a whole, we cannot but feel that the connexion of Zeus Lýkaios with the light sky is a more fundamental feature of it than the transformation of his worshippers into wolves. He as god of the light sky normally bestowed the sunshine and ripened the crops. They on certain rare and exceptional occasions incurred blood-guiltiness in his service and had to disappear. They might be killed, or they might be exiled. Some of our authorities declare that Zeus struck them with lightning - an appropriate end for worshippers of a sky-god 2. Others state that they became were­-wolves - again an appropriate fate for exiles and vagabonds 3. This belief in were-wolves, which has from time immemorial prevailed throughout Europe 4

1 H. E. Seebohm On the Structure of Greek Tribal Society London 1895 p. 41 ff. ('The Liability for Bloodshed '). Moreover, the sanctity of the stranger-guest, who as early as Homer and probably much earlier was placed under the protection of Zeus, was almost as great as the sanctity of the kinsman's life, and to slay him was a religious sin, for which, according to one legend, Heracles was sold into slavery to Omphale' (Farnell Cults of Gk. States i. 73 with note d).

2 Folk-Lore 1904 xv. 385 f., 1905 xvi. 324 f.

3 See the facts collected by Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 918 n. 7.j Note also that, according to Macrizi De valle Hadhramaut Bonn 1866 p. 19 f: (quoted by W. Robertson Smith Lectures on the Religion of the Semites2 London 1907 p. 88, R. Campbell Thompson Semitic Magic London 1908 p. 57 n. 1), the sei'ar in Hadramaut can change to were-wolves in time of drought.

4 Recent monographs on the subject are S. Baring-Gould The Book of Were-Wolves

The Precinct of Zeus Lýkaios

81

and is even now to be traced in Arkadia 1, naturally attached itself to the rite of eating human flesh 2. And lycanthropy often involved metamorphosis for a given term of years, after which the were-wolf returned to human shape 3. But nowhere else, so far as I am aware, did this superstition stand in any special relation to the cult of Zeus. I conclude, therefore, that Zeus Lýkaios was not essentially, but only as it were by accident, a 'Wolf'-god. His original character was that of a 'Light'-god controlling the sunshine, the rain, and the crops.

(d) The Precinct of Zeus Lýkaios.

In 1903 Mr K. Kourouniotes trenched the altar and laid bare the precinct of Zeus Lýkaios. I will here summarise the results of the excavation 4.

The Precinct of Zeus Lýkaios

81

and is even now to be traced in Arkadia 1, naturally attached itself to the rite of eating human flesh 2. And lycanthropy often involved metamorphosis for a given term of years, after which the were-wolf returned to human shape 3. But nowhere else, so far as I am aware, did this superstition stand in any special relation to the cult of Zeus. I conclude, therefore, that Zeus Lýkaios was not essentially, but only as it were by accident, a 'Wolf'-god. His original character was that of a 'Light'-god controlling the sunshine, the rain, and the crops.

(d) The Precinct of Zeus Lýkaios.

In 1903 Mr K. Kourouniotes trenched the altar and laid bare the precinct of Zeus Lýkaios. I will here summarise the results of the excavation 4.

The top of Mount Lykaion (fig. 50) 5 has three crests Stepháni, the highest point (about 4615 ft above sea-level); Áe Liâs, some­what lower (about 4550 ft); and Diaphórti, on which is a ruined tower, probably Turkish in origin. It is with Áe Liâs that we are concerned. This summit takes its name from Saint Elias 6, whose little chapel stands on the south-east edge of a small level space adjoining the crest on its south side. The level is known locally as Tabérna from a shop, which was once established here to supply necessaries_for the saint's festival.

1 J. C. Lawson Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion Cambridge 1910 p. 20; On the were-wolf in modern Greece generally. consult N.G. Polites … in the journal [Pandora] 1866 xvi. 453 f., … Athens 1871 i. 67 ff., and [paradosis] Athens 190. ii. 12.01f., where a full bibliography is given.

2 Hertz op. cit. p. 39 (quoted by Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 920 n. 3) adduces Indian and German examples of men transformed into beasts after tasting human flesh.

3 E. g. S. Baring-Gould op. cit. pp. 58 (Ireland: seven years), 59 ('Ossyrian' sic: seven years), P. Sebillot Le Folk-lore de France Paris 1906 iii. 55 (Normandy: seven years, sometimes three).

4 K. Kourouniotes in the [Eph. Arch] 190. pp. 153-214. See also F. H. Marshall in the Class. Rev. 1905 xix. 280 f. Kourouniotes has further excavated the hippodrome etc. on Mt Lykaion …1909 pp. 185-200 with figs cp. Am. Journ. Arch. 19I1 xv. 417).

5 From a photograph kindly sent to me by Mr Kourouniotes, through whose generosity I am enabled also to make use of the unpublished photograph (pl. viii) and the illustrations in the …loc. cit..

6 …

The Precinct of Zeus Lýkaios

The altar of Zeus forms the apex of Áe Liâs. It is circular in shape and flat like a threshing-floor, measuring 97 ft 6 ins. across. It is composed mainly of the remains of sacrifices, the rock being covered to a depth of 5 ft with a layer of ashes, etc. In this layer are numerous bones, mostly those of small animals, but also of oxen and pigs: no human bones were recognised. All the bones had been burnt. Among the debris are large charred stones at irregular intervals, lying singly or gathered together in small heaps. These served to prevent the ashes from being blown away from the exposed and wind-swept height 1. Small fragments of phiálai and skýphoi dating from the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. were found in the sacrificial stratum, also two small kotylískoi, sundry portions of lamps, chips of roof-tiles - one inscribed … in lettering of the fourth century - and, an almost shapeless terra cotta bird.

Fig. 50.

1 Cp. Plin. nat. hist. 1. 140 in Laciniae Iunonis ara sub diu sita cinerem inmobilem esse perflantibus undique procellis (quoted by Kourouniotes) and the evidence collected infra p. 103 nn. 1-4, with regard to the summits of Olympos, Kyllene, and Athos. Proof of the sanctity attaching to ashes has come to light at Orchomenos in Boiotia. Inside the houses of the second pre-Mycenaean stratum H. Bulle found numerous [bothroi] carefully lined with yellow clay. These pits were circular in plan and U-shaped in vertical section. They were for the most part filled with ashes, which appear to have been kept for religious reasons (H. Bulle Orchomenos Munchen 1907 i. 15 ff.).

[Plate VIII]

83

The metal finds included a silver coin of Aigina (c. 500 B.C.), two small tripods of beaten bronze; and an iron knife - altogether a meagre and disappointing collection.

The precinct, which occupies the level called Tabérna, is approximately 180 ft broad by, 400 ft long; It is marked out by a line of unworked stones, a boundary that men or beasts could easily cross 1. The earth here is blackish, but has no bones in it. Kourouniotes believes that the discoloration is due to the blood of animals, slain as it were on the próthysis before they were burnt on the altar. Perhaps a geologist or an analytical chemist could supply a less gruesome explanation. In the soil of the precinct were found fragments of roof-tiles, part of an iron chain, a large key, a greave decorated with swans and serpents in relief and inscribed … 2 a bronze statuette-base, and two bronze statuettes. One of these was a beardless Hermes (c, 490-470 B,C.) in chitonískos, chlamýs, pîlos, and winged boots; the other a later figure, probably of the same god, with chlamýs and pétasos 3.­

A little lower down than the eastern limit of the precinct Kontopoulos had discovered in 1897 two large bases about 23 ft apart, undoubtedly those of the two eagle-bearing columns mentioned, by Pausanias 4. In a gully north-east of the summit he had found also one marble drum from a Doric column of twenty flutes, and had erected it on the southern base (pl. viii) 5. Kourouniotes continued the search, and was rewarded for his pains. He obtained other blocks belonging to the bases, which were thus proved to have resembled the three-stepped statue-bases, of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. The columns themselves were still standing in Pausanias' day, but the gilded, eagles had gone 6. Kourouniotes accounts for their, disappearance as follows. He points out that in the market-place at Megalopolis Pausanias saw an enclosure of stones and a sanctuary for Zeus Lýkaios containing altars, two tables, and two eagles 7; and he suggests that these eagles had been carried off from the precinct on Mount Lykaion.

1… 1904 p. 159 f. fig. 1.

2 Kourouniotes restores …

3 … 1904 pls. 9-10.

4 Supra p. 66 n. 1.

5 .. 1904 p. 173 f., fig 7, cp pl. 8, 1.

6 Paus. 8. 38. 7 …

7 Paus. 8. 30. 2 …

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The Precinct of Zeus Lýkaios

However that may be, digging close to the northern base on the mountain-side, Kourouniotes came upon an interesting series of bronze statuettes illustrative of the cult 1.

The earliest of them, which he refers to the seventh century B.C., is a clumsy figure of Zeus with short legs and long body. The god stands erect. His raised right hand grasps a thunderbolt, his outstretched left has an eagle perched upon it (fig. 51) 2.

The second statuette shows Zeus striding forward with uplifted right hand and extended left. In the former there was once a bolt, in the latter perhaps an eagle (fig. 52) 3.

Fig. 51.

1 In addition to the bronzes here described there were found two figures of Hermes; showing traces of Polykleitos' style ([Eph Arch] 1904 p. 200 ff. figs. 20-22), another in the attitude of a runner (ib. p. 206 fig. 24), a coiled snake with two heads (ib. p. 211

fig. 27), and a votive … (ib. p. 212 fig 28). The fact that at least three, probably four, statuettes of Hermes were found in or near the precinct requires explanation. Was there a cult of Hermes on the spot? For the dedication of one deity in the temple of another see the careful collection of facts in W. H. D. Rouse Greek Votive Offerings Cambridge 1902 p. 391 ff. @@ But, as Miss Harrison has pointed out to me, T. Zielinski in the Archiv f. Rel. 1906 viii. 321 ff., ix. 25 ff. shows that the Hermes of the Hermetic cosmogony came to Kyrene from Arkadia. The remaining finds included ten engraved rings, one of bronze, the rest of iron.

2 [Eph Arch] 1904 p. 181 f. figs. 8-10.

3 Ib. p. 185 fig. 11.

The Precinct of Zeus Lýkaios

Similar statuettes; which exemplify a type current about 480 B.C. have been found at Olympia (fig. 53) 2 and at Dodona (fig. 54).

Thirdly (fig. 55) we have Zeus seated squarely on a throne, which is now lost. His hair is long and falls over his back; his beard is pointed, and his lips are drawn up in the usual archaic expression. He wears a chitón with short sleeves, and a himátion draped under his right arm and over his left shoulder. His feet, which are bare, rest on a footstool. Both arms are bent at the elbow, and both hands hold attributes. In the left is the lower half of a thunderbolt; in the right - not, as we should have expected, a sceptre - but a short rod with a knob at the bottom and a crook at the top closely resembling the Roman lituos, the direct ancestor of the pastoral staff still borne by our ecclesiastical hierarchy 5.

Fig. 52. Fig. 53. Fig. 54.

Fig. 55.

1 See the discussion by Miss C. A. Hutton in the Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1896-1897

iii. 149-152 pl. 10, I.

2 Olympia iv. 18 f. nos. 43-45 pl. 7, 43, 45, pl. 8, 44, See infra ch. ii § 3 (c) iv (a).

3 C. Carapanos Dodone et ses ruines Paris 1878 pl. 12, 4, Staïs Marbres et Bronzes:

Athenes2 p, 362 no, 31. The finest specimen of this type is at Berlin: R. Kekule von Stradonitz and H. Winnefeld Bronzen aus Dodona in den koniglichen Museen zu Berlin 1909 pl. 1, A. Frickenhaus in the Jahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch, Inst. 1911 xxvi. 30.

4 [Eph Arch], 1904 p. 187 f. figs. 12-14, A. de Ridder in the Rev Et. Gr. 1906 xix.

17 ff.

5 On the derivation of the pastoral staff from the lituos see the Rev. H. T. Armfield

in Smith-Cheetham Dict. Chr. Ant. ii. 1565 ff.

The Precinct of Zeus Lýkaios

87

Kourouniotes reminds us that, according to tradition 1, Euandros, son of Hermes, led a colony from Pallantion in Arkadia into Italy, where he built a town Pallantion on the Palatine, and introduced the cult of Pan Lýkaios and the festival of the Lykaia, later known as the Lupercalia. This tradition points to an early connexion between Arkadia and Italy; and it is open to us to believe that the use of the lituos came to the latter from the former. But what exactly was the lituos? In shape it differs but little from that of the ordinary crooked stick carried by old-fashioned Greeks 2. Monsieur H. Thédenat, after a review of the evidence, concludes - ­on the strength of a note by Servius 3 - that the augur's lituos may have been a royal sceptre 4. This conclusion is borne out by the Hittite rock-carvings of Boghaz-Keui (c. 1271 B.C,), where the priestly king carries a large reversed lituos 5. I would venture one step further and suggest that the lituos is ultimately the conventionalised branch of a sacred tree 6. If Zeus Lýkaios bears a lituos it is because his sceptre, so to speak, was an oak-branch. His priest - ­we have seen - took an oak-branch, in hand, when he acted as rain­maker on Mount Lykaion 7. But, whether the lituos represents an original branch or not, it certainly serves as a quasi-sceptre. For this statuette (c. 550-500 B.C.) can hardly be dissociated from the fifth-century coinage of Arkadia, which - we have said 8 - shows Zeus Lýkaios seated on a throne with a sceptre in his hand. In all probability both the statuette and the coins represent the cult image of the god 9.

1 Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. vi. 839 ff.

2 E. Saglio in Daremberg, Saglio Dict. Ant. i. 639 ff. A black-figured amphora shows Zeus enthroned with a crooked stick as scepter (Mus. Etr. Gregor. ii pl. 48, 2, 2 b).

3 Servo in Verg. Aen. 7. 187 lituum, id est regium baculum, in quo potestas esset

dirimendarum litium.

4 H. Thedenat in Daremberg-Saglio Dict. Ant. iii. 1277 f. L. Siret in L'Anthropologie 1910 xxi. 303 would connect it with neolithic axe-handles: he sees in its form and theirs the arm of a cuttle-fish!

5 J Garstang The Land of the Hittites London 1910 pp. 217, 229 pls. 68, 7f.

6 Walde Lat. etym. Worterb. p. 345 derives lituus, Gothic … Old High German

lid, ' limb,' from a root *lei-t-, 'to crook or bend,' which with another determinative gives the Old Icelandic limr, 'limb,' lim, 'branch,' and the Anglo-Saxon lim, 'limb, branch.' On the royal sceptre as a conventionalised tree see Folk-Lore 1904 xv. 370 ff.

7 Supra p, 65; infra ch. ii § 9 (a) iii.

8 Supra p. 68. Specimens were found by Kourouniotes on Mt Lykaion.

9 The lituos is not elsewhere known as an attribute of Zeus. A bronze statuette found at Olympia shows him holding in his left hand a broken object, which ends below in a stud or knob. This Furtwangler Olympia iv. 17 pl. 7, 40, 40a took to be the handle of a sword: Kourouniotes would restore it as a lituos (so also Stais Marbres et Bronzes. ­Athenes p. 289 f. no. 6163).

The Precinct of Zeus Lýkaios

A fourth figure, more clumsy in style, gives us Zeus standing on a square base. He is clothed in a long himation. In his clenched right hand he holds the remains of a thunderbolt; in his clenched left, no attribute at all (fig. 56) 1.

A few other fragments - a right hand grasping part of a bow, the fore-part of a right foot 2, and an eagle with spread wings (fig. 57 a, b) 4 - possibly belong to a larger statue, or statues, of Zeus, and may be assigned to the early fifth century 5.

Fig. 56.

1 [Eph. Arch] 1904 p. 193 fig. 15.

2 Ib. p. 194 fig. 16.

3 Ib. p. 194 fig. 17.

4 Ib. p. 195 f. figs. 18-19.

5 It may here be mentioned that the British Museum possesses a silver ingot, said to have been found in Sicily, which is inscribed [DIOS LYKA] on one side, [TRIGON] on the other, and was doubtless dedicated to Zeus Lýkaios by one Trygon (Brit. Mus. Guide Gk. Rom. Life 1908 p. 37 f. no. 70, Inscr. Gr. Sic. It. no. 597). The romance imagined by Roehl Inscr. Gr. ant. no. 523 is baseless.

The Cult of Zeus Lýkaios at Kyrene

89

(e) The Cult of Zeus Lýkaios at Kyrene.

The cult of Zeus Lýkaios spread from Arkadia to Kyrene. There appears, indeed, to have been some ancestral link between these two places; for more than once Arcadians were called in to settle with authority political disputes that had arisen at Kyrene 1.

Fig. 57a. Fig. 57b.

1 Hdt. 4. 161 (Demonax of Mantineia, shortly after 550 B.C.), Polyb. 10, 11. and Plout. v. Philopoim. 1 (Ekdemos and Demophanes, or Megalophanes, of Megalopolis, in the third century B.C.). See also Archiv f. Rel. 1906 ix. 41 n. 1.

90

The Cult of Zeus Lýkaios at Kyrene

Herodotos relates that the Persian army, on its return from the capture of Barke (512 B.C.), encamped upon the 'hill of Zeus Lýkaios' near Kyrene 1. This certainly implies a Cyrenaic cult of that deity. Moreover, Ludvig Muller pointed out that the figure of Zeus Lýkaios on the early silver coins of Arkadia (fig. 43) 2 is reproduced on a gold statér of Kyrene (fig. 58) 3. Here too we see the god enthroned towards the left with a sceptre in his right hand, while an eagle flies directly towards him. Other specimens of the Cyrenaic statér vary, as did the Arcadian coins, only with more freedom, the position of the eagle, which sometimes flies before Zeus with a snake in its talons 4, sometimes rests on the right hand of the god 5, sometimes perches behind him on a stem or branch curved like a lituos (figs. 59, 60) 6, and sometimes is absent altogether 7. The remarkable adjunct of the eagle on a lituos-­shaped branch cannot, so far as I know, be precisely paralleled. ­

Fig. 58. Fig. 59. Fig. 60. Fig. 61. Fig. 62. Fig. 63.

1 Hdt. 203.

2 Cp. supra p. 68 f.

3 L. Muller Numismatique de l'Ancienne Afrique Copenhague 1860 i. 48 no. 18. fig. 184 ib. p. 67.

4 Id. ib. i. 49 no. 188, Hunter Cat. Coins. iii. 568 (cp. Ib. p1. 92, 2).

5 L. Muller op. cit. i. 9 no. 190, Supplement p. 9 pl. 1, 190, Bunbury Sale Catalogue 1896 ii. 95 no. 717, Montagu Sale Catalogue 1896 i. 104 no. 801 pl. 10.

6 L. Muller op. cit. i. 9 nos. 185-187 fig. 185 (my fig. 59). Fig. 60 is from a specimen in the British Museum. In the Montagu Sale Catalogue 1896 i. 104 no. 799 pl. 10 the eagle appears to be seated on a rock. Cp. O'Hagan Sale Catalogue 1908 p. 79 no. 786 (?).

7 L. Muller op. cit. i. 49 no. 189 fig. 189.

91

An eagle above and in contact with a transverse lituos is said to occur on a late bronze coin of Panormos (fig. 61) 1. But a better analogy is afforded by the eagle on a pine-tree before the seated figure of Zeus Aitnaîos, which appears on a unique tetradrachm of Aitne (fig. 62) 2, or by the eagle on a crooked bough, probably representing the oaks of Zeus Strátios, which is found on imperial bronze coins of Amaseia (fig. 63) 3. In view of the fact that the eagle and the lituos were both attributes of Zeus at the precinct on Mount Lykaion 4 the combination of the two furnishes an addi­tional reason for believing that the throned Zeus of Kyrene was ­indeed Zeus Lýkaios 5.

In one detail the Zeus of these Cyrenaic coins differs from the Zeus of the Arcadian coins. His free arm is consistently shown resting on the low back of his seat in an attitude of easy indolence. Now this is a trait which is not seen in any other representation of Zeus on Greek coins. In fact, the only close parallel to it 6 in the whole range of ancient Zeus-types is the careless and yet majestic

Fig. 64.

1 P. Paruta Sicilia Numismatica Lugduni Batavorum 1723 pl. 3, 23.

2 Infra Append. B 'Sicily'.

 3 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Pontus etc. 8 pl, 115; 11 pl. 2, 7 (=my fig 63) Waddington - Babelon -  Reinach Monn. gr. d'As Min. i. 35 pl. 5, 11; 40. pl. 6, 5. On the oaks of Zeus… see Class. Rev. 1904 xviii. 79 f., 372 fig. 5, Folk-Lore 1904 xv. 296, 306 f.

4 Supra 83 ff.

5 Head Num 1 p. 729. ib. 2 p 869 says 'Zeus Ammon' - a curious blunder.

6 Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus p. 161.

92

Zeus Lýkaios on a Spartan Kýlix

pose of Zeus in the Parthenon frieze (fig. 64) 1. It is, therefore, highly probable that the cult-statue of Zeus Lýkaios existing at Kyrene in the period to which the gold coins belong was the work, if not of Pheidias himself, at least of some sculptor much under his influence. If further evidence be required, one may point to the fact that in a temple of Helios and Selene at Byzantion there" was preserved as late as the eleventh century a white marble statue of Zeus ascribed to Pheidias, of which we are told that it 'seemed to be seated on a sofa 2.' Whether the product of Pheidiac art or not, Zeus at Kyrene reclined on his throne in an attitude of unusual repose. This, if I am not mistaken, earned for him the curious sobriquet of Elinýmenos 3, Zeus 'Taking his Siesta 4.'

(f) Zeus Lýkaios on a Spartan Kýlix.

F. Studniczka 5 in dealing with the cults of Kyrene observed that a seated Zeus on a 'Cyrenaic' kýlix in the Louvre (fig. 65) 6 bore a striking resemblance to the seated Zeus of the Arcadian coins, and proposed to identify the former with the latter as Zeus Lýkaios. And such he may well be. For the force of Studniczka's comparison is in no way weakened by Mr J. P. Droop's discovery that the original home of 'Cyrenaic' ware was not Kyrene put Sparta 7.

1 A. H. Smith The Sculptures of the Parthenon London 1910 pl. 34, M. Collignon Le Parthénon Paris 1909 pl. 127, 30. Cp. Montfaucon Antiquity Explained trans. D. Humphreys London 1721 i. 29 pl. 10 no. 6 after Bartoli-Bellori Admir. Rom. ant. pl. 27.

2 Kedren. hist comp. 323 c (i. 567 Bekker) …

3 Hesych. …

4 Hesych. … L. Muller op. cit. i. 67 f. regards the lituos-shaped branch of tbe Cyrenaic coins as a vine-shoot, and conjectures that Zeus … meant not only 'le dieu qui repose' but also the god of the Vine-shoot (et. mag. p. 330, 39 f. …). But the epithet is obviously a participle.

5 F Studniczka Kyrene Leipzig 1890 p. 14 f.

6 Pottier Cat. Vases du Louvre ii. 52g, Vases antiques du Louvre 2eme. Serie Paris 1901 p. 63 no. E 668, Arch. Zeit. 1881 p. 237 ff. pl. 12, 3.

7 Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1907-1908 xiv. 2, 44 ff. See also R. M. Dawkins in the Journ. Hell. Stud. 1908 xxviii. 322 f. and in The Year's Work in Class. Stud. 1908 p. 17, A. J. B. Wace ib. 1909 p. 48 f. W. Klein Euphronios 2 Wien 1886 p. 77 had previously conjectured that the 'Cyrenaic' vases were made in Lakonike. The subject cannot here be discussed in detail. But we must bear in mind that Sparta, as the mother of Thera, was the grandmother of Kyrene. It would not therefore be surprising to find that a ware originating in Sparta was made at Kyrene also. And this seems on the whple to be the simplest assumption in the case of the Arkesilas-kýlix , (De Ridder Cat. Vases de la Bibl. Nat. i. 98 ff. no. 189). See J. R. Wheeler A Hand­book of Greek Archaeology New York etc. 1909 p. 468 n. r.

Zeus Lýkaios on a Spartan Kýlix

93

From Mount Lykaion to the Eurotas valley was no far cry; and, if Alkman the great lyric poet of Sparta composed a hymn to Zeus Lýkaios 1, the Spartan potters very possibly represented the same deity on their cups. The Louvre kýlix is on this showing the artistic coupterpart of Alkman's poem. Zeus, wearing a chiton and tightly swathed in an ornamental himátion, is seated on his altar - a large stepped structure of stone blocks 2 -  while his eagle wings its way directly towards him. The god's longhair hangs over his back, and his upper lip is shaved in genuine Spartan style 3.

Another 'Cyrenaic' kýlix now in the Royal Museum at Cassel, shows a male figure enthroned in conversation with Hermes (fig. 66) 4, It is at first sight tempting to regard this too as a representation of Zeus Lýkaios 1 in whose precinct sundry statuettes of Hermes were

Fig. 65.

Fig. 66. Fig. 67.

1 Alkman frag 1 ff. Bergk 4. Himer. or. 5. 3 (Alkman) …

2 See W. Reichel uber vorhellenische Gotterculte Wien 1897 p. 4 ff.

3 W. Ridgeway in Anthropological Essays presented to Edward Burnett Tylor Oxford 1907 p. 305.

4 Jahrb. d. kais f. deutsch. arch. inst. 1898 xiii Arch. Anz. p 189 f. figs. 2-3.

Zeus Lýkaios on a Spartan Kýlix

95

found 1. But the bird behind the throne is, as J. Boehlau remarked 2, merely put in to fill up the blank space and cannot pass muster as the eagle of Zeus. Moreover the vase is not to be dissociated from two others of the same sort. One of these, a kýlix in the Munich collection, again depicts a male figure on a lion-legged throne, conversing with similar gestures. His interlocutor is a female figure, conceived on a smaller scale and enthroned over against him. The supports of the larger throne are in the shapes of a tree and an animal - species difficult to determine (fig. 67) 3. The second vase, a fragmentary kýlix in the British Museum, once more shows a man on a lion-footed throne. Before him stands a woman who raises her left hand with a gesture of reverence and in her right hand presents a pomegranate (fig. 68) 4. This last vase fortunately enables us to fix the character of the other two; for its resemblance to the contemporary funereal reliefs of Lakonike 5 is quite unmistakeable. Indeed, further in­spection reveals numerous points of contact between all three vases and the reliefs in question. I conclude, therefore, that what the reliefs were in sculpture, the vases were in ceramic art - a memorial of the divinised dead. This satisfactorily accounts for the enthronement

Fig. 68.

1 Supra p. 83.

2 Jahrb etc. loc. cit.

3 Jahn Vasensamml Munchen p. 229 f. no. 737, Arch zeit 1881, xxxix pl. 13. 5. F. Studniczka op. cit. p. 8 fig. 3. This vase is commonly thought to represent a genre scene - a man talking with a woman. But on ‘Cyrenaic’ ware religious or mythological types predominate. H. B. WaIters History of Ancient Pottery London. 1905 i. 341), and we may fairly suspect a deeper meaning. Studniczka op. cit. p. 23 suggests Apollon with the Hesperid Kyrene. The animal supporting the throne has been variously interpreted as a hare. (O. Jahn loc. cit.) or a dog (A. Dumont-E. Pottier Les céramiques de la Grece propre Paris 1884 i. 302, Reinach Rep.Vases i. 434).

4 Brit. Mus. Cat. Vases ii. 51 no B6 (Apol1on? and Kyrene), Studniczka op. cit. p. 23 fig. 18 (Apollon or Aristaios?or Battos ?? and Kyrene) and in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 1729 (Battos and Kyrene).

5 The best collection of facts coricerning these reliefs is that given by M. N. Tod and A. J. B. Wace A Catalogue of the Sparta Museum Oxford 1906 p. 102 ff.

96

Zeus-like deities in wolf-skin garb,

of the man and the woman, for the presence of Hermes the 'Conductor of Souls,' for the reverential attitude of the worshipper, and for her gift of a pomegranate. Finally, just as the funereal reliefs tended towards simplification of type 1, so a 'Cyrenaic' kýlix in the National Museum at: Athens: reduces the whole scene of the enthroned dead to a mere head and shoulders (fig. 69) 2.

(g) Zeus-like deities in wolf-skin garb.

A small bronze statuette, found in the Rhine-district and pro­cured by F. G. Welcker for the Museum of National Antiquities at Bonn, was believed by J. Overbeck to represent Zeus Lýkaios. The god stands erect holding a deep bowl or pot in his outstretched right hand and leaning with his raised left hand on some object now lost.

Fig. 69.

1 M. N. Tod and A. J. B. Wace op. cit. p. 107 f.

2 J. P. Droop in the Journ. Hell. Stud. 1908 xxviii. 176 ff. figs. 1b-4.

97

Fig. 70. Fig. 71.

98

Zeus-like deities in wolf-skin garb

Fig. 72. Fig. 73.

99

Zeus-like deities in wolf-skin garb

He is clad over head, shoulders, and back in a wolf-skin, the fore-paws of which, have been cut off, sewn on inside, and knotted round the wearer's neck (fig. 70) 1. It will not be denied that this interesting bronze shows a Zeus-like god wearing a wolf­skin. But we shall not venture to describe him as Zeus Lýkaios. For there is, neither literary nor epigraphic evidence to prove that the Arcadian Zeus travelled as far north as he did south. And, even if that had been the case, his cult-type was widely different from this. Rather we shall agree with S. Reinach 2, who ranges the Bonn statuette 3 along with a whole series of bronzes representing the Gallo-Roman Dis pater, the ancestor - Caesar tells us 4 - of all the Gauls. Such figures regularly hold a bowl in one hand and rest the other on a long-handled mallet. Many of them also wear a wolf-skin hood (fig. 71) 5, though the nature of the skin is seldom so clearly marked as in this example. Reinach himself suggests that the Gaulish mallet-god may have got his wolf-skin from some Greek identification of him with the Arcadian Zeus Lýkaios 6. But it must not be forgotten that in Etruscan tomb-paintings at Orvieto (fig. 72) 7 and Corneto (fig. 72) 8, Hades likewise is coifed in a wolf skin 9; and from the Etruscan Hades to the Gallo-Roman Dis pater there is but a short step.

1 J. Overbeck in the Jahrb. d. Vereins v. Alterthumsfreund. im Rheinl. 1851 xvii. 69-74 pl. 2, id. Katalog der konigl. preuss. rhein. Mus. vaterland. Alterthumer Bonn 1851 p. 98 no. 5, id. Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus 266 f. Overbeck is followed by Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 1116 n. 8.

2 Reinach Bronzes Figures pp. 137-185.

3 Id. ib. p. 181.

4 Caes. de bell. Gall. 6. 18.

5 Drawn from a cast of the bronze found, at Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux (Drome) and now in the Museum at Avignon (Reinach op. cit. p. 141 no. 146, Rep. Stat. ii. 21 no. 8). Another fine specimen from Vienne (Isere) is in the British Museum, (Brit. Mus. Cat. Bronzes p. 142 no. 788, Gaz.-Arch. 1887 xii. 178 pl. 26).

6 Reinach op. cit. p. 141 n. 2, cp. p. 162 n. 8.

7 G. Conestabile Pitture murali e suppellettili etrusche scoperte presso Orvieto nel 1863 da Domen. Golini Firenze 1865 pl. 11, Roscher Lex. myth. i. 1807 f.

8 Mon. d. Inst. ix pls. 15 and 15a,W. Helbig, in the Ann. d. Inst. 1870 xlii. 27, C. Scherer in Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 1805.

9 W. H. Roscher in the Abh. d. sachs. Gesellsch. d. Wiss. Phil.-hist. Classe 1897­ xvii. 3. 44 f. 60 f. compares Lykas the hero of Temesa, who was 'horribly black' and wore a wolf-skin (Paus. 6. 6. 11) and Lykos the hero of Athens, who had the form of a wolf (Eratosth. ap. Harpokr. s.v. … alib.), arguing that in Greece as elsewhere die Todtengeister Wolfsgestalt annehmen. A gold pendant seal of the sixth century B.C. from Kypros shows a male figure with the head and tail of a wolf thrusting a sword through a panther or lion (Brit. Mus. Cat. Jewellery p. 167 no. 1599 fig. 49 pl. 26). Furtwangler Masterpieces of Gk. Sculpt p. 80. n. 1 recognises as. Thanatos a winged youth with a wolf-skin or dog-skin cap, who carries off a girl, on an Attic statuette-vase belonging to the end of the fifth century B.C. (Ath. Mitth. 1882 vii. 381 ff. pl. 12). A beardless head wearing a wolf-skin occurs on a copper coin of Sinope (H. Dressel in the Zeitschr. f. Num. 1898 xxi. 218 pl. 5. 6, Waddington-Babelon-Reinach Monn. gr. d’As. Min. i. 196 pl. 26, 15); but this, to judge from a copper coin of Amisos (Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Pontus etc. xvi, 20 pl. 4. 3, Head Hist. Num. i p. 497 (Amazon Lykastia?), Imhoof­-Blumer Gr. Munzen p. 46 pl. 3. 20), is probably female. Furtwangler loc. cit. interprets

216

The Solar Wheel in Greece

(fig. 158 a and b) 1. A propos of this resemblance between Triptolemos and Dionysos we must here notice a red-figured kýlix from Yuki, now at Berlin (fig. 159) 2. Dionysos is again seen sitting on a winged and wheeled seat. As on the Lenomant and Beugnot vases, he is wreathed, wears a chitón and a himátion, and carries a kántharos. Only, in place of a vine he grasps a double axe, the 'ox-slaughtering servitor of king Dionysos,' as Simonides termed it 3.

Fig. 159. Fig. 160. Fig. 161.

1 Gerhard op, cit. i pl. 41, Lenormant-de Witte op. at. iii pls. 48 f., Overbeck op. cit. Atlas pl. 15, 4, Reinach op, cit. ii. 32, 4-6. For Strube's view see supra, p. 214 n. 1.

2 Furtwiingler Vasensamml. Berti'! ii. 548 no. 2273, Gerhard op. cit. i pl. 57; I f., Lenormant-de Witte op. cit, i pl. 38, Reinach op. cit. ii. 38, 8 f. The inscription according to Furtwiingler, reads … perliaps …not - as had been previously supposed - … The god with a double axe on a mule escorted by a Satyr and two Maenads in Laborde Vases Lamberg i pl. 43 (= Inghirami Vas. fitt, iii pl. 263) is probably Hephaistos rather than Dionysos, cp. Tischbein Hamilton Vases iv pl. 38 (= Inghirami op. cit. iii pl. 265, Lenormant-de Witte op. cit, pl, 43).

3 Simonid, frag. 172 Bergk4 ap, Athen. 84 c ft. For further evidence connecting Dionysos with the double axe see infra ch. ii § 3 (c) i (0). Furtwangler loc, cit. takes this axe-bearing figure to be Triptolemos. not Dionysos,­ a most improbable view, though accepted by Reinach op. cit. ii. 38. Triptolemos and Dionysos dispensing their several bounties of corn and wine from a two-wheeled throne suggest comparison with a spring custom observed at Kostl in northern Thrace. 'A man, called the [chochostos] or [koukiros], dressed in sheep or goat skins, wearing a mask and with bells round his neck, and in his hand a broom of the kind used for sweeping out ovens, goes round collecting food and presents. He is addressed as king and escorted with music. With him is a boy carrying a wooden bottle and a cup, who gives wine to each householder, receiving in return a gift. They are accompanied by boys dressed as girls. The king then mounts a two-wheeled cart and is drawn to the church. Here two bands are formed of married and unmarried men respectively, and each tries to make the king throw upon themselves the seed which he holds in his hands. This he finally casts on the ground in front of the church. He is then thrown into the river, stripped of his skin clothes [ologymnos] and then resumes his usual dress' (R. M. Dawkins in the Journ. Hell. Stud. 1906 xxvi. 201 f.).

Triptolemos

217

Passing from the sixth century to the fifth, or at least from black-figured to red-figured vases, we find Triptolemos invariably depicted as a beardless youth, not a bearded man. His seat is al­ways winged and sometimes, especially on the later 1 vases, furnished with snakes. In the great majority of cases the scene represented is that of Triptolemos starting on his long journey. Demeter for the most part fills him a phiάle that he may pour a libation before he goes. Two vases, out of many, will serve as illustrations.

1 Cp. an electrum statér of Kyzikos c. 450-400 B.C., which shows the hero with his corn-ears drawn by two winged snakes (Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Mysie p. 26 pl. 6, 9, Babelon Monn. gr. rom. ii. 2. 1425 f. pl. 175, 1, W. Greenwell in the Num. Chron. Third Series 1887 vii. 53 fo no. 16 pl. I, 17). I figure a specimen in the McClean collection Cambridge (fig. 160).

Zeus and Argos

459

If Argos was not, like Zeus, a bull, at least he wore a bull's hide. And this was no unimportant detail of his myth: Apollonios Rhodios in his account of the' Argonauts tells how:

Argos, Arestor's son, from foot to shoulder

Had girt a bull's hide black with shaggy hair 1.

And Hyginus describes the same hero as 'an Argive clad in a hairy bull’s hide 2.' On the strength of this hide Miss Harrison, following an acute conjecture of H. D. Muller, suggested 'that Argos Panoptes is the real husband of Io, Argos who wore the bull-skin..., who when he joins the Argonautic expedition still trails it behind him..., who is the bull-god 3.' But we are never told by any ancient authority that Argos was either a bull or a god 4. It seems wiser, therefore, to suppose that he wore the bull-skin in order to assimilate himself to the Argive bull-god Zeus 5. On this showing Argos was to Zeus very much what Io was to Hera.

Again, as Io bore the further title Kallithýessa, so Argos was also Panoptes. Kallithýessa, 'She of the fair sacrifices,' was prob­ably a cult-title of Hera 6. Panoptes, 'He who sees all,' occurs repeatedly in the poets as a title of Zeus 7, a fact which supports that he interprets the title of Zeus Panoptes in a solar sense.

1 Ap. Rhod. I. 124 f.

2 Hyg. lab. 14 p. 48, 4 Schmidt. Cp. Aristoph. eccl. 79 f. … Dionysios (Skytobrachion) ap. schol. Eur. Phoen…

3 Miss J. E. Harrison in the Class. Rev. 1893 vii. 76, after H. D. Miiller Mythologie der griechischen Stiimme, Gottingen 1861 ii. 273 ff. Miss Harrison has recently somewhat shifted her view-point and writes to me as follows (June 14,1912): 'I now absolutely hold your position that Argos was a celebrant - only I go much further in thinking, not that Argos was the god, but that the god Argos arose out of the worshipper.'

4 Aug. de civ. Dei 18. 6 states that Argos after his death began to be regarded as a god, being honoured with a temple and sacrifices: while he was reigning (as king at Argos), these divine honours were paid to a certain private man named Homogyros, who had first yoked oxen to the plough, and had been struck by lightning.

5 Cp. Journ. Hell. Stud. 1894 xiv. 120 f. On a krater from Ruvo, belonging to the Jatta collection, Argos is clad in a bull's hide (fig. 318 …  Mon. 4. Inst. ii pl. 59, Lenormant - de Witte El. mono dr. iii pl. 101, Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 274, Reinach Rtfp. Vases i. 1 II, 4); but Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus p. 593 n. 189 points out that on other vases he wears other hides, the artistic being less conservative than the literary tradition.

The Jatta krater shows a well-marked tendency to duplicate its figures. In the lower register the Satyr on the left is balanced by the Satyr on the right. In the upper register Eros and Aphrodite on the left are mirrored by almost identical forms (Peitho? and Pothos? according to S. Reinach) on the right. Zeus seated on the mountain next to Hera similarly corresponds with Argos seated on the mountain near to Io. The latter couple is the bovine counterpart of the former - witness the bull's hide of Argos, the cow's horns and cow's. ear of Io.

6 Supra p. 453 f.

7 Aisch. Eum. 1045 Zeus … (so Musgrave for MSS. Zeus …), Orph. …

462

Zeus and Argos

Again, according to Pherekydes, Hera gave Argos an extra eye in the back of his head 1. And the ancient statue of Zeus on the Argive Larisa was likewise three-eyed, having the third eye on its forehead. Argos Panoptes and the Argive Zeus were on this account compared by M. Mayer 3 with the three-eyed Kyklops, whose abnormal eye not improbably denoted the sun 4. In this connexion, however, it must be borne in mind that Empedokles speaks of Zeus argés, 'the brilliant 5'; that Hesiod names one of the Kyklopes Árges 6; and that the same Kyklops is sometimes called, not Árges, but Árgos 7. These titles, no doubt, ultimately refer to the brilliant sky-god, but as manifested in the burning aither or the blazing thunderbolt rather than in the shining sun.

The author of the Hesiodic poem Aigímios associated the story of Argos and Io with Euboia, and derived the name of the island from the cow into which the latter was transformed 8. He repre­sented Argos as four-eyed in a line borrowed by an Orphic writer to describe Phanes 9. Strabon too mentions a cavern called The Cow's Crib on the east shore of Euboia, adding that Io was said to have given birth to Epaphos there and that the island drew its name from the fact. The Etymologicum Magnum states that Euboia was so called ‘because, when Isis was turned into a cow, Earth sent up much grass thitherwards...or because Io became a right beautiful cow and lived there 11.' If Zeus changed Io into a white cow 12, it was perhaps because in Euboia almost all the cattle are born white, so much so indeed that the poets used to call Euboia argíboios 13, "the land of white cattle." Argoura in Euboia, where Hermes was believed to have killed Panoptes 14, was doubtless connected by the populace with Argos the 'watcher' (oûros). These witnesses suffice to prove that Euboia had an Io-myth analogous to that of the Argolid 15.

1 Pherekyd. (rag. 22 (Frag. hist. Gr. i. 74 Muller) ap. schol. Eur. Phom. 1 [23.

2 Paus. 2. 24. 3.

8 M. Mayer Die Giganten und Titanen: Berlin 1887 p. 110 ff. Supra p. 320.

4 Supra pp. 313, 323.

5 Supra p. 31 f.

6 Supra p. 317.­

7 Schol. Aisch. P.v. 351, schol. Eur. Ale. 5.Supra p. 32 n. 4.­

8 Aigim. frag. 3 Kinkel ap. Steph. Byz. s.v. ... cp. Herodian. i. 104 Lentz.

9 Supra p. 311 11. 6.

10 Strab. 445 Boos …

11 Et. mag. p. 389- 2 ff.

12 Apollod. 2.1.3. Supra p. 440 n. 2.

13 Ail. de nat. an. 12. 36.

14 Steph. Byz. s.v. …

15 On the relation of the Euboean to the Argive myth see Gruppe Gr. Myth.- Rel. p. 1130 n. 9. cp. 968 n. 2.

Zeus. and Argos

463

Coins of Euboia from the earliest times exhibit a variety of ovine types l, the interpretation of which is doubtful 2. None of them can be proved to have any connexion with the cult of Zeus or Argos, Hera or Io. Still, the ox-head bound with a fillet, which appears at Eretria (?) (fig. 319) 3, Histiaia 4, and Karystos 5, is best explained as a religious type; and it is not unreasonable to con­jecture that the allusion is to the cult of Hera 6, who perhaps, as at Argos 7, bore the title Euboia 8. The head of Hera, likewise bound with a fillet and often mounted on the capital of an Ionic column, is found on coppers of Chalkis from c. 369 B.C. onwards 9, and an inscribed figure of the goddess sitting on a conical stone with phiále and filleted sceptre occurs on a copper of the same town struck by Septimius Severus 10. At Histiaia 'rich in grape-clusters 11’ the bull stands before a vine (fig. 320), and we legitimately suspect a Dionysiac meaning.

Fig. 319.

Fig; 320.

1 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Central Greece p. 94 ff. pl. 17 ff., Hunter Cat. Coins ii. 42 ff. pl. 33, Babelon Monn. gr. rom. ii. 1.677 f., 685 ff. pl. 31 f., Head Hist. num.2 p. 355 ff.

2 Prof. W. Ridgeway The Origin of Metallic Currency and Weight Standards Cambridge 1892 pp. 5, $B, 322 holds that the bovine types of Euboia point to the ox as the. original monetary unit. This view, which has been severely criticised by Mr G. Macdonald Coin Types Glasgow 1905 p. 23 ff. does not to my thinking necessarily conflict with the religious interpretation put upon the same types by Dr B. V. Head Hist. num.2 pj:>. 357. 361 and others: cp. infra ch. ii § 3 (c) i (0).

3 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Central Greece p. 95 f. pl. 17. 5-8, Hunter Cat. Coins

ii. 42.

4 Brit, Mus. Cat. Coins Central Greece p. 128 pl. 24. 8, p. 135 pl. 2-1.. 15, Hunter

Cat. Coins ii. 48 f. pl. 33, 13, Head Hist. num.2 p. 364.

5 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Central Greece p. 102 f. pl. 18, 13. 19. 3.

6 Head Hist. num.2 P' 357: 'The Bull or Cow is possibly connected with the cult of

Hera,' etc.

7 Supra p. 445 f.

8 See Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 417 n. 3.

9 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Central Greece pp. Ix f., 112 f. pl. 20, 15, p. 115 f. pl. 21, 5 f., cp. p. 117 pl. 21, 9-11, Hunter Cat. Coins ii. 45 f., cp. p. 46 pl. 33, 8, Head Hist. num.2 p. 359,.

10 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Central Greece p. 118 pl. '21, 12, Head Hist. num.2 p. 360.

11 …

12 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Central Greece p. 125 f. pl. 24, I. 2, 5, Hunter Cat. Coins p. 48 ff. pl. 33, 14, i6, Head Hist. num.2 p. 364.

464

The Myth of Pasiphae

From Euboia it is but a step to Thespiai, where a boundary-stone (fig. 321) 1 has come to light inscribed in late characters­, [THEU TAURU] ‘Of the god  Bull 2.' It has been conjectured that this god was the bovine Dionysos 3, but definite proof is lacking.

x. The Myth of Pasiphae.

Turning next to Crete, we may find the counterpart of Io and Epaphos in Pasiphae and the Minotaur.

Two principal versions of their story are extant. Apollodoros 4, after telling how Zeus for love of Europe became a bull and carried her off across the sea to Crete, how there she bore him three sons, Minos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthys, how Asterion, ruler of Crete, reared the lads, how they, when they were full-grown, quarrelled and scattered, Sarpedon to Lykia, Rhadamanthys to Boiotia, while Minos, staying in Crete, married Pasiphae, daughter of Helios by Perseis, continues his narrative as follows:

'Now Asterion died childless, and Minos desired to become king of Crete, but was prevented. However, he asserted that he had received the kingdom from the gods, and by way of proof declared that whatever he prayed for would be vouchsafed to him. So he sacrificed to Poseidon and prayed that a bull might be sent up from the deep, promising that he would offer it in, sacrifice when it appeared. Thereupon Poseidon heard him and sent up a magnificent bull; and Minos received the kingdom. But the bull he dispatched to join his herds and sacrificed another. He was the first to establish maritime sway and became lord of well nigh all the islands. But Poseidon, wroth with him because he had not slain the bull, maddened it and caused Pasiphae to hanker after it. She, being enamoured of the bull, asked help of Daidalos, a master-­craftsman who had fled from Athens by reason of a manslaughter. He made a wooden cow on wheels, hollowed it out inside, flayed a cow, sewed the hide round about his handiwork, placed it in the meadow where the bull was wont to pasture, and put Pasiphae within it (fig. 322)5. The bull came and consorted with it as though it were a real cow.

1 Drawn from a photograph of the stone kindly taken for me in the Museum at Thebes by Mr P. N. Vre.

2 Corp. inscr. Gr. sept. i no. 1787.

3 Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 76n. 8, p; 1425 n. 4.

4 Apollod. 3. r. 1 ff. cp. Diod. 4. 77. Tzetz, chil., I. 473 ff.

5 A wall-painting in a room of the Casa dei Vettii at Pompeii (Herrmann Denkm. d. Malerei pl. 38 Text p. 47f. fig. II). forming part of the same mural decoration with the painting of Ixion already figured (supra p. 203). The scene is laid in Daidalos' workshop, where an assistant is busy at the carpenter's bench. Daidalos lifts the lid from his wooden cow and explains its mechanism to Pasiphae, who holds two golden rings - perhaps the price of his handiwork. Behind Pasiphae stand an old nurse and a younger maid. The painting is further discussed by A. Mau in the Rom. Mitth. 1896 xi. 49 ff., A. Sogliano in the Mott. d. Littc. 1898 viii. 293 ff., and P. Herrmann loc. cit.

Myth of Pasiphae

465

Pasiphae then bore Asterios, who is called Minotauros (fig. 323) 1. His face was the face of a bull (taûros), but the remaining parts were those of a man. Minos in accordance with certain oracles shut him up in the Labyrinth and guarded him there. The Labyrinth was the one made by Daidalos; a building which by means of intricate windings led astray those that would escape from it.’

Fig. 321.

1 A late red-figured kylix at Paris (De Ridder Cat. Vases de la Bibl. Nat. ii. 623 f. no. 1066) published by F. Lenormant in the Gaz. Arch. 1879 v. 33-37 pls. 3-5 as having (a) an inner design of Persephone with Zagreus on her knee, (b) two outer designs of omophagy - a Maenad holding a severed human leg between two Satyrs, and a Maenad with a severed human arm similarly placed. Lenormant's interpretation of (a), though accepted at least in part by De Ridder loc. cit., must rest upon the assumed connexion between (a) and (b). But Sir Cecil Smith in the Journ. Hell. Stud. 1890 xi. 349 justly objects that 'in late r. f. kylikes such a relation of subject between the exterior and interior is rare; the usual practice being to have in the interior a definite subject, and to leave the exterior for meaningless athlete subjects or Bacchic subjects, as here; if these exterior scenes have any mythical significance, it is to the Pentheus rather than to the Zagreus legend. In any case the epithets [taurókeros] &c., applied to Dionysos are not sufficient to warrant us in identifying a definite Minotaur type with Zagreus, especially as on the one other distinct Zagreus scene …Wieseler, Denkm. ii. No. 13 j. see Heydemann, Dionysos-Geburt, P.55) [cp. Brit. Mus..,Cat. Vases iii. 188 no. E246 the hydría under discussion] he is represented as an ordinary human child.' In common, therefore, with Sir Cecil Smith and others (T. Panofka) in the Arch. Zeit. 1837 Anz. p. 22*, E. Braun in the Bull. d. Inst. 1847 p. I21, J. de Witte in the Arch. Zeit. 1850 Anz. p. 213*, H. B. Walters History of Ancient Pottery London 1905 ii. 148) I take the scene here figured to be Pasiphae with the infant Minotaur. The basket and goose merely indicate 'the gynaikonítis.'

The Myth of Pasiphae

466

Fig. 323.

The Bull and the Sun in Crete

467

The other version of the-myth connects,the bull with Zeus, not Poseidon. The first Vatican mythographer tells it thus 1:

‘Minos, the son of Zeus and Europe once drew near to the altars to sacri­fice to his father, and prayed the godhead to furnish him with a victim worthy of his own altars. Then, on a sudden appeared a bull of dazzling whiteness (nimio candore perfusus). Minos, lost in admiration of it, forgot his vow and chose rather to take it as chief of his herd. The story goes that Pasiphae was firee with actual love for it. Zeus, therefore, being scorned by his son and indignant at such treatment, drove the bull mad. It proceeded to lay waste, not only the fields, but even the walls of the Cretans. Herakles, sent by Eurystheus, proved to be more than a match for it and brought it vanquished to Argos. There it was dedicated by Eurystheus to Hera. But Hera, loathing the gift because it redounded to the glory of Herakles, drove the bull into Attike, where it was called the bull of Marathon and subsequently slain by Theseus, son of Aigeus (fig. 324) 2.’

Both Apollodoros and the Vatican mythographer are evidently concerned to present the reader with a consecutive and consistent story. The myth, as they relate it, is composite. I do not propose to discuss in detail its several parts, but rather to call attention to the fact that, taken as a whole, it bears a strong resemblance to two types of Greek tales, represented respectively by the golden lamb or ram, and by the white cow that we have already, considered.

xi. The. Bull and the Sun in Crete.

The golden lamb found among the flocks of Atreus and the golden ram found among the flocks of Athamas we regarded as a divine beast, the animal form of Zeus, which by secondary development came to symbolise the sun 3. The lamb of Atreus was for Simonides purple; the ram of Athamas purple or white 4.

Fig. 324.

1 Myth. Vat. I. 47. the same version is found in Myth. Vat. 2. 120, Lact. Plat. in Stat. Theb: 5. 431.

2 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Attica p. 1(;6, E..Beule Les monnaies d' AtlUnes Paris 1858 p. 398 f.fig., Imhoof.Bluuier and P. Gardner Num. Comm. Paus_ iii. 145 f., pl. DD, 7 f., Harrison Myth. Mon. Am:. Ath. p. 522 fig.. 79 The coin has been thought to represent a dedication by the township of Marathon on the akropolis at Athens (Paus. I: 27. 10 with. J. G. Frazer ad. loc.): but this notion is disproved by the extant fragment of the group (O. Benndorf  'Stiertor_o der Akropolis' in the fahresh. d. oest. arch. Inst. 1898 i. 191 ff.), which agrees with the scene on a red-figured kylix at Florence (L. A. Milani in the Muse d'italiano di onichita.climica iii. 239 pl. 3, Reinach Rep. Vases i. 529).

3 Supra pp. 405, 409, 419 f.

4 Supra.pp. 406, 419.

468

The Bull and the Sun in Crete

I would venture to offer the same explanation of the dazzling white bull that shone conspicuous in the herd of Minos 1. Ovid, thinking perhaps of the marks that characterised the Apis-bull 2, says of it:

Beneath the shady vales of wooded Ide

Was once a white bull, glory of the herd,

Signed with a line of black between the horns:

That its one fleck; the rest was milk to see 3.

As in Egypt 4, so in Crete, the fertilising bull was in the long run identified with the sun. Apollodoros states that Tálos or Talôs, the man of bronze, about whom we shall have more to say 5, was by some called Taûros 6. But Tálos or Talôs means 'the sun 7,' and Taûros means 'a bull.' It follows that some who wrote on Cretan mythology spoke of the Sun as the 'Bull.' Presumably, therefore, the Cretans, or at least certain Cretans, conceived him to be a bull. But, more than this, another lexicographer expressly asserts that the Cretans called the sun the 'Adiounian bull' on the ground that, when he changed the site of his city, he led the way in the likeness of a bull 8.

A similar story is told of Ilos, son of Tros, who came to Phrygia, won a wrestling-match arranged by the king, and received as his prize fifty boys and fifty girls. The king, in accordance with an oracle, gave him also a dappled or variegated cow with instructions that wherever it lay down he should found a city. The cow went before him to the hill of the Phrygian Ate and there lay down. So Ilos founded his city and called it Iliono. Or, as another authority told the tale, when Ilos (whose name appeared to mean 'Cow-herd 10') was feeding his cattle in Mysia, Apollon gave him an oracle to the effect that he should found a city wherever he saw one of his cows fall:

1 Supra p. 467.

2 Supra p. 432 f.

3 Ov. ars am. 1.289 ff.

4 Supra p.430 ff.

5 Infra ch.i § 6 (h).

6 Apollod. I. 9, 26. The editors print …but the name was also accented …see Stephanus Thes. Gr. Ling. vii. 1794 D.

7 Hesych. s.v. … So M. Schmidt: J. Alberti prints ...

8 ...H. van Herwerden Lexicon Graecum suppletorium et dialecticum Lugduni Batavorum 1902 p; 18 s.v. ... Taupot says: Adiectivum 'non expedio.' But may it not be a dialect-form from… whose name often appears on Etruscan mirrors as Atunis (e.g. Gerhard Etr. Spiegel Hiplsrn. n4-n6, v pls. 24-28) or Atuns (ib. v ; pl.23)? On the Cretan Zeus as a sort of Adonis see supra p. 157 n. 3.

9 Apollod. 3. 12. 3. Tzetz. in Lyk. Al. 29.

10 The real origjn of the name is uncertain; but the Greeks probably connected it with … 'herd' (see Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 121).

The Cow and the Moon in Crete

469

one of them leapt away, and he followed it till it bent its legs and fell down on the site of Ilion 1.' This cow was probably divine; for in Phrygia 2, as elsewhere in ancient times 3, to kill a plough-ox was a capital offence 4. A third story of like character tells how Kadmos, in obedience to a Delphic oracle, followed a cow belonging to Pelagon, son of Amphidamas, and on the spot where it lay down founded the city of Thebes; but of this I must speak more in detail in a later section 5.

xii. The Cow and the Moon in Crete.

If the brilliant bull in the herd of king Minos had thus come to symbolise the sun, we can discover a meaning in another story told of the same monarch. Apollodoros 6 says of Glaukos, son of Minos: 'Glaukos, while still an infant, was pursuing a mouse 7 when he fell into a jar of honey and was drowned. After his disappearance Minos had search made for him everywhere and consulted the oracles about the right way to find him.

1 … ap. schol. vet. and ap. Tzetz. in Lyk. Al. 29 …

2 Ail. de nat. an. 12. 34 … Nikol. Damask. frag. 128 (Prag-. hist. Gr. iii. 461 Muller) … (the Phrygians) …

3 Varr. nr. rust. 2. 5. 4 ab hoc (sc. bove) anti qui manus ita abstineri voluerunt, ut capite sanxerint, siquis occidisset qua in re testis Attice, testis Peloponnesos. Dam ab hoc pecore Athenis Buzuges nobilitatus, Argis Homogyros (supra p. 459 n. 4), Colum; de re rust: 6 praif. cuius (sc. bovis) tanta fuit apud antiquos veneratio ut tam capitale esset bovem necasse quam civem.

4 Cp. the [Bouphonia] at Athens (infra ch. ii § 9 (h) iii, the sacrifice of a calf dressed in buskins to Dionysos [Anthroporeistis] in Tenedos (Ail. de nat. an. 12. 34), and analogous rites (W. Robertson Smith Lectures on the Religion of the Semites London 1907 p. 304 ff., Frazer Golden Bough: Spirits of Corn and Wild ii. 4ff.., W. Warde Fowler The Roman Festivals London 1899 p. 327 ff..). Prometheus was said to have been the first to kill an ox (Plin. nat. hist. 7. 209): see Roscher Lex. Myth. iii.3055.

5 Infra ch. i § 6 (g) xviii.

6 Apollod. 3. 3. 1, cp. Tzetz. ilt Lyk. Al. 8u, Aristeid. or. 46. 307 (ii. 398 Dindorf) with schol. Aristeid. p. 728, 29 ff.. Dindorf. 7 For … which is supported by Tzetz. in Lyk. AI. 811, A. Westetmann, after Commelin, reads … 'a fly,' cr. Frag. hist. Gr. i. 152 Muller ... The first part of the story implies the custom of preserving the dead in honey (W. Robert-Tornow. De apium mellisque apud veteres significatione Berolini 1893 p. 128 ff..) and burying him in a píthos (cp. Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 816 n. 5). Glaukos' pursuit of the 'fly' may be based on the art-type of Hermes evoking the dead from a burial-jar, while a soul in the form of a bee (Gruppe op. cit. p. 801 n. 6) hovers above it. The type is best represented. by gems (figs. 325, 326 = Miiller-Wieseler Denkm. d. alt. Kimst ii. 252 f. pl. 30, 333, 332, cp.ib. 332a). See further Harrison Proleg. Gk. Rel.2 p. 43f.

Fig. 325.

Fig. 326.

470

The Cow and the Moon in Crete

The Kouretes told him that he had in his herds a three-coloured cow 1, and that, the man who could offer the best similitude for the colour of this, cow would also give him back his son alive. So the seers were called together and Polyidos, son of Koiranos, likened the colour of the cow to the fruit of a bramble. He was therefore compelled to search for the boy, and by some prophetic art he found him.

With the rest of the story we are not here concerned. It is, however, worth while to compare the opening of the tale as told by Hyginus 2:

Glaukos, son of Minos and Pasiphae, while, playing at ball fell into a big jar full of honey. His parents sought him and enquired of Apollon about the boy. To them Apollon made answer: “A portent has been born to you, and whoever can explain it will restore to you your boy." Minos, having listened to the oracle, began to enquire of his people what this portent might be. They said that a calf had been born, which thrice in the day, once every four hours, changed its colour, being first white, then ruddy, and lastly black. Minos, therefore, called his augurs together to explain the portent. When they were at a loss to do so, Polyidos, son, of Koiranos, showed 3 that, it was like a mulberry-tree; for the mulberry is first white, then red, and, when fully ripe, black. Then said Minos to him: “The answer of Apollon requires that you should restore to me my boy."

It will be observed that, according to Apollodoros (and Tzetzes bears him out 4), the task set to test the powers of the seer was, not to explain the significance of the three-coloured cow, but to find a, suitable comparison for its colours. The cow did not signify a bramble-bush or a mulberry-tree, but in aspect or colour they might be taken to resemble it. Now, a common folk-lore explana­tion of the moon's spots is that they are a thorn-bush carried by the man-in-the-moon 5. It might therefore be maintained that the bramble-bush or mulberry-tree was, a possible description of the moon. And, if so, then the three-coloured cow, or calf that changed its colour three times a day, was merely another way of describing the moon. I am the more disposed to advance this view because Io who was so often identified with the moon 6, became according to one account now a white cow, now a black, now a violet 7,

1 Apollod. 3. 3. 1 … Lyk. Al. 811 … schol. Aristeid. p. 118; 31 Dindorf…

2 Hyg.fab.136.

3 The text is uncertain. M. Schmidt prints: qui cum non invenirent, Polyidus Coerani filius Bizanti monstrum demonstravit, eum arbori mora similem esse; nam etc. T. Muncker cj. rubi mora, M. Schmidt cj. colore mora.

4 Tzetz. in Lyk. Al. 811 …

5. See e.g. J. Grimm Teutonic Mythology trans. J. S. Stallybrass London 1883 ii, 7I7 ff., P. Sebillot Le Folk-lore de France Paris 1904 i. II ff.

6 Supra p. 454 ff.

7 Supra p. 441.

The Sacred Cattle of Gortyna

471

and because Bacis or, Bacchis the sacred bull at Hermonthis, which is known to have been consecrated to the Sun, was said to change its colour every hour 1.

A 'Caeretan' hydría in the Louvre (fig. 327) 2 represents Zeus as a three-coloured bull bearing Europe across the sea to Minos' isle; but the coloration is here a matter of Ionian technique, not of Cretan mythology.

xiii. The Sacred Cattle of Gortyna.

Further evidence of the Cretan cult of a solar bull and a lunar cow is forthcoming at Gortyna and at Knossos. A Cretan name for the Gortynians was Kartemnídes 3, which in all probability means 'Cow-men' or 'Cow-herds,' since the Cretans said kárten for' cow' and Gortynians kartaîpos for 'ox' or 'bull 4.'

Fig. 327.

1 Supra, p. 436.

2 Pottier Gat. Vases du Louvre ii. 535 f. no. E 696, id. Vases antiques du Louvre 2m. Serie Paris 1901 p. 65. id. in the Bull. Corr. Hell. 1892 xvi. 254, Mon. d. -Inst. vi-vii pl. 77, W. Hielbig in the Ann. d. Inst. 1863 xxxv. 210 ff., Reinach JUp, vases i. 162, 1 f.

3 Hesych. s.v. …

4 Hesych. s.v. … M. Schmidt ad loc. hazards the suggestion that we should read … and explain it of an eponymous founder … Voss Catull. p. 203 would correct … Steph. Byz. S.v. … he cites Strab. 478 to prove that Gortyna lay 'in a plain' ,and could not therefore be called 'Precipitous.' J. Alberti on Hesych. loc. cit. quotes from Soping a comparison with the first element in Carthago and the story of the bull’s hide (Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 1013, Pauly-Wissowa Real. Ene. v. 426): this of course assumes a folk-etymology for Carthago as well as for the Byrsa. I would rather suppose a connexion with … which occurs in the law of Gortyna to denote 'oxen' (Michel Recueil d'Inscr.gr. no. 1333 iv. 35f. =CoUitz-Becbtel Gr. Dial.-Inschr: iii. . 265 no. 4991 .iv. 35 f. … and, in an all but identical form, was used by Pindar of  'a bull' (pind. 01. 13 8… with schol. ad loc. …) Dedications to the Kouretes as guardians of kine … have been found by Prof. De Sandis at Hagia Barbara (G. De Sandis in the Mon.d. Line. 1907 xviii. 346 f.) and at Plud near Gortyna (R, C. Bosanquet in the Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath: [908-1909 xv: 353).

The Labyrinth at Knossos

Special herds of cattle belonging to the sun used to be kept at Gortyna 1; and Virgil represents Pasiphae's bull, whose solar character we have already considered 2, as lying beneath an evergreen oak or following the Gortynian cows 3. Bronze coins of Gortyna show Zeus as a bull galloping across the sea, which is suggested by a couple of dolphins 4 or carrying Europe on his back (fig. 328) 5: in both cases a surrounding circle of rays stamps him as a god of light.

xiv. The Labyrinth at Knossos.

At Knossos 6 was the Labyrinth built by Daidalos for the safe­keeping of the Minotaur 7. Diodoros 8 and Pliny 9 state that it was an imitation of the yet more famous Egyptian Labyrinth. Mr H. R. Hall describes the latter building as follows: ‘It was a great temple, with magnificent pillared halls, side-chambers, and out­buildings, erected by the greatest pharaoh of the Twelfth Dynasty, Amenemhat III (circa 2200 B.C.), immediately in front of his pyramid at Hawara: there is no doubt that it was the funerary temple of the pyramid, erected by the'king for the due performance of the funeral rites after his death 10.' Classical writers had a more or less confused idea of the, purpose served by the building.

1 Supra p. 410 n. 9.

2 Supra p. 467 f.

3 Verg. ecl. 6. 53ff.

4 J. N. Svoronos Numismatique de la Crete ancienne Macon 1890 i.174f. pl. 16, 4 ­and 5, Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Crete etc. p. 45 pl. 11,14.

5 J. N. Svoronos op. cit. i. 173 pl. 15, 26, Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Crete etc. p. 45, pl. II, II, Overbeck Gr. Kun myth. Zeus p. 462, Mlinztaf.6, II. … from my collection a similar coin of Knossos, struck in alliance with Gortymi (cp. J. N. Svoronos op.. cit. i. 81 pl. 7, II-I4, Brit. Mus: Cat. Coins Crete etc. p. 112 pl. 62 f.).

6 Some late writers, (Claud. de sext. cons. HOrt. Aug. 634, Kedren; hist. compo 122 C (i. 215 Bekker) place the Cretan Labyrinth at Gortyna.

7 Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 1778 ff.

8 Diod. I. 61 and 97.

9 Plin. nat. hist. 36. 840 ff.

10 H. R. Hall 'The Two Labyrinths' in the Journ. Hell. Stud. ig05 xxv. 328. Prof. Flinders Petrie investigated the site of the Egyptian Labyrinth in 1888 with meagre results (W. M. Flinders Petrie Hamara, Biahlllu, and. Arsinoe London 1889 pp. 4-8 pl. 25 map of neighbourhood with conjectural ground-plan). In 1911 he was more successful, and at a depth of from 26 to 25 feet recovered the upper parts of half a dozen statues of the gods of the twelfth dynasty, especially of Sebek the crocodile-god, who seems to have been the principal deity of the precinct; he also found in the debris of the brick core of the pyramid traces of the 21 chapels for the Egyptian nomes, e.g. two large shrines of red granite each containing two life-size figures of Amenemhat iii, besides many fragmentary wall-sculptures, including one which shows the king seated between goddesses holding fish, and another in which he is kneeling in a boat and opening the shrine of a holy tree (W. M. Flinders Petrie in Records if the Past 1911 x. 30. 315 with figs. id. G. A. Wainwright E. Mackay The Labyrinth Gerzeh and Mazghuneh London 1912 pp. 28-35 with restored plan of western half of Labyrinth and pls. 23-32). Prof. J. L. Myres in Ann. Arch. Anthr. 1910 iii. 134-136 has a restoration of the Labyrinth based on the description of Herodotos.

Fig. 328.

473

Herodotos speaks of its twelve courts as a memorial of the dodec­archy 1. Strabon calls it 'a vast palace composed of as many palaces as there were formerly nomes,' and states that the nomes were accustomed to assemble in their respective courts with their own priests and priestesses for sacrifice, oblation, and judicial award on matters of importance 2.' Diodoros thinks it the 'tomb' of the king who built it 3, as does Manethon 4. Pliny says:

'Different interpretations are put upon the construction' of this edifice. Demoteles takes it to have been the palace of Moteris; Lykeas, the tomb of Moiris. Most authorities suppose that it was reared as a building sacred to the Sun, and such is the common belief 5.' ­With regard to the Cretan Labyrinth too very various opinions have been advanced 6. Nowadays most scholars hold that Sir

Fig. 329.

1 Hdt. 2. 148.

2 Strab. 811.

3 Diod. I. 61.

4 Maneth. frags. 34-36 (Frag.- hist. Gr. ii. 560 Muller).

5 Demoteles. frag. I (Frag. hist. Gr. iv. 386 MUller) and Lykeas Nankratites. trag. I f Frag. hist. Gr. iv. HI MUller) at. Plin. nat. hist. 36. 84.

6 8ee Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 1778-1783.

474

The Labyrinth at Knossos

Arthur Evans was justified in identifying it with the complex palace that he excavated at Knossos, and this view can certainly claim the support not only of such writers as Diodoros and Pliny, who suppose a Cretan imitation of an Egyptian building 1, but also of the Attic painters of red-figured vases, who represent Theseus as dragging the Minotaur forth from an edifice with a facade of Doric (fig. 329) 2 or ionic columns 3. Nevertheless, to admit that Attic painters c. 450-430 B.C. regarded the Labyrinth as a sort of palace is not necessarily to assert that such was its original character. The red-figured vases in every case show to the right of the colonnade a broad band decorated with swastika patterns checker-work; and it is from behind this band that the body of the Minotaur emerges.

Fig. 330

1 Diod. 1.61, t. 97, Plin. nat. kist. 36;'84-86. The ,earliest writer that speaks of it as a building is Apollod. 3. I. 4 … But Pherekydes frag. 106 (Fraf. kist. Gr. i. 97 MUller) appears to have mentioned the lintel of its door …

2 (I) Brit. Mus. Cat. Vases iii. lid. n. E 84 a kylix from Vulci, of which the interior is reproduced in the … Harrison Myth. Mon Anc. Ath: p, cxv fig. 25… Hauser, Gr; Vasenmalerei iii. 49 If; fig. 22, and the central scene in … Dict. Ant., iii. 883 fig.,4315. (2) C; Torr Harrow School eum. Catalogue of the classical antiquities from the collection of the late Sir Gard:Ur Wltkihson HamHv.'I887'P.,:iS no.:S2 a kflix from Nola, of which a small illustration is given by E. Strongin, the Burlington Fine Arts Club. Exhibition of Ancient Greek Art, 1903 London. 1904 p. … no. 1,60 pl. 97; and two photographs of the interior and exterior by P. Wol... uber. d. kais. bayr. Akad. d. Wiss. Phil.-hist. Classe 1907 p. 1.18…

3 Vasos griegvs Madrid. pp. 76 r., H9 no. 'II, 265 Paradise Lost. 33, Leroux Cat. Vases de Madrid p. flO ff. no. '196 pls. 25-28 a kylix, signed by the artist Aison, first published by E. Bethe in the Ant. Denkm. ii pl. I, cp. Furtwangler-Reichhold-Hauser Gr. Vasenmalerei iii. 48 fig. 21,50 and Einzelaufnalzmen no…).

475

E. Braun long ago suggested that the patterned space stands for the Labyrinth 1. And P. Wolters has recently proved that the further back we trace the whole design, the more important becomes this particular feature of it 2; On a black-figured lékythos from Vari (fig. 330) 3 the Minotaur, grasping a couple of stones, is haled out from behind a stile or broad column covered with maeanders etc. The Labyrinth is here no palace; it can hardly be termed a building at all.

Fig. 331.

1 E. Braun in the Bull. d. Inst. 1846 p. 106. G, W, Elderkin 'Maeander or Labyrinth' in the Journ. Am. Arch. 1910 xiv. 185-190 still thinks that the band is the anta of a wall and that its patterns are mere filling, though he admits that 'An exact parallel to the vertical stripe...is not at hand.' His notion that Aison on the Madrid kylix was copying the north porch of the Erechtheion with its…is surely far-fetched. A better copy of the Erechtheion, olive tree and all, is Lenormant­ de Witte El. mono dr. i. 223 ff. pl. 67.

2 P. Wolters loc. cit. pp. II3-132 'Darstellungen des Labyrinths.'

3 Collignon-Couve Cat. Vases d'Athenes p. 283 f. no. 878, P. Wolters loc. cit, p. 122 f. pl. 2.

4 Graef Ant. Vasen Athen p. 142 f. no, 1280 pl. 73, A, P. Wolters loc. cit. p. J23 pl. 3, a fragmentary skyphos from the Persian debris showing Theseus beside the Labyrinth, greeted by Athena in the presence of three other figures: the inscription is meaningless. With this vase cp. Graef op. cit. p. r47 no. 13r4 pl. 76, P. Wolters loc. cit. p. 124, two fragments of a skyphos showing (obverse) Theseus beside the Labyrinth and another figure; (reverse) perhaps the same design. The Labyrinth, to judge from Graef's plate, tapers towards the top like an omphalos (?).

476

The Labyrinth at Knossos

On a black-figured skíphos from the akropolis at Athens (fig. 331) the resemblance to a stone structure is still more remote 1, the Labyrinth appearing merely as a patterned oblong side by side with the dramatis personae. Wolters concludes that the black-figured vases presup­pose a primitive composition, in which the action portrayed was accompanied by a ground-plan of the scene. He finds a parallel­ in the Etruscan oinochóe from Tragliatella (fig. 332) 2, on which O. Benndorf 3 recognised soldiers engaged in the game of 'Troy' (Truia). It would seem, then, that Attic tradition points back­wards to a time when the Labyrinth was depicted, not as a palace, but as a maeander or swastika-pattern.

The same result is reached on Cretan soil. Coins of Knossos from c. 500 B.C. onwards represent the Labyrinth by a swastika or by some derivative of the swastika. The pattern develops in two directions.

Fig. 332

Fig. 333

Fig. 334

Fig. 335

1 B. Graef Ant. Vasm Athen p. 143 contends that the black-figured vases aim at representing 'ein turmartiges Bauwerk' with a labyrinthine ground-plan, and ingeniously compares the thólos at Epidauros.

2 W. Deccke in the Ann. d. 1nst. 1881 liii. 160-168 pl. L-M, W. Helbig in the Bull. d. Inst. 1881 p. 65 ff., Perrot-Chipiez Hist. de I' Art vii. 118 fig. ls,.Reina,ch Rtfp. Vases i. 345.

3 O. Benndorf in the Sitzungsber. d. kais. Akad. d. Wiss. in Wien Phil. hist. Classe 1890 cxxiii. 3. Helbig loc. cit. p. 67 had already thought of the same explanation.

4 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Crete p. 18 ff. pls. 4 ff., Hunter Cat. Coins ii. 173 ff. pl. 40, 20, 24, 41, 2, 3, 5, Babelon Monn. gr. rom. ii. I. 1331 ff. pl. 62, _I f., J. N. Svoronos Numismatique de la Crete ancienne Macon 1890 i. 65 ff. pls. 4 ff. and in the … 1889 p. 199 ff. nos. 13-21, Head Hist. num. 2 p. 460 ff., Anson Num. Gr. vi pl. 13, 764-771, 14 773-806.

The Labyrinth at Knossos

477

On the one hand, the swastika together with its four incuse corners (figs. 333, 334) passes into a framework enclosing a square (fig. 335), and its central star (sun?) is replaced by a human (fig. 336) or bovine-head (fig. 337) or whole figure (fig. 338) 1. On the other hand, the swastika apart from its incuse corners (figs. 339, 340,341) becomes a maze, which is first square (fig. 342) and then circular (fig. 343) but retains at least a trace of its original form to the last. Thanks to Sir Arthur Evans, we now know that this Labyrinth design. was already familiar to the Cnossians of the Bronze Age. In one of the corridors of the second palace at Knossos 'the fallen plaster...showed the remains of an elaborate series of mazes 2,' based on the motif of the swastika 3.

Fig. 336.

Fig. 337.

Fig. 338.

Fig. 339.

Fig. 340.

Fig. 341.

Fig. 342.

Fig. 343.

1 Cp. Roman mosaics, which represent the slaying of the Minotaur within a large framework of maeander-pattern (see Welcker Alt. Denim,. ii. 303 f. and for further bibliography P. Gauckler in Daremberg-Saglio Diet.. Ant. iii. 2101 notes 17 and 18…

2 A. J. Evans in the Am. Brit. Sen. Atn. 1901-1902 viii. 103. 3 ld. ib.. viii. 104 fig. 62. Cp. ib. p. 103 f.: 'A simple key or maeander pattern appears on some of the seatings found by Mr. Hogarth at Zakro [J. Hell. Stud, 1902 . xxii. 88 no. 133 pl. 10]. A still earlier example of the same class occurred in a magazine of the Earlier Palace together with fine "Middle Minoan" pottery on the East slope.'

478

The Labyrinth at Knossos

The swastika as a representation of the Labyrinth can perhaps be traced further afield. At Gaza the god Marnas, otherwise called Zeus Kretagenés 1, had a circular temple surrounded by concentric colonnades, which appears to have borne some resem­blance to the Cretan Labyrinth 2. If so, it becomes possible that the Phoenician letter mem on autonomous coppers of Gaza (fig. 344) 3 was not merely the initial of Marnas 4, but also a quasi-swastika like the Labyrinth-devices on coins of Knossos 5.'

However that may be, it seems certain that both Attic and Cretan art presuppose the swastika as the earliest ascertainable form of the Labyrinth, That much-disputed symbol has a volu­minous literature of its own; and critics are not yet unanimous as to its ultimate significance. But among, recent investigators, there is something like a consensus in favour of the view that it was a stylised representation of the revolving sun 7.

Fig. 344.

1 Supra p. 149. See now G. F. Hill Some Palestinian Cults in the Graeco-Roman Age London 1912 p. 14 ff. (extr. from the Proc: Brit. Acad. v).

2 Infra ch. ii § 9 (g), The old ground-plan came near to being retained, when the edifice was rebuilt as a Christian church (supra p. 167 n. 3) Mazes still survive in the flooring of continental churches, (infra p. 485 f.).

3 F. De Saulcy Numismatique de la terre sainte Paris: 1870: p, 2JO pi; n, 2: cp. supra P. 236figs.I75-177.

4 F. De Saulcy of. at. p. 210, Head, Htst. num. 2 p. 805. Cp. Damaskios dubit et solut. 262 (p. i27 f. Ruelle) … Which shows that this symbol was deemed sacred to Zeus.

5 This suggestion was first made by Sir Arthur Evans in the Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1902-1903 ix. 88 f.

6 To the bibliography of the swastika given by T. Wilson. (supra p. 337 n. 1) add Z. Nuttall The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations Cambridge Mass. 1901 (Archaeological and Ethnological Papers of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, vol. ii) pp. 1-602.

7 So e.t. Count Goblet d'Alviella The Migration of Symbols p. 50, A. C. Haddon Evolution in Art London 1895 p. 282 ff., A. Bertrand La Religion des Gaulois Paris 1897 p. 40 ff. J. Dechelette Manuel d'archeologie Paris 9IO ii. I453ff. Cp. supra pp. 30, 336f.

The Labyrinth at Knossos

479

On this showing, the original Cnossian Labyrinth was not the great palace unearthed by Sir Arthur Evans, at least was not the whole of that palace but was a structure which somehow lent itself to an imitation of the sun's movements in the sky.

But how are we to conceive of such a structure? Probably it was an orchéstra or 'arena' intended for the performan'ce of a mimetic 'dance.' Perhaps even it was marked out with mazy lines to aid the intricate evolutions of the dancers, a practice undoubtedly known to the later Greeks 1; If, therefore, we are to identify the Labyrinth with any structure so far found, I should suppose that it was the paved rectangular space near the north-west corner of the Cnossian palace. This space, discovered by Sir Arthur Evans 2 in 1901 and by him dubbed 'the Theatral Area,' is an east-and-west oblong of 12'94 by 9'89 metres enclosed by two flights of steps or seats (18 on the east, 6 decreasing to 3 on the south side) with a square bastion at their common angle. Its rough paving was probably once covered with coloured cement or hard plaster, on which we may believe 'the labyrinthine' lines to have been set out more or less as in the foregoing ground plan 3.

Fig. 345.

1 Hesych…See A. E. Haigh The Attic Theatre Oxford 1898 p. 137.

2 A. J. Evans in the An. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1902-1903 ix 99-110 fig. 68. plan and section, fig. 69 view.

3 I have here combined a plan of the 'Theatral Area' (based on that of N. J. Evans loc. cit. p. 103 fig. 68) with the labyrinth-pattern of the wall-painting (supra p. 477 n, 2 f.). But, of course, other arrangements are equally possible. A. Mosso The Palaces of Crete and their Builders London 1907 p. 313 notes ‘a square figure with nine small holes incised on a step of the theatre.' He suggests that it was 'a Mycenaean game' and compares 'similar figures cut by idle people on the pavements of the basilicas in the Roman forum.’

The Labyrinth at Knossos

480

The Cnossian orchéstra bears no slight resemblance to the oblong theatre at Thorikos (fig. 346) 1. Since Thorikos was once a flourishing 'Minoan' settlement, it might be suggested that the peculiar form of its theatre was a heritage from early times. Perhaps we may venture even a step further and recognise certain analogies between the Cretan Labyrinth and the ordinary Attic theatre. If the former was occupied by dancers arranged as a swastika, the latter had regularly its 'square chorus 2.' If a 'clew' was needed in the one 3, a rope-dance (kórdax) was executed in the other 4. Ariadne, as the mythographers put it, when deserted by Theseus was taken up by Dionysos. Prof. R. C Bosanquet points out to me that even in Roman times, the orchestra of the theatre at Athens was laid out as a swastika-mosaic (pl. xxix) 5.

Fig. 346.

1 W. Miller in Papers … Studies at Athens 1885­-1886 iv. 1-34, W. Doerpfeld and E. Reisch Das griechische Theater Athens 1896 p; HO fig.43, A. Marquand Greek Arehitecture New York 1909 p. 338, fig. 37, Durm Baukunst d. Gr. 3 p. 465 fig. 419, A. Struck Grieenenland Wien u. Leipzig 191 i i. 194 fig. -121.

2 On the [tetragonos choros] of tragic, comic, and satyric plays, and its relation to the [kyklios choros] of dithyramb, see Class. Rev. 1895 ix. 376.

3 Diels in Pallat De tabula Ariadnaea Berolini 1891 interprets the clew as a rope­ dance (Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. pp. 154.603 n. 7).

4 I have discussed a 'Minoan' precursor of the [kordax] in Journ. Hell. Stud. 1894 xiv. 101 f.,

5 The plan here given (very slightly restored) is based on Mr A. M. Poynter's careful survey of the existing remains (Ann. Brit. Sen. Ath. 1896-1897 iii. 176-179 pl. 15).

The swastika-mosaic in the theatre at Athens. See page 480.

The Labyrinth at Knossos

481

There was in fact some excuse for Conrad von Querfurt, who, writing from 'Sicily' in 1194 A.D., tells his old friend the prior of Hildesheim how charmed he had been to find at Taormina the Labyrinth of the Minotaur! 1

The solution of the Labyrinth-problem 2 here advanced is borne out by a thrice-familiar passage in the Iliad: Daidalos, we read,

once wrought in Knosos broad

A dancing-ground for fair-haired Ariadne 3.

The scholiast explains that Theseus, having escaped from the Labyrinth by means of Ariadne's clew, with the youths and maidens whom he had rescued wove a circling dance for the gods that resembled his own entrance into and exit from the Labyrinth, Daidalos showing them how to dance it 4. Eustathios 5 adds that this was the first occasion on which men and women danced together, that Sophokles had alluded to 'the dances of Knossos 6,' and that old-fashioned folk in his own day, sailors especially, danced a certain dance with many twists and turns in it meant to recall the windings of the Labyrinth. Lucian too specifies as Cretan dance-themes 'Europe, Pasiphae, both the Bulls, the Labyrinth, Ariadne, Phaidra, Androgeos, Daidalos, Ikaros, Glaukos, the seer-craft of Polyeidos, and Talos the bronze sentinel of Crete 7.'

The Labyrinth-dance was not confined to Crete. Plutarch in his Life of Theseus 8 writes:

'Sailing away from Crete, he put in at Delos. Here he sacrIficed to the god, dedicated the image of Aphrodite that he had received from Ariadne, and in company with the young men danced a dance, which, they say, is still kept up by the Delians. It imitates the circuits and exits of the Labyrinth by means of a certain measure that involves turnings and re-turnings. This type of dance as Dikaiarchos shows is called the Crane by the Delians 9.

1 D. Comparetti Vergil in the Middle Ages trans. E. F. M. Benecke London 1895. p. 257 f.

2 Sir Arthur Evans loc. cit. p. III concludes 'that this first of theatres, the Stepped Area with its dancing ground, supplies a material foundation for the Homeric tradition of the famous choros [II. 1.8. 591 ff.].' But he does not expressly identify the said Area with the Labyrinth of mythology. Indeed, he cannot, because, he regards the whole palace as the Labyrinth (Ann. Brit. Sen. Ath. 1899-1900 vi. 33). To me it seems more probable that the Labyrinth proper was the dancing-ground made by Daidalos, and that the close relation of this dancing-ground to the palace at Knossos led the Greeks as early as the fifth century B.C., if not much earlier, to view the Labyrinth erroneously as a palace.

3 Il. 18. 591 f.

4 Schol. A.B. Il. 18. 590.

5 Eustath. in, Il. p. 1166, 17 ff.

6 Soph. Ai. 700.

7 Loukian. de salt. 49.

8 Plout. v. Thes. 21.

9. The [geranos] (Loukian. de salt. 34) is described by Poll. 4. … and in more general terms by Kallim … On the kratér of Klitias and Ergotimos, Attic work of c. 600-550 B.C., Theseus, lyre in hand, is leading the dance, which consists of seven youths and seven maidens: they have just landed from their ship (Furtwangler-Reichhold Gr. Vasmmalerei i. 60 f. pl. 13). I have elsewhere (Transactions of the Third International Congress for the History of Religions Oxford 1908 ii. 186 f.) pointed out that this curious combination of bull and crane lecurs in the Celtic area. On an altar found at Paris in 1710, beneath the apse of Notre-Dame, four sculptured panels show (a) Iupiter (IOVIS) with sceptre and eagle, (b) Volcanus (VOLCANVS) with tongs, (c) a bearded god (ESVS) felling a willow-tree with uplifted-axe, (d) a great bull wearing a long saddle-cloth or dorsuale. On his head and back are three cranes visible against the foliage of the willow. The inscription above is TARVOS TRIGARANVS, 'the Bull with the Three Cranes' (see A. Bertrand La Religion des Gaulois Paris 1897 p. 351 f. fig. 50 and especially S. Reinach Cultes, Mythes et Religions Paris 1905 i. 233 ff. figs. 1-4) On another altar found near Treves in 1895 the three sculptured faces show (a) Mercurius with caduceus, purse, etc. and his consort (Rosmerta?) standing on either side of an altar. A small animal (goat? ram?) is be­tween the feet of Mercurius. Beneath runs the incomplete inscription NDVS MEDIOM  MERCVRIO V vs (b) the lower portion of a small draped female figure, (c) a beardless (?) wood-cutter cleaving or splitting a tree, probably meant for a willow. High up on the tree are a bull's head to the left and three large birds with long beak to the right (Bertrand op. cit. p. 352 f. fig. 51, Reinach 01. cit. i. 234 ff. figs. 5 f.). H. Steuding in Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 1603 cp. the stout shepherd Garanus (Verrius Flaccus ap. Servo in Verg. Am. 8. 203) or Recaranus (Aur. Vict. mg. gent. Rom; 8, where Steuding ingeniously cj. Trigaranus), who slew Cacus the thief of Geryones' oxen. It may also be remarked that a Japanese crest has three storks or cranes grouped together on the solar disk (N. Gordon Munro in the Transactions of the Asiatic Sodety of Japan 1911 xxxviii. 3. 64 pl. 20, 22, cp. 21).

The Labyrinth at Knossos

482

Theseus danced it round the keratón 1 altar, so named because it consists of horns (kérata) all taken from the left side. They state also that he instituted a contest in Delos and therein was the first to award a palm to the victors.' Again, the game of 'Troy 2,'

1 The form [keratón] is found also in a Delian inscription (Dittenberger Syll inscr. (jr.2 no. 588, 172). Plout. terr. an aquat. animo sin callidiora 35 regards the [kératinos Bomos]  of Delos as one of the seven wonders of the world (so anon. de increa. 2, Mart. lib. spec. I. 4) and states that it was made of right horns only, without glue or bonding of any sort. Anon. de incred. 2 says that it was composed of the right horns of victims offered to the god on a single day. Kallim. h. Ap. 61 ff. asserts that the four-year-old Apollon built it with the horns of goats shot by Artemis on Mt Kynthos. It is also mentioned by Ov. her. 21. 99. The existing remains are described by T. Homolle 'L'autel des cornes a Delos' in the Bull. Cor. Hell. 1884 viii. 417 ff. pls. 17 ff., Durm Baukunst d. Gr.2 p. 230 figs. 152 f., L. BUlchner in Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. iv. 2468. They include a long narrow temple measuring 67,'20 by 8'86 metres. This is divided into three parts. First comes a [prónaos] with four Doric columns. Then, an elongated [naós], the centre of which forms a sunk oblong space. This is separated from the third and innermost portion of the edifice by two pairs of Doric half-columns forming three intercolumniations: the middle opening has on either side of it a pilaster, the capital of which is the forepart of a kneeling bull. Lastly, there is an inner [naós], oblong in shape, where once stood the famous horn-altar. It is noteworthy also that a colonnade 125 metres in length, which runs along the northern side of the precinct, has its triglyphs decorated with bulls' heads. Examples of the forepart of a bull used as an architectural member are collected by A. H. Smith in the.Brit. Mus. Cat. Sculpture ii. 263 f.

2 G. E. Marindin in Smith-Wayte-Marindin Dict, Ant. ii.899f. Cp. also Hesych. … Miss Harrison in a letter to me dated June 14, 1912 makes the interesting suggestion that the … of Neoptolemos at Delphoi (Eur. Andr: 1139) may stand in some relation to the game of ‘Troy.' This strikes me as not impossible, since we have already found Neoptolemos grasping the solar wheel in the same sanctuary (supra p. 261). Yet I should hardly agree with Miss Harrison that 'the usual aetiology is sheer nonsense': cp. schol. Eur. Andr. 1139 … Here at least is a bona fide piece of folk-lore.

The Labyrinth at Knossos.

483

which the Etruscan potter repre­sented as a maze1 and Virgil expressly compares with the Cretan Labyrinth 2, was said to have been first introduced into Latium by Ascanius and his Trojans 3. This tradition, if sound, points to the former existence of a labyrinthine dance in Asia Minor. It may, therefore, be worth while to suggest that the Labyrinth-pattern, which occurs on coins of Priene 4, Magnesia on the Maiandros 5, Tripolis,6, and Apameia 7, was not originally a graphic sign for the 'meandering' river, but an ancient religious symbol akin to, if not identical with, that which represented the Labyrinth at Knossos. Thus the humped bull within the Labyrinth on coins of the Cretan colony 8 Magnesia, c. 350-190 B.C. (fig. 347) 9, would be comparable with the Minotaur 10, while the swastika be­neath the feet of Apollon on the later tetradrachms (fig. 348) 11 suggests a solar interpretation. If we were better acquainted with the history of 'Minoan' migrations, it might be possible to trace the route by which the Labyrinth-dance and the Labyrinth-pattern passed from east to west 12.

1 Supra p. 476 fig. 332.

Verg. Aen. 5. 588 ff.

3 Id. ib. 5. 596 ff.

4 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Ionia p. 229 ff. pl. 24, 3-6, 9, Hunter Cat. Coins ii. 358, . Head Hist. num.2 p. 590 f.

5 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Ionia p. 158 ff. pl. 18, I-I I, 19, 2, Hunter Cat. Coins ii. 346 f. pl. 5 I, 3 f., Head Hist. num.2p. 582 fig. 296.

6 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Lydia p. 364 pl. 38, 6, Head Hist. num.2 p. 661.

7 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Phrygia pp. 74 f., 85, 92 f. pl. 10, 2-5, 8-10, Hunur. Cat. Coins ii. 478 f.pl. 56, 13, Head Hist. num.2 p. 666..

8 Schol. Ap. Rhod. I. 584: see Roscher Lex Myth. ii. 1997 f.

9 I figure a copper in my collection.

10 The Cretan bull, ab initio a fertilising agent, would readily become a bovine river­god, his swastika being re-interpreted as the sinuous line of the river.

11 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Ionia p. 162 pl. 18, 9 {=my fig. 348}, o, II. i. Prof. R. C. Bosanquet draws my attention to the fact that in the temple of Apollon at Didyma the marble roof of a stair-case known as the [Labyrinthos] (B. Haussoullier in the Rev. Philol. N. S. 1905 cxix. 264 ff.) had a carved and painted swastika-pattern (T. Wiegand 'Sechster vorlaufiger Bericht fiber Ausgrabungen in Milet und Didyma' in the Abh. d. bed. Akad. I908 Phil. hist. Classe p. 35, 'Siebenter...Bericht ib. 1911 p. 49 f. fig. 16).

12 The Labyrinths of the Kyklopes in the caves near Nauplia (Strab. 369 …), the Labyrinth in Samos made by Theodoros (Plin. nat. hist. 34. 83), the Labyrinth in

Lemnos (?) with its 150 columns attributed to Smilis Rhoikos and Theodoros (id.ib. 36. 90, where Hirt's cj. Samius for codd. Lemnius certainly suits the clause: architecti fecere Zmilis et Rhoecus et Theodorus indigenae), the amazing Labyrinth at Clusium constructed as a tomb for himself by Porsenna (id. i6'36. 91-93 citing Varia, cp. Isld. orfi'ls.i. 36: see Durm Baukunst d. Etrusk. p 140 ff.), were all buildings and merely attest the fact that the name attached itself to any complicated structure.

Fig. 347.

484­

The Labyrinth at Knossos

In Italy they gained a firm footing, as we may infer not only 'from the literary allusions to the game of 'Troy 1,' but also from the many Roman mosaics that represent Theseus and his foe in a labyrinthine frame 2.

Finally the Labyrinth was taken over from paganism by Christianity. At Orleansville in Algeria the Christian basilica, founded in 324; A.D., had among other mosaics a Labyrinth, the centre of which was occupied by the words SANCTA  ECCLESIA repeated in a complicated form 3. One of the state robes of the Christian emperors prior to the ninth century was coloured a fiery red and adorned with a Labyrinth of gold and pearls, in which was a Minotaur of emerald holding a finger to his lips 4.

Fig. 348.

Fig.. 349.

1 supra p. 476.

2 supra p. 477 n. I.

3 F. Prevost in the Rev. Arch. 1847-1848 ii. 664, 800 First Folio. pl. 78.

4 A. F. Ozanam Documents inedits pour servir a l'Histoire Litterature de l'Italie Paris 1850 pp. 92, 178 citing the Graphia aureae urbis Romae (cod. Laurent. pluto lxxxix infer. no. 41): De diarodino imperatoris et laberintho aureo facto in eo. Unde diarodino utitur ad imitandum divini ignis effigium, qui semper ad alta extollitur, et quia per sanguinem Romani subjugaverunt orbem terrarum. Habeat et in diarodino laberinthum fabrefactum ex aura et margaritis, in quo sit Minotaurus digitum ad as tenens ex smaragdo factus, quia sicut non valet quis laberinthum scrutare, ita non debet consilium dominatoris propalare. I am indebted for this and for several of the following references to a valuable article by the Rev. E. Trollope on 'Notices of Ancient and Mediaeval Laby­rinths' in The Archeological Journal 1858 xv. 216, 235.

The Labyrinth at Knossos

485

A picture by Bartolommeo Veneto (1502- 1530), now in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge, represents an unknown man wearing a Labyrinth of the sort on his breast 1. A small Labyrinth (19 ½ inches across) still exists incised upon a porch pier of Lucca cathedral (fig. 349) 2. The central group of Theseus and the Minotaur has all but vanished under the pressure of countless tracing fingers, but the adjoining insctiption attests the designer's meaning. Similar examples are, or were, in the church of S. Michele at Pavia (s. xi), at Aix in Provence, on the walls of Poitiers cathedral. Labyrinths of larger size are not very uncommon in continental churches 3.

Fig. 350.

1 F. R. Earp A descriptive Catalogue of the Pictures in the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge 1902 p. … no. 133 fig. Mr A. … Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, kindly drew my attention, to this interesting picture.

2 Durand in Didron Annales Archeologiques Paris 1857 xvii. 124 f. with pl. The inscription runs: hic quem Creticus edit Dedalus est laberinthus, de quo nullus vadere quivit qui fuit intus, ni Theseus gratis Adriane (sic) stamine iutus. The facade of the cathedral dates from 1204.

3 W. Meyer 'Ein Labyrinth mil Versen' in the Sitzungsber. d. kais. bayr. Akad. d. Wiss. Phil. hist. Classe 1882 ii. 267-300 enumerates nine examples (ib. p. 283 ff. Chartres, Poitiers, St Quentin, Amiens 1288 A.D., Arras, St Omer, Sens, Reims c. 1300 A.D., Bayeux in s. xiv) and brings them into connexion with Labyrinths drawn in mediaeval manuscripts. E. Krause Die Trojaburgen Nordeuropas Glogau 1893 p. 88 .ff. ('Kirchen-Labyrinthe') figures four (Sens, St Omer, St Quentin, Bayeux) after E. Bose Dictionnaire raisonne d'Architecture Paris 1879.

486

The Labyrinth at Knossos

A fine specimen, composed of grey and white marble, decorates the middle of the nave in Chartres cathedral (fig. 350) 1. It measures 30 feet in diameter, and its winding path is 668 feet long. The centre was formerly adorned with a representation of Theseus and the Minotaur. Such a maze was called in the middle ages domus Dedali or maison Dedalu or even, as in the inscription at Amiens, Maison de Dalus; But new uses were found for the old design. Towards the close of the Crusades men who had broken vows of pilgrimage to the Holy Land did penance by treading these tortuous chemins de Jerusalem until they reached the central space, often termed le ciel. Later the same Labyrinths were used as a means of penance for sins of omission and commission in general.

In Great Britain mosaic mazes are exceptional and late 2, but turf-cut mazes fairly common and early 3. They are mostly situated close to a church or chapel, so that not impossibly they served a penitential purpose. One at Alkborough in Lincolnshire, 44 feet across, even resembles in design (fig. 351) 4 the Labyrinth of Lucca cathedral. After the Reformation ecclesiastical mazes were converted into pleasure-grounds.

Fig. 351.

1 E. Trollope loc. cit. p. 221 fig. 3 (from E. Wallet Destription d'une Crypte: et d'un Pave mosaique de l'antieime eglise de St. Berlin a Saint-Orner Douai 1843 p 97).

2 E.g. there is one inside the west door of Ely cathedral; but it is of quite recent date (1870).

3 The best collection of facts is contained in a paper by the Rev. F. G. Walker on 'Comberton Maze and the origin of Mazes' (read before the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, February 8, 1909, but as yet uriprinted). Mr Walker op. cit. p. 17 ff. notes the proximity of many English mazes to Roman remains and argues that some of them may have been originally cut in Roman times.

4 E. Trollope loc. cit. p. 224 f. fig. 5.

The Labyrinth at Knossos

487

Aubrey states that before the civil wars there were many mazes in England, and that the young people used on festivals to dance upon them, or, as the term was, to tread them 1. Stukeley in 1724 writes:

'The lovers of antiquity, especially of the inferior class, always speak of 'em with great pleasure, and as if there were somthing extraordinary in the thing, tho' they cannot tell what. . . .what generally appears at present is no more than a circular work made of banks of earth in the fashion of a maze or laby­rinth, and the boys to this day divert themselves with running in it one after another, which leads them by many windings quite thro' and back again 2.'

A century later T. Wright observes:

'At the maze (called there mazles) at Comberton, in Cambridgeshire, it has been a custom, from time immemorial, among the villagers, to hold a feast every three years about the time of Easter 3.'

This maze, which has recently been restored by the Rev, F. G. Walker, was almost identical in type with one at Wing in Rutlandshire 4. When transformed into the playground of the village school, it was in danger of extinction; but I have repeatedly seen the school-­children in single file tread the nearly obliterated windings.

Fig, 352.

1 J. Audrey Natural History and Antiquities of Surrey v. So, cp. Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme 1686-87 (London 1881) p, 71.

2 W. Stukeley Itinerarium Curiosum London 1724 p. 91 ff.

3 T. Wright The History and Topography of the County of Essex London 1835 ii. 124 n. The Rev. F. G. Walker op. cit. p. 20 says of the Comberton Maze: 'It used, in bygone days, to be recut every three years at Easter time, when the men who cut it had a feast.’

4 E. Tr_llope lie. eit. p. 232.

488

The Labyrinth at Knossos

Antiquarians, monkish or otherwise, appear to have assumed the Roman lineage of these turf mazes; for in England they are commonly called 'Troy-town' and in Wales Caerdroia, 'Troy-walls 1.' Another name for them is 'Julian's Bowers,' or in northern dialect 'Jullinbores 2.' Stukeley 3 even proposed to connect this name with that of Iulus 4!

Similar mazes are reported from various parts of northern Europe. In Norway and Sweden they are constructed of stone and known as 'Trojin, Trojeborg, Trojenborg, Tröborg 6,' A maze some 18 metres wide at Wisby on the island of Gothland (fig. 352) 6 is, as, Dr E. Krause points out, curiously like the circular Labyrinth on a coin of Knossos (supra p. 477 fig. 343) 7.

1 E. Trollope loc. cit. p.222 ff. Welsh shepherds, in commemoration of their Trojan descent (!), used often to cut a labyrinthine figure called the Caerdroia on the turf, as the herdsmen upon the grassy plains of Burgh and Rockliff Marshes near the Solway Sands in Cumberland still cut a labyrinthine figure termed the 'Walls of Troy' (W. H. M. in Notes and Queries Second Series v. 211 ff.), In Scotland too the 'Walls of Troy' are popular with children, who trace, them on the sea-sand or scribble them on their slates (E. Trollope loc. cit. p. 233).

2 A. H. Allcroft Earthwork of England London 1908 p. 602 D. 2; On the variants 'Gelyan-bower,’ ‘Gillimber,’ 'Jilling-bo'or,' 'Jul-Laber' see J. Wright The English Dialect Dictionary London 1902, iii. 389.

3 W. Stukeley loc. cit.

4 Supra p. 483.

5 On Hallands Vädero, an island in the Kattegat, a maze of stones is called Trelleborg (i.e. Trolleborg, the 'Giants' Castle').

6. E; Krause Die Trojaburgen Nordeuropas. Glogan 1893, p. 4 fig. I, p. 184 fig. 23.

7 It is, I suppose, possible that a Cnossian, tetradrachm might find its, way northward along a trade-route (cp. the map in R. Forrer Keltische Numismatik der Rhein- und Donaulande Strassburg 1908 pl. I) and so furnish the prototype of this design.

The Labyrinth at Knossos

489

In Finland and Lapland the same custom obtains, though here the name most in use is Babylon 1. I append an example about 12 ft. across observed and drawn by E. von Baer in 1838, when he was weather-bound at Vier, a small uninhabited island in the Gulf of Finland (fig. 353) 2. Iceland too has analogous Labyrinths made of stones or earth, the native name for which is Völundarhaus, 'Weland's House.'

It would seem then that in Great Britain, Scandinavia, the north­east of Russia, and Iceland rough mazes of unknown antiquity exist which conform to the same general pattern as that of the Cretan Labyrinth. The first to grasp the full significance of this curious fact was Dr E. Krause. In a very noteworthy monograph devoted to the subject and in a subsequent appendix to the same 3 he endeavoured to show that the maze of the countryside was no imitation of the classical Labyrinth, but that rather the classical Labyrinth was an imitation of it. Maze and Labyrinth alike were survivals of a remote past and were originally used for the purposes of a mimetic solar rite 4.

1 Dr J. R. Aspelin of Helsingfors (quoted by E. Krause op. cit.,p. 19) notes other names: In den Kirchspielen Kemi und Jio, unweit von Tomeo, werden die Stein­setzungen Jatulintarha (Riesenhage) genannt, von Jio bis Alt-Karleby Pietar-inleikki (St. Peterspiel). Die schwedischen Bauern zwischen Alt-Karleby und Christianstadt nennen sie Jungfrudans Gungfemtanz). Zwischen Christianstadt und Abo werden sie Nunnaftta,./za (NonnenlJage) genannt, in dem schwedischen Archipel van Aba und am, Aland Trojenborg und Rundlborg, in der schwedischen Gegend von Helsingfors wieder Jungfrudans und ausserdem Zerstiirung Jerusalems, Stadt Ninive, Jericho u. s. w. Mehr iistlicb bis in die Gegend von Wiborg findet man die Benennungen Jiitinkatu (Riesenstrasse), Kivitarha (Steinbage) und Lissabon.'

2 E. Krause op. Nt. p; ]3 ff. fig. 2.

3 E. Krause Die Trojaburgen Noneuropas Glogau 1893 pp. 1-300, id. Die nordisdzc Herkunft tier Trojasage bezeugt durch den Krug 1Ion Tragliatella (Nachtrag IliU den Trojaburgen Nordeuropas) Glogau 1893 pp. 1-48.

4 Thus far at least we may frankly accept Dr Krause's results, without necessarily endorsing his conclusions as to the precise character of the rite involved. He holds that the original Labyrinth-dance represented the rescue of the sun-goddess from tbe castle of a wintry demon. Corresponding with this northern spring-rite was a northern spring-myth, in which the solar heroine (Freya, Brunhild, etc.) was freed from the prison of a superhuman builder or smith. Among Indians, Persians, and Southern Slavs the baleful power was a three-headed monster named Druho, Druja or Draogha, Trojanu. Dr Krause argues (Die Trojaburgen Nordeuropas pp. ix f., 100) ff., 277 ff., Nachtrag p. 41 ff.) that the whole story of the Trojan War presupposes this northern myth, with Helene for solar heroine. He thinks (Die Trojaburgen Nordeuropas p. 10 ff.) that the names of Troy-town, Trojaburg, etc., are not due to a diffused tradition of the Homeric Troy, but to the existence of a Germanic word Troie, fortress, doublet, dance' (root-­meaning: 'Umwallung, Umhullung, Umkreisung'). "And he attempts (ib. p. 48 ff., Nachtrag p. 6 ff.) to connect the Labyrinth-design with the cup-marks and concentric circles of the neolithic age. These speculations, which are set, forth with much learning and, ingenuity, are for the most part well worth weighing; but I confess that, with sundry notable exceptions, they impress me as being more plausible than convincing.

490

The Minotaur

Pliny believed that the Cretan Labyrinth was a copy of the Egyptian, and contrasted the intricate handiwork of Daidalos with the paltry representations of it to be seen in mosaic-floors 'or' (he added contemptuously) ‘with the games of children in the country, which enclose a walk of several thousand paces within a narrow strip 1.' How little he realised that the country maze was the original, of which Daidalos' masterpiece was but an artistic elaboration!

Another point to be noticed is this. In Italy and France, where ecclesiastical Labyrinths abound, no rustic mazes are now to be seen. Conversely in Great Britain, Scandinavia, Finland, Lapland, Iceland, where rustic mazes are numerous, no ecclesiastical Labyrinths occur. Hence we infer that in southern Europe the rustic maze was pressed into the service or the church, while in western and north-western Europe it remained as a relic of paganism.

Further, it can hardly be accidental that the distribution of mazes and Labyrinths corresponds so closely with that of the megalithic monuments of Europe 2. This suggests that the original maze-makers were akin to, or even identical with the unknown builders of cromlechs, menhirs, and avenues.

In conclusion, it is clear that the Labyrinth, once the orchestra of a solar dance, has throughout mediaeval and modern times been, subjected to a slow process of degradation. The final stage was reached when the maze of the village-green was superseded by the 'Labyrinth,' the 'Daedal,' and the 'Wilderness' - topiary puzzles of a purely secular sort. From Knossos to Hampton Court may be a far cry; but it will be admitted that in the chain connecting them hardly a link is missing.

xv. The Minotaur.

Our enquiries into Cretan religion have hitherto led us towards two conclusions. On the one hand, in Cretan myth the sun was conceived as a bull 3. On the other hand, in Cretan ritual the Labyrinth was an orchestra of solar pattern presumably made for a mimetic dance 4.

1 Plin. nat. hist. 36. 85 hinc (sc. from the Egyptian Labyrinth) utique sumpsisse Daedalum exemplar eius labyrinthi, quem fecit in Creta, non est dubium, sed centensimam tantum portionem eius imitatum, quae itinerum ambages occursusque ac recursus inexplicabiles continet, non - ut in pavimentis ptierorumve ludicris campestribus videmus – brevi lacinia milia passuum plura ambulationis continentem, sed crebris foribus inditis ad fallendos occursus redeundumque in errores eosdem.

2 J. Fergusson Rude Stone Monuments London 1872 pl. I, publishes a useful Map, designed to illustrate the distribution of Dolmens, and probable lines of the migrations of the Dolmen builders.

3 Supra p. 467 ff.

4 Supra p. 472 ff. ­

The Minotaur.

491

In view of these results it would seem highly probable that the dancer imitating the sun masqueraded in the Labyrinth as a bull. That, if I mistake not, is the true explanation of Pasiphae's child, the Minotaur. He was the crown-prince of Knossos in ritual attire, and his bull-mask proclaimed his solar character 1. Why the crown prince rather than the king should have discharged this duty 2, and why every ninth year he required a tale of human victims 3, are points for later consideration. Here I am concerned to note merely his probable relation to the sun and to the dance:

Dr J. G, Frazer 4, after discussing the dance of the youths and maidens at Knossos in connexion with Labyrinths old and new, pens the following paragraph, with which I find myself largely in agreement 5:

'A dance or game which has thus spread over Europe and survived in a fashion to modern times must have been very popular, and bearing in mind how often with the decay of old faiths the serious rites and pageants of grown people have degenerated into the sports of children, we may reasonably ask whether Ariadne's Dance or the Game of Troy may not have had its origin in religious ritual. The ancients connected it with Cnossus and the Minotaur. Now we have seen reason to hold, with many other scholars, that Cnossus was the seat of a great worship of the sun, and that the Minotaur was a representation or embodiment of the sun-god. May not, then, Ariadne's dance have been an imitation of the sun's course in the sky? and may not its intention have been, by means of sympathetic magic, to aid the great luminary to run his race on high? We have seen that during an eclipse of the sun the Chilcotin Indians walk in a circle, leaning on staves, apparently to assist the labouring orb. In Egypt also the king, who embodied the sun-god, seems to have solemnly walked round the walls of a temple for the sake of helping the sun on his way. If there is any truth in this conjecture, it would seem to follow that the sinuous lines of the Labyrinth which the dancers followed in their evolutions may have represented the ecliptic, the sun's apparent annual path in the sky. It is some confirmation of this view that on coins of Cnossus the sun or a star appears in the middle of the Labyrinth, the place which on other coins is occupied by the Minotaur.'

1 In 1890 Miss J. E. Harrison wrote: 'It seems possible that the man-bull form of the Minotaur may have been suggested by the necessities of a mimetic dance, the part of Minotaur being taken by a man with a bull-head mask' (Myth. Mon Ant. Ath. (cxxvii). This view I supported and sought to strengthen in the Journ. Hell. Stud. 1894 xiv. 124 n. 247. In the Class. Rev. 1903 xvii. p f. I went further and conjectured that, since the Cretans conceived of the sun as a bull, Minos as sun-king wore a bull­mask, and that this ritual costume gave rise to the legend of the Minotaur. In Folk-Lore 1904 xv. 272 I shifted my ground and, for reasons which will subsequently appear, contended that the Minotaur was, not Minos himself, but Minos' son in the ritual disguise of the solar bull. See also G. Murray The Rise of the Greek Epic. Oxford 1911 pp. 156-158.

2 Folk-Lore 1904. xv. 392 f.

3 Class. Rro. 1903 xvii. 411, Folk-Lore 1904 xv. 394 ff.,

4 Frazer Golden Bough: The Dying God p. 77, cp. ib. The Magic Art i. 312.

5 I had almost completed my own account of the Labyrinth before reading Dr Frazer's important and helpful chapter. We have approached the matter from different angles, he dealing with the octennial tenure of the kingship, I with the solar bull; but at this point our results approximate.

The Minotaur

From the concluding sentences of this paragraph I should, dissent. The fact that the earliest known form of the Labyrinth is a derivative of the swastika leads us to believe that the dance represented the revolving sun rather than the ecliptic. But that the Minotaur, like the Chilcotin Indians walking in a circle and leaning on their staves, was engaged in a piece of mimetic ritual seems to me highly probable. I would interpret in this sense an unpublished statér of Knossos in the McClean collection at Cam­bridge (fig. 354). This interesting coin has for its reverse design a Labyrinth clearly based on the swastika-pattern, and for its obverse a Minotaur of unique type. He has a bull's head and tail; but from under his mask - for such it must be - hang two unmistakeable tresses of human hair, and as he hastens along he leans upon a staff. A figure better adapted to express the solar dance it would be hard to imagine.

Such a dance doubtless served to promote the year's vegetation; and it has been argued with much probability by E. Neustadt 1 that the crown of Theseus or Ariadne was originally a flowery crown comparable with the May-garland. Bakchylides speaks of the former as 'dark with roses 2'; Timachidas, of the latter as made from the 'Theseus-flower 3.' The wreath in question, whether his or hers, was transformed into a constellation at a later date when magic had yielded to science, Yet, even then tradition did not forget that a shining crown of some sort was connected with the Labyrinth. According to Epimenides, Theseus after slaying the Minotaur escaped from the Labyrinth by virtue of a glittering crown, which Dionysos had given to Ariadne. This crown, formed by Hephaistos of fiery gold and Indian gems, made light for the hero in the dark maze: it was afterwards placed by Dionysos among the stars 4.

fig. 354.

1 E. Neustadt De Jove Cretico Berolini 1906 p. 29 ff.

2 Bakchyl. 16. 116.

3 Timachidas ap. Athen. 684 f.

4 Epimenides aj. pseudo-Eratosth. catast. 5 and Hyg. poet. astr 2. 5 cp. Paus. 5, 19. I. See further Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 603 n. 3 and n. 6.

The Minotaur.

493

Again; the Minotaur was also called Astérios l or Asteríon 2, 'the Starry.’ A red-figured amphora from Nola, now in the Vatican collection 3 shows Theseus slaying him in the presence of Ariadne, who holds a crown, and Minos, who holds a scepter: the Minotaur's body is bespangled with many stars, and in this some have seen an allusion to his name 4. But that is improbable; for on other vases he is flecked or patched with queer-looking marks merely to denote that he has a bull's pelt (fig. 355) 5.

Fig. 355.

1 Apollod. 3. I. 4, Tzetz. in Lyk. Al. 653. 1299, 1301, cp. Nonn. Dion. 13. 222 ff., 546 ff. 40 284 ff. (Asterios; son of Minos by Androgeneia).

2 Pans. 2. 31. I. Rufin. recognit. 10. 21 makes Asterion the son of Iupiter by Idea ( = Idaia). wife of Minos.

3 Gerhard Atlserl.Vasenb. iii:'36 f. pl. 160. Mtls Ett. Gregvr. ii pl. 57, Helbig Guide Class. Ant. Ro. ii. 307 no. 50, Reinach Rtfp. Vases ii. 81, 10.

4 So Schirmer hi Roscher Levy. Myth. i. 657, K. Weinickein Pauly-Wissowa Real­Ene. ii: 1785: J. N. Svoronos in the Bull. Curr. Hell. 1894 xviii. 115.

5 L. Stephani Der Kampf zwischht Theseus und Minotauros Leipzig 1842 p: 82 pl. 3 (black-figured Minotaur flecked with white). p.83 pl. 8 (black-figured Minotaur with spots, mostly T-shaped, of white), Brit. Mus. Cat. Vases ii. 105 no. 148 (black-figured Minotaur stippled with hair), etc. Brit. Mus. Cat. Vases iii. III f. no: E 84 (red-figured Minotaur, covered with brown strokes to indicate hair), Collignon-Couve Cat. Vases d'Athenes p. 367 f. no. 1173 (red­-figured Minotaur 'tachete de points'), etc.

The Minotaur

494

A red-figured kylix by Douris, found at Vulci and now in the British Museum, sprinkles him with eyes like those of Argos, another bovine personage (fig. 356) 1. More to the point, perhaps, are the silver coins of Knossos from c. 500 B.C. onwards: these represent him surrounded with a row of dots, which may or may not be meant for stars 2.

Fig. 356.

1 Brit. Mus. Cat. Vases iii. 73 f. no. E 48, Gerhard Auserl. Vasenb. iii. 153 Pl. 234, Baumeister Denkm. iii. 1789 fig. 1873, A. S. Murray Designs from Greek Vases in the British Museum London 1894 p. 24 no. 29 pl. 8, E. Pottier Douris Paris 1905 p. 75 ff. fig. 11, Reinach Rtfp. Vases ii. 118, W. Klein Die grieekisehen Vasen mit Meistersignaturen Wien 1887 p. 158 no. 16, C. Robert in Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. v. 1859. Mr H. B. Walters in the Brit. Mus. Cat. Vases iii. 73 notes: 'the mask of the Minotaur is edged with a triple wavy black line at the neck, and shaded with light brown strokes. ...His body and limbs are thickly overspread with dotted circles, like the eyes of Argus. The division between this skin and the surface of the hands and feet is marked by fine brown lines.'

2 J. N. Svoronos Numismatique de la Crete ancienne Macon 1890 i. 65 f. pl. 4, 23 ff., Babelon Monn. gr. rom. ii. I. 1331 fr. pl. 62, 21 fr., Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Crete etc. p. 18 pl. 4, 7 f., Head Hist num 1. p. 460. J. N. Svoronos in the Bull. Corr. Hell. 1894 xviii. 115, connects the star, often found as a monetary type at Knossos ,(e.g. figs. 358, 359 from small silver and copper coins in my collection), with 'the Minotaur's name [Asterion].

The Minotaur

495

Clearer, though still not quite convincing, is a Corinthian pínax of the early sixth century B.C., which was found at Pente Skouphia in 1879 and is now in the Berlin Museum (fig. 357) 1: on this he appears in the centre of four unmistakeable stars, which are hardly to be regarded as mere filling. It would, however, be hasty to conclude that the Minotaur was a nocturnal rather than a diurnal power. The terms astér and ástron were applicable to the sun 2 and moon 3 as well as to the stars, so that we should be justified in ex­plaining the title Astérios, Asteríon as 'god of all the Celestial Lights.'

As to the Minotaur-dance, we have already seen that Cretan dance-themes included Europe, Pasiphae, both the 'Bulls,' the Labyrinth, Ariadne: etc. 4.

Fig, 357.

Fig. 358.

Fig. 359.

1 AJ Denkm. ii. 6 pl. 29, 14 (=Furtwangler Vasensamml. Berlin i: 75 no: 6634 i. 77 no. 730), E. Pernice in the Jahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch. Inst. 1897 xii. 2g fig. 21.

2 Pind. 01. I. 5 f. p…. frag. paean. ... Schroeder (frag. 107. ff. Christ) … The schol. vet. Find. 01. 1. 6 says: …

3 Aisch. s. c. Th. 390 …

4 Supra p. 481.

496

The Minotaur.

These, doubtless, were late pantomimic performances, but it is likely enough that their motifs were traditional. A black-figured hydría in the British Museum, on which are seen three Minotaurs running towards the right with arms akimbo. (pl. xx) has possibly preserved a reminiscence of such dances. It is also noteworthy that a black-figured lékythos at Athens, which represents Theseus slaying the Minotaur in the presence of two females, gives the monster a bull's tail but a human head 2.

My notion that the Minotaur was a Cnossian prince masque­rading as a bull receives no slight support from Diadoros 3. After speaking of the Egyptian Labyrinth built by king Mendes or Marros and its Cretan copy made by Daidalos for Minos, the historian goes on to remark that five generations later there came to the throne of Egypt a certain Keten, identified by the Greeks with Proteus 4, a contemporary of the Trojan War. This Keten was said to have been a shape-shifter, who took the form now of an animal, now of a tree, now again, of fire or the like. The priests declared that he was enabled to do so by his knowledge of astrology, and that the practice having became traditional with Egyptian kings gave rise to Greek tales of shape-shifting. 'For', continues Diadoros, 'it was customary with the rulers of Egypt to put about their heads the foreparts of lions, bulls, and snakes, tokens of their rule. They had upon their heads now trees; now fire, and sometimes many fragrant odours by which means they both arrayed themselves in fine style and struck superstitious terror into others.' The researches af Messieurs Maspera and Maret have proved that the Egyptian king and, queen did actually figure as god and goddess in certain solemn rites, when masked men and women played the parts of animal-headed deities 5; I suggest that the Cnossian prince did much the same.

1 Brit. Mus. Cat. Vases ii. 179 no. B 308. Cp. the impression of an Elamite cylinder figured by M.J. Lagrange La Crete ancienne Paris 1908 p. 8 f.; fig. 66a after F. V. Schell in the Memoires de la delegation en Perse viii. I, ff. fig. 21.

2 Nicole Cat. Vases d'Athenes Suppl. p. 189 no. 949. W. Meyer in the Sitzungsber. d. kats. bayr. Akad. d. Wiss. Phil. mst. Classe 1882 ii. 281 notes that in the middle ages the Minotaur was commonly represented as 'oben Mensch, unten Stier.'

3 Diod. 1. 61 f., My attention was first directed to this important passage by Dr J. G. Frazer (Class. Rev. 1903 xvii. 410 n. 11). … 145 dis­misses it as a mere aetiological myth to explain the Odyssean story of Proteus.

4.Cp. Hdt. 2. IIdf. Keten appears to have been the first king of the twentieth dynasty. Set-nekht or Nekht-Set, the father of Rameses iii.

5 See Frazer Lect. Hist. Kingship p. 172 ff., Golden Bough: The Magic Art ii. 133 f. ib. The Dying God p. 70 ff.

Hydría in the British Museum: Minotaur-dance (?). See page 496.

‘Minoan’ Bull-fights

497

xvi. 'Minoan' Bull-fights.

Few features of the 'Minoan' civilisation are more striking than its devotion to the bull-ring. Statuettes, reliefs, paintings, and seal-stones make it abundantly clear that toreadors, male and female, played an important part in the life of their people. The evidence, which comes to us from Crete, Mykenai, Tiryns, Vaphio, Orchomenos, Athens, etc., has been recently classified and discussed by A. Reichel 1. This careful investigator thinks that the sport originated in Crete and distinguishes three stages in its evolution. Its earliest form was the capture of a bull by one or more unarmed men, who clung tenaciously to its horns 2. Out of this developed the favourite 'Minoan' display, an acrobatic performance calling for the utmost nerve and dexterity. It comprised various feats, of which the most popular was the following. The athlete rushed towards the charging bull, grasped it by the horns, turned a somer­sault over its head, and letting go with his hands was shot over its back into safety 3. Many centuries later a less hazardous form of bull-baiting is found in the Thessalian taurokathápsia 4. The toreador on horseback pursued the bull till it was exhausted, and then leaping upon it twisted its horns and broke its neck.

Fig. 360.

1 A. Reichel 'Die Stierspiele in der kretisch-mykenischen Cultur' in the Ath. Mitth. 1909 xxxiv. 85-99 with figs. and pl.

2 Two terra-cotta figures of the 'Early Minoan' period found by Xanthoudides at Koumasa near Gortyna (A. Mosso The Palaces of Crete and Their Builders London 1907 p. 219 fig. 99, A. Reichel loc. cit. p. 93 nos. 18 and 19=fig. II). With these may be compared the capture of the big bull by a posse of men in Lanzone Dizion. di Mitol. Egiz. pl. 206.

3 A. Reichel loc. cit. pp. 85-88 nos. 1-6.

4 The literary and monumental evidence of the … is collected by J. Baunack in the Rhein. Mus. 1883 xxxviii: 297 ff., M. Mayer in the Jahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch. Inst. 1892 vii. 72-'-81 (cp. Journ. Hell. Stud. 1894 xiv. 127 ff.), M. N. Tod in the Ath. Mitth., 1904 xxix. 50-56, and E. Cahen in Daremberg-Sagho Dict. Ant. v. 50-52. Fifth-century coins of Larissa have obv. a Thessalian youth, who grasps a plunging bull by the horns, and rev. a bridled and galloping horse (fig. 360 from a specimen in my collection, cp. Babelon Monn. gr. rom. ii. 1.1013 ff. pl. 43, 811, Brit. Mus Cat. Coins Thessaly etc. p. 25 ff. pls. 4, 12 f., 5, 1 f.). Since a fourth-century drachm of the same town shows obv. a mounted Thessalian galloping, and rev. a bull in full flight (Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Thessaly etc. p. 29 pl. 5, 13), it seems, probable that on all these coins of Larissa we should combine the two types and recognise scenes from the … (G. Macdonald Coin Types Glasgow 1905 p. 99 pl. 3, 10 Head Hist. num. 2 p. 298 f.). Similar scenes occur on coins of Krannon, the Petrhaiboi, Pharkadon, Pherai, Skotoussa, and Trikke (see Babelon op. cit. ii. I. 1021 f. pl. 43, 16; 1023 ff. pl. 43, 17-20; 1029 ff. pl. 43, 25; 1031 f. pl. 43, 29; Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Thessaly etc. p. 16 pl. 2, II f. ; p. 39 pl. 8, 7; p. 42 pl. 9, ff.; p. 46 pl. 10, 1-3; p. 51 f. pl. II, 5-7 and 12).

498

'Minoan' Bull-fights

Clearly the Thessalian sport, in which the hunter is mounted and the bull is killed, cannot be identified with the Cretan sport, in which the athlete is on foot and the bull is not killed. If the two are related at all, the one must be viewed as a modification of the other. The taurokathápsia, introduced into Italy by Iulius Caesar, appealed to the sensation-loving Romans, and ultimately gave rise to the bull­fights of Spain and France.

Reichel further suggests that in 'Minoan' times this bull-grappling had some religious significance; but he does not venture to determine the cult with which it was connected or the meaning that attached to it.

As to the taurokathápsia, it has been commonly - though not universally 1 - regarded as a rite in the cult of Poseidon 2. But so far as Thessaly is concerned there is not a particle of evidence 3, and in the case of other districts the attribution is at best con­jectural 4. Even if definite proof were forthcoming that in the Roman period this Thessalian sport was held to be an appanage of Poseidon, we could not with any assurance argue back from Thessaly to Crete across a gap of fifteen hundred years. It is surely safer to as­sume that the Cretan bull-sports stood in some relation to the Cretan bull-god, ­Fig. 361. who at Knossos was represented by the Minotaur. On this showing we might look to find the bull-grasping feat associated with the Labyrinth. In point of fact, we do so find it.

1 F. Bechtel in the Nachr. d. kon. Gesellsch. d. Wiss. Gottingen Phil.-hist. Classe 1890 p. 34 fr. views the taurokathápsia as a rite properly belonging to the cult of Zeus no… F. Creuzer Symbolik und Mythologie Leipzig and Darmstadt 1842 iv. 326 referred it 'auf die solarischen und Cerealischen Religionen.' In an inscription from Larissa (Inscr. Gr. sept. ii no. 528) a bull-fight takes place for Zeus [Polieus]; but E. Cahen justly remarks that it is only one item of an extensive programme (Daremberg-Saglio Diet. Ant. v. 52).

2 Welcker Gr. Gotter. ii. 675, Preller-Robert Gr. Myth. i. 570 f., Farnell Cults of Gk. States iv. 25. Nilsson Gr. Feste p. 80: 'Es ist einleuchtend, class die eventuelle Verbindung mit dem Kult des Stier-Poseidon erst sekundiir sein kann; fur diesen Gott passten sie aber vor anderen.'

3 Nilsson Gr. Feste p. 80 f. Farnell Cults of Gk. States iv. 25: 'We have the evidence of Artemidorus that the [taurokathápsia] was consecrated to the festival of Poseidon at Larissa,...at Eleusis,...and at Ephesos' is inexact, as a reference to the citation (ib. iv. 95) of Artemid. oneir. I. 8 will show. Artemidoros does not mention Poseidon at all. Note, however, that on the coins of Krannon mentioned supra p. 497 p. 4 the fore-part of the horse or the butting bull is accompanied by a trident. 4 Nilsson loc. cit., P. Stengel OpJerbrauche der Griechen Leipzig and Berlin 1910 p. 108.

'Minoan' Bull-fights

499

A banded agate in Sir Arthur Evans' collection (fig. 361) 1 represents an athlete in the act of turning his somersault over the horns of a mighty bull, which partly conceals and partly is concealed by a patterned square. This square bears to the whole design the same relation as the patterned oblong to the slaughter of the Minotaur on the vases already discussed (figs. 329-331). In short, it depicts the Labyrinth as the scene of the action 2. The essential feature of the 'Minoan' sport appears to have been the grasping of the bull's horn or horns. Now the same trait is found in the oldest art-types of one Thessalian and three Cretan myths, that of Iason grappling the Colchian bulls 3, that of Herakles capturing the Cretan bull 4, that of Theseus slaying the Minotaur (cp. figs. 329, 330) 5, and that of Europe borne off by the bovine Zeus (cp. pl. xxxii, fig. 411) 6. It is perhaps permissible to suggest that behind these art-types lurks a traditional pose of the bull-grasper. Iason and Herakles seizing the bull by the horn or twisting a rope about its hind legs vividly recall the bull-captors of'the Vaphio cups. Theseus gripping the Minotaur by the horn or locked with him in a deadly wrestling-bout is a figure curiously reminiscent of the 'Minoan' cow-boy. Europe, who on the later monuments slips off the bull's back and hovers or floats beside him still clinging to his horn (cp. fig. 414), in effect reverts to the airy performance of the 'Minoan' cow-girl. Such resem­blances may of course be fortuitous; but, given the Thessalian and Cretan connexion, they may be vestigial.

In any case it seems probable that the religious value, of the original bull-sports lay in the athlete's contact with the horn of a sacred bull.

1 Furtwangler Ant. Gemmen i pl. 6, 9, ii. 26 figured to a scale of 1, A. Reichel loc. cit. p. 87 f. fig. 4. Reichel points out that Furtwangler erroneously described the man as about to cut the throat of the bull. But Reichel himself apparently shares Furt­wangler's view that the bull is drinking out of a big trough!

2 It may be objected that the Labyrinth at Knossos was ill-adapted for a bull-ring (Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1902-1903 ix. 110). But Sir Arthur Evans' intaglio is said to have come from Prierie, where we have already found the Labyrinth-pattern occurring as a coin-type (supra p. 483). Possibly the allusion is to some Labyrinth other than that of Knossos.

3 K. Seeliger in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 79 ff., H. Heydemann Iason in Kolchis (Winekelmannsfest-Progr. Halle 1886).

4 A. Furtwangler in Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 2201. Cp. Theseus and the Marathonian bull on a red-figured klix (Brit. Mus. Cat. Vases iii. 123 no. E 105), which shows the hero holding a club in his right hand and grasping the bull's horn with his left.

5 A. Furtwangler in the Arch.. Zeit. 1884 xlii. 106 ff. pl. 8, 3 (=Kleine Sehriften Munchen 1912 i. 463 f. pl. 15, 3), Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 3007 fig. 2. 6 J. Escher-Blirkli in Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. vi. 1296 f. Literary references to Europe as holding the horn are collected by L. Stephani in the Compte-rendu St. Pet. 1866 p. 124 n. 11.

500

‘Minoan' Bull-fights

A clue to the meaning of such contact is, I think, afforded by a lenticular sardonyx found at Orvieto (fig. 362) 1, which represents a man grasping by the horn a couple of bulls or bull-like figures. The vessels carried in the hands of these quasi-bulls and the trees (palms?) between which they are standing justify the conjecture that they are engaged in some fertility-rite. The bull - let us suppose - is a beast pre­eminently charged with fertilising force 2. Its force is gathered up and culminates in its horn 3, bovine horns being sometimes a synonym of strength 4. Anyone who grasps the bull's horn ipso facto obtains a share in its peculiar power.

At Laussel near Marquay (Dordogne) Dr Lalanne has recently discovered what we may venture to regard as a prehistoric proto­type of such rites 5. On limestone blocks inside a rock-shelter a man of slender waist and three steatopygous women are carved with all the marvellous realism of palaeolithic art 6. The man, is an archer in the act of drawing his bow. Of the women one places her left hand on the lower portion of her body and holds a bison's horn in her right (fig. 363). This may of course be a graphic hint of the eating and drinking that resulted from a successful chase. But it is highly probable that the use of a drinking-horn presupposes the magical efficacy of the horn as such 7. And it is at least possible that we have here part of the cave-dwellers' ritual - the right hand raised to grasp the fertilising horn, the left lowered in a gesture familiar to us from representations of the oriental mother-goddess.

This explanation throws light on sundry other obscure points in Cretan mythology and ritual.

Fig. 362.

1 Journ. Hell. Stud. 1894 xiv. 120 fig. 14 after O. Rossbach in the Ann. d. Inst. 1885 lvii. 195 ff. pl. G-H, 8.

2 Infra p. 514 ff.

3 Cp. Eur. Bacch. 743 … with Sir John Sandys n. ad loc., Oppian. cyneg. 4. 33 … Ail. de nat. an. 4. 48 … Kepar.

4 B. Stade Biblische Theologie des Alten Testaments Tubingen 1905 i. 121 (citing Num. 23. 22,24. 8), G. B. Gray A critical and exegetical Commentary on Numbers Edinburgh 1903 p. 354 f., and especially I. Scheftelowitz 'Das Hornermotiv in den Religionen' in the Archiv f.  Rel. 1912 xv. 451 ff.

5 G. Lalanne in L'Anthropologie 1912 xxiii. 129 ff. figs. I ff., The Illustrated London. News July 13, 1912 cxli. 56 with 3 figs., H. G. Spearing The Childhood of Art London 1912 p. 505 f. I am indebted to Miss Harrison for calling my attention to this interesting discovery and for suggesting that it may furnish a prototype of the rites in question.

6 The figures are c. 18 inches high, and the relief c. 2 inches deep. That of the woman here shown is polished, except the head, and there are traces of red paint.

7 See the facts collected by I. Scheftelowitz in the Archiv f. Rel. 1912 xv. 483 ff.

'Minoan' Bull-fights

501

To begin with, Monsieur R. Dussaud rightly insists that the bull was not the only animal used in these ceremonial games 1. 'Minoan' seal-stones show gymnasts treating the agrimi or Cretan wild-goat in the self-same manner 2; and Sir Arthur Evans has suggested that this animal was 'sacred to the indigenous "Zeus" at an earlier period than the bull 3.' If goat and bull were thus alternatives, the fertilising force which resided in the horn of the latter should be found in the horn of the former also. And it is. Few symbols of ancient religion have lasted longer or been more widely accepted than the horn of Amaltheia, the cornu copiae from which all good things flow. This is usually described in literature as the horn of the goat. Which nourished Zeus as an infant in Crete, Amaltheia being either the nymph owning the goat or the goat itself 4. But in art, as Philemon remarks, it is 'a cow's horn 5.' Of countless illustrations I figure (pl. xxxi) one - an Athenian bell-kratér in the Hope collection at Deepdene 6, which represents Herakles in Olympos feasting on the dainties contained in the cornu copiae of Zeus.

1 R. Dussaud Les civilisations pre-helleniques dans le bassin de la Mer Egtfe Paris Iglo p. 255 figs. 185 f.

2 Perrot-Chipiez Hist. de l'Art vi. 843 fig. 416, 5 and 13, 848, 851.

3 Journ. Hell. Stud. 1901 xxi. 181.

4 See K. Wernicke in Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. ii. 1711.

5 Philem. pterygium trag. I, 1 f. (Frag. com. Gr. iv. 10 Meineke) …

6 The vase will be included in the forthcoming Catalogue by my friend Mr E. M. W. Tillyard, to whose kindness I am indebted for the photograph here redrawn. Previous publications (Tischbein Hamilton Vases iv pl. 25, A. L. Millin Galerie mythologique Paris 181l pl. 125, 467, Reinach Rep. Vases ii; 327, 2) are inadequate. Behind the throne of Zeus stands Hera (Reinach loc. cit. suggests 'Hebe (?)': Weicker Alt. Denkm. iii. 305 f. had thought of Persephone behind a seated Plouton). With the whole scene cp. a kálpis from Ruvo at Naples (Heydemann Vasensammt Neafe p. 280 f. no. 2408, A. Michaelis in the Ann. d. Inst. 1869 p. 201 ff. pl. GH, Reinach of. cit. i. 323,1), which shows Herakles holding the cornu copiae and seated before a standing Zeus (Michaelis loc. cit; suggests Plouton ?).

502

'Minoan' Bull-fights

Pherekydes, the earliest writer to give us an explicit account of this horn, says:

‘Amaltheia was a daughter of Haimonios and had a bull's horn. This had the power of providing whatever one liked to eat or drink without stint or effort 1.'

The name Haimonios takes us to Thessaly 2, where the 'Minoan’ bull-sports were modified into the taurokathápsia. If my explana­tion is sound, the said sports from first to last were designed to promote fertility by bringing the youthful gymnasts into direct contact with the horns of the fertilizing bull 3.

The same religious idea finds expression in the cult of Dionysos. This deity at an early stage of his development was identified with ­both bull 4 and goat 5 and, even when he had be­come fully anthropomorphic, he was apt to main­tain a close connexion with the sacred animal 6. Thus on coins of Mauretania struck at Siga by Bocchus iii (50 ?-33 B.C.) we see Dionysos with a thýrsos in his right hand and a bunch of grapes beside it; he is holding by one horn a diminutive bull (fig. 364) 7.

Fig. 364.

1 Pherekyd. frag. 37 (Frag. kist. Gr. i. 82 Muller) af. schol. Soph. Track. argo. ... after Apollod. 2. 7. 5 (see Jebb's ed. of Soph. Track. p: 3). A later version made the horn of plenty that which Herakles broke off from the tauriform Acheloios (Ov. met. 9. 85 ff., Hyg. fab. 31, Philostr. min. imagg. 4.3). Various harmonists stated that Acheloios' horn was the horn of Amaltheia (Diod. 4. 35, Strab. 458, Dion. Chrys. or. 63 p. 327 Reiske), or that Acheloios had presented Herakles with Amaltheia's horn as ransom for his own (Zenob. 2. 48, schol. II. 21. 194, Tzetz. in Lyk. Al,50).

2 O. Kern in Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. Vii, 2220, Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 341 n. 3.

3 For the transference of quality from the horns to that which touches them cp. the belief that seed-corn, if it fell on the horns of ploughing oxen, would produce hard (i.e. horny) grain (Theophr. de caus. flant. 4. 12. 13, Plout. symp. 7. 2. I, Geotion. 2. 194).

4 Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 1425 n. 4 collects the evidence and adds a brief biblio­graphy. See also Farnell Cults of Gk. States' 126.

5 Gruppe op. cit. pp. 822 n. 3 ff., 1428 n 9 ff., Farnell op. cit. V. 127, 165 f.

6 Mithras in the great Mithraic myth rides the bull, grasping it by the horns, to which he clings even when thrown off the creature's back (F. Cumont Textes et monu­ments figures relatifs nux mystires de Mithra Bruxelles 1896 i. 169 f., 305, id. Die Misterien des Mitkra 2 trans. G. Gehrich Leipzig 191 I p. 120 f. pl. 3, 6).

7 L. MUller Numismatique de l'Ancienne Afrique Copenhague 1862 iii. 97 ff. no. 9 fig. 9, Head Hist. num.2 p. 888. The obverse of this coin has a bearded male head, which, according to Miiller, represents a personification of the people. Perhaps we may conclude that Dionysos and his bull were vitally connected with the full-grown manhood of the people as a whole. Dionysos holds up a spirally twisted horn, probably meant for a cornu copiae, on a black-figured pínax from Marathon (Ath. Mitth. 1882 vii. 400 pl. 3f., Farnell of. cit. v. 245 pl. 35), with which cp. a black-figured kýlix by Nikosthenes (Arch. Zeit. 1885 xliii. 251 pt 16, I f., Reinach Rep. Vases i. 462, I f.: Dionysos seated to right holding horn with dancing Maenad and Silenos on either hand), a black-figured psyktér at Deepdene (Dionysos seated to right holding horn between two dancing Maenads), and another black-figured vase formerly in the Hamilton collection (Tischbein Hamilton Vases v pl. 22, Reinach Rep. Vases ii. 340, I): see further L. Stephani in the Compte-rendu St. PIt. 1867 p. 180 f. Coins of Nysa in Lydia show a cornu copiae filled with corn-ears, poppy, and grape­bunches: a child, seated on it, raises one of the bunches and is commonly regarded as Dionysos (F. Imhoof-Blumer Lydische Stadtmunzen Geneva and Leipzig 1897 p. 108f., Head Hist. num.l p. 552; but in Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Lydia p. 179 pl. 20, 8 Dr B. V. Head identifies the child as Ploutos).

Plate XXXI

Bell-krater at Deepdene: Herakles in Olympos taking fruit from the cornu copiae of Zeus. See page 501.

'Minoan' Bull-fight

503

Here and there his worshippers put themselves in contact with the bull by methods resembling those of the ‘Minoan' athletes. Of Kynaitha in Arkadia Pausanias writes:

‘There is here a sanctuary of Dionysos, and in winter a festival is held, at which men anoint themselves with oil, pick out a bull from a herd of cattle­ - whichever bull the god puts it into their head to take, lift it up and carry it to the sanctuary. Such is their mode of sacrifice 1.'

Again, near, Nysa in Lydia was a village called Acharaka, which had a grove and temple of Plouton and Kore. Above the grove was Charon's Cave, where cures were wrought by incubation etc. 2 The god is represented on imperial copper coins as Zeus Ploutodotes (fig. 365) 3, 'Giver of Wealth' 4; and it will be observed that this title, of which Plouton 5 is but a shorter

Fig. 365.

1 Paus. 8. 19. 2. P. Stengel Opfe Tbriiuche der Griechen Leipzig and Berlin 1910 p. 108 f. compares this lifting of the live bull en route for sacrifice with the exploit of Biton (Pans. 2. 19. 5, supra p. 448) and the order of Menelaos (Eur. Hel. 1559 ff.), but distinguishes it from the raising of oxen already struck that their blood might flow over the altar etc. … the former was an exceptional, the latter a normal usage.

2 Strab. 649, cp. 579, Eustath. in Dionys. per. 1153. A. Bouche-Leclercq Histoire de la divination dans l'antiquite Paris 1880 ii. 373 n. I: Arundell et Pococke ont retrouve le souvenir vague d'une grotte insondable et quelques vestiges de l'oracle pres d'Akkeuy ou Akchay, nom dans lequel on reconnait encore celui d' Acharaca.'

3 Imhoof-Blumer Xleinas. Miinzen i. 178 no. 2 pl. 6, 9 (Domitian), Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Lydia pp. lxxxiii, 175 pl. 20, 1 (Nero), Head Hist. num. 2 p. 654: …

4 Other examples of the title are collected by O. Hofer in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 2567 f. Cp. also Men … (Bull. Corr. Hell. 1899 xxiii. 389 l. I) and Aponon … (Anth. Pal. 9.525. 17).

5 Cp. Loukian. Timon …

'Minoan' Bull-fights

equivalent 1, was common to Zeus 2 and to Dionysos 3. Strabon ends his account of the cult as follows:

‘A yearly festival is held at Acharaka...on which occasion about the hour of noon the young men from the gymnasium, stripped and anointed with oil, take up a bull and carry it with speed to the Cave. When they let it go, it advances a little way, falls over, and dies 4.’

This strange procession is illustrated (fig. 366) 5 by a copper coin of Nysa struck by Maximus. Six naked youths carry on their shoulders a humped bull of gigantic size. In front of them marches a naked flute-player, who (so far: as I can judge from a careful inspection of the original) is linked to the bull's horn by means of a wavy line perhaps representing a fillet. Thus all who took part in the rite were brought into immediate contact with the sacred animal.

The festival (panégyris) was doubtless shared by other cities in the valley of the Maiandros 6. I am therefore inclined to surmise that a second illustration of it is to be found on a copper of Magnesia struck under Caracalla (fig. 367) 7. A young man is seen holding by the halter a humped bull, which goes before him but collapses at the, entrance of a cavern. These two remarkable coin-­types in fact give the beginning and the end of the procession described by Stra­bon.

Fig. 366.

Fig. 367.

1 Gruppe Gr. Myth.  Rel. p. 1066 n. 15. In art Plouton often bears the cornu copiae: see C. Scherer in Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 1787, 1800 ff., Farnell Cults of Gk. States iii. 286 pl. 32, a.

2 Orph. h. daem. 73 3 f. … Loukian. …  See O. Hofer in the Jahrb. f. Philol. u. Piidag. 1894 cxlix. 262 and in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 1579, iii. 2567, who notes that Nysa was a colony of Sparta (Strab. 650) where there was a temple of Zeus [Plousios] (Paus. 3. 19. 7).

3 Carm. pop. 4 2 Hiller …

4 Strab. 650.

5 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Lydia pp. lxxxiii, 181 pl. 20, 10, Head Hist. num.2 p. 654.

6 So Dr B. V. Head in Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Lydia p. lxxxiii.

7 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Ionia p. 166 pl. 19. 10. Head Hist. num. t p. 583 describes the type, as 'Herdsman (Eurytion?) driving bull into cavern' - a very improbable suggestion.

'Minoan' Bull-fights.

505

Somewhat similar to the Arcadian and Lydian rites is the scene depicted on a red-figured vase formerly in the Hamilton collection (fig. 368) 1. Three young athletes, having deposited their clothing on a pillar in the gymnasium, are about to hoist the bull on to their backs in the presence of an official.

Fig. 368.

Fig. 369

1 Tischbein Hamilton Vases ii. 18 ff. pl. 3. Inghirami Vas. fitt. i. 49 pl. 24, Lenormant de Witte El. mon. dr. iii., 187 pl. 69, Reinach Rtfp. Vases ii. 293, 4.

506

Ritual Horns

We cannot of course determine either the locality or the cult; but the Greeks would probably have called the men keratesseîs or keraelkeîs 1. They are in any case the successors of the 'Minoan' bull-grapplers.

I end with an amusing, if not instructive, example of type-­fusion. A red-figured vase at Saint Petersburg (fig. 369) 2. shows not only Europe on the bull escorted by two Erotes, but also three koûroi - perhaps we should say kourêtes - who with unmistakeable gestures beckon her on towards their home in Crete.

xvii. Ritual Horns.

Sir Arthur Evans in his pioneer-work (1901) on the 'Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Cult 3' was the first to discuss comprehensively­ the ritual horns, which in 'Minoan' cult-scenes are set in various positions of importance - at the foot of a sacred tree, on the top of an altar, as the socket of a double axe, at the base of a column, along a precinct-wall, etc.

Fig. 370.

1 Hesych. …

2 Stephani Vasensammt. St. Petersburg i. 385 f. no. 884 and in the Compte-rendu St. Pet. 1866 p. 149 ff. Atlas pl. 5, 4 f., Reinach Rep. Vases i. 24, 1 f. The bull is here painted white, like the flesh of Europe. For a Dionysiac variation of the scene see Reinach Vases Ant. p. 50 pl. 12.

3 A. J. Evans in the Journ. Hell. Stud. 1901 xxi. 135 ff.

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He regarded them as 'a more or less conventionalised article of ritual furniture derived from the actual horns of the sacrificial oxen and strictly comparable with the Semitic horns of the altar 1.

During the last decade other archaeologists have accepted and extended this comparison. R. Paribeni, for instance, has proved (1904) that the 'Minoan' horns present a striking analogy to the terra-cotta or stone crescents (Mondstchel, Mondbuilder, croissants) of the late bronze age, and early iron age found in the pile-dwellings of Switzerland, Savoy, Lower Austria, Hungary, and Italy 2. These vary in shape according to their antiquity. At first they have a heavy altar-like base; but in process of time they develope four feet and then tend to become theriomorphic, the tips of the horns being themselves decorated with the heads of horned beasts - bulls, rams, and stags (figs. 370, a-d) 3.

Fig. 371­

Fig. 372.

1 Id. ib. 1901 xxi. 137 f.

2 R. Paribeni 'Corni di consecrazione nella prima eta del ferro europea' in the Bullettino di paleontologia italiana Third Series 1904 xxx. 304-310 figs. 1-7.

3 M. Hoernes Urgeschichte der bildenden Kunst in Europa Wien 1898 p. 503 ff. pl. 16, 1-6, id. Hatur- und Urgeschichte des Menschen Wien und Leipzig 1909 ii. 564, 568 fig. 252, Forrer Reallex. p. 488 s.vv. 'Mond und Mondbilder' figs. 405-408, J. Schlemm Wiirlerhuch sur Vorgeschichte Berlin 1908 pp. 354-357 figs. a-h, J. Dechelette Manuel d'archeologie prehistorique Paris 1910 ii. I. 472-;-479 fig. 199, 1-3, A. Mosso The Dawn of Mediterranean civilisation London 1910 pp. 343-345. Fig. 370, a is a crescent of red sandstone (in part restored) from a station on the Ebersberg, now in the Zurich Museum; fig. 370, h, from the lake-dwelling at Le Saut in Savoy; fig. 370, c, from the nekropolis of Golasecca in north Italy; fig. 370, d, a terra-cotta from a tumulus of the early iron age at Oedenburg in Hungary. W. M. Flinders Petrie ­G. A. Wainwright-E. Mackay The Labyrinth Gerzeh and Masghuneh London 1912 p. 23 pl. 7, 13 publish a black pottery cow's horn tipped with a cow's head from a pre­dynastic grave at El Gerseh.

508

Ritual Horns

Recently (1910) Monsieur J. Dechelette has further compared the Cretan type of horned altar (fig. 371) 1 with one found at Oficio near Almeria in the south of Spain. Here Monsieur L. Siret in a deposit dating from the beginning of the bronze age came upon an altar-shaped structure of earth built against a wall and sur­mounted by ritual horns (fig. 372, a, b) 2.

It appears, then, that ritual horns were used at an early date, not only in Crete, but also in various countries to the east, north, and west of the Mediterranean basin. If, however, we would ascertain the original significance of the custom, we must, I think, turn our attention towards the south; for here only can we hope to find outlying regions that have not been repeatedly swept by the ebb and flow of advanced civilisations. My brother Dr A. R. Cook, on returning from a visit (1905­-1906) to the Dinka tribes of the White Nile, informed me that the boys there make small models of cows out of mud. He brought back a specimen (fig. 373), which though only three inches in length shows well the humped back, large horns, and slit ears characteristic of the native cattle. He also reported that outside the hut of every chief is a big heap of mud roughly shaped like a bull and known as such.

Fig. 373.

1 M. J. Lagrange La Crete ancienne Paris 1908 p. 83 fig. 62 (about 1/3) a votive altar in red baked clay with horns painted white and remains of a metal tenon beneath, found at Knossos in the treasury of the serpent-goddess and now preserved in the Museum at Kandia.

2 J. Dechelette op. cit. ii. r. 80 f. fig. 25.

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These heaps have a pair of bullock's horns stuck into them and a cattle rope attached to them. I figure one that my brother photographed at Sheik Agoit's, not far from Bor, which has bullock's horns at one end, goat's horns at the other, and consequently a pair of ropes (fig. 374). Dr C. G. Seligmann in letters dated March 15 and March 22, 1911, very kindly supplies me with further information about these singular structures and allows me to publish two examples that he photographed in the Tain villages near Bor (figs. 375, 376). The erection is, he says, a form of shrine known as buor made for the spirit (atiep) of an ancestor to inhabit. I quote from Dr Seligmann's note-book 1:

Fig. 374.

Fig. 375.

Fig. 376.

1 See now his article in J. Hastings Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics Edinburgh 1911 iv. 710.

510

Ritual Horns

‘Several generations ago one Nyet founded a village which, as is usual with the [Dinka], is called after him; his companions, who were for the most part his relatives and descendants, used his name as their clan name, i.e. they call themselves golonyet, "(men of the) Clan Nyet." At the present day men of this clan inhabit the villages of Arek and Meden. Der the late head of Arek village moved to this site some forty years ago soon after the death of Anet, who with his followers lived near the Amab boundary at a place called Unedol. Directly the houses were built Der erected a shrine for the atiep of Anet to live in "just as a house"; for the spirit knows of the wanderings of its people and moves with them. This was done at the instance of a tiet, who said that, if this were not done, Der and his children would sicken and perhaps die. The shrine itself consists of a mound of mud at one end of which are fixed the horns of a bullock. In front of this end of the mound there is one of the pickets to which cattle are commonly tethered. [In shape the whole thing presents a certain resemblance to a bullock sunk in the earth - so that only its back projects; but I could not learn that this resemblance was intentional, though a Dinka whom I met at Omdurman, where he had lived for a long time, told me that in his country mud representations of cattle were erected over the graves of powerful men.] The bullock providing the horns was sacrificed by Der who explained aloud that he was making a place for the atiep of his father Anet.' The bullock was killed by plunging a spear into its heart.

Concerning this sacrifice Mr Shaw states that the eldest son should give the first thrust and that altogether five thrusts are given by the sons. If there be only one son of the dead man, paternal first cousins would give the additional thrusts. As the bullock lies moribund on the ground, its throat is cut and the blood collected in a pot, cooked over the fire, poured into gourds and eaten by the clansmen among whom the meat is distributed. Small pieces of all the organs and parts of the animal are reserved and scattered on the ground for the spirits of the dead.

At every new moon some dura 1, a few drops of new-milk, and a little butter are placed upon the shrine at sunset. The shrine is repaired whenever necessary without sacrifice or any ceremony.

Shrines of this kind (buor) are found in all the Tain and at least in some of the Bor villages; but usually these do not resemble the back of a bullock, the mud being built into a more or less circular mound flattened above. A stick or young sapling 6 or 8 feet tall is thrust into the ground near the horns and a cattle rope is hung to this. Among the Tain Dinka the sons of a dead man will procure a bullock and build a buor whenever possible; the widow makes the mud mound, and into this the sons stick the horns of the bullock. This is done not only to propitiate the spirit of the deceased, but, as Mr Shaw informs me, as a resting-place for his spirit (atiep); and in one case he has seen a mat spread over the buor during the heat of the day in order to provide shade for the atiep.

The evidence here cited points to the following conclusion. Among the Dinka a shrine originally representing a mud bullock and viewed as the abode of a paternal spirit has developed into a horned altar, on which food etc. is placed. I suggest that a similar evolution lies behind the use of horned altars in the Mediterranean

1 [Dhurra, 'millet.' A.RC.]

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area. Of cpurse in classical times, though the term ‘horned altar' survived, its origin had been long forgotten. The object itself had commonly passed into alien and almost unrecognisable forms.

Thus the ritual horns of 'Minoan' art (fig. 377) 2 were stylised into mere cones by the Dipylon painter (fig. 378) 3 and finally

Fig. 377.

Fig. 378.

Fig. 379.

Fig. 380.

1 Antn. Pal. 6. 10. 3 (Antipatros on an altar dedicated to Athena by Seleukos) … There may be a special point in the epithet … for Seleukos himself was horned, cp. Appian. Syr. 57. … Coins give him the horn of a bull (Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Seleucid Kings of Syria p. 3 pl. I, 6, Hunter Cat. Coins iii. II pl. 63, 20), or add the horn and ear of a bull to his helmet (Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Seleucid Kings of Syria p. 4 pl. I, II ff.), or even make his horses and elephants horned (ib. p. 3 ff. pl. I, 6 ff., Head Hist. num. 2 p. 756 ff.). E. Saglio in Daremberg-Saglio Diet. Ant. i. 351 n. 65 cites also Nonn. Dion. 44: 97 ff. … Cp. the Thes. Ling. Lat. iv. 971, 7 ff.

2 Part of relief on a steatite pyxís from Knossos (A. J. Evans in the Journ. Hell. Stud. 1901 xxi. 101 ff. fig. 2).

3 Detail of 'Dipylon' vase from the site of the Kynosarges gymnasium at Athens (T. P. Droop in the Ann. Brit. Sen. Atn. 1905-1906 xii. 81 ff. fig. 2 b). Mr Droop writes: 'The temptation is strong to see in the table and triangle a horned altar, but the hatched triangle is frequently used to fill vacant spaces, and appears for that purpose on this very vase, while the band of chequers lower down, makes it doubtful if the table had any more significance.' Miss Harrison Themis p. 76 ff. fig. 10 b has, however, gone far towards proving that the scene represented two rain-makers working their rattles before a sacred shield placed on an altar. If so, the interpretation of the triangles as horns becomes highly probable.

512

Ritual Horns

transformed into spit-rests (krateutaf) 1, andirons, or altar-fenders by successive generations of practical folk (figs. 3792, 3803).

Fig. 381.

Fig. 382.

Fig. 383.

Fig. 384.

Fig. 385.

Fig. 386.

1 Terra-cotta spit-rests from Thessaly of neolithic date have been described and figured by Ch. Tsountas … Athens 1908 p. 222 ff. fig.nof. pl. 30, 1,2; p. 345 f. figs. 276 f., A. J. B. Wace-M. S. Thompson Prehistoric Thessaly Cambridge 1912 p. 43 fig. 19; pp. 60 f., 73; p.85. For bronze examples of the Hallstatt period, decorated with horned ox-heads etc. at either end, see M. Hoernes Urgeschickte der bildenden Kunst in Europa Wien [898 p. 443 fig. 137, p. SOl f. fig. 165.

2 Detail of black-figured pyxis-lid or kylix-lid found at Cuma in 1908 (E. Gabrici in the Rom. Mitth. 1912 xxvii. 124 ff. pl. 5), to which Miss Harrison kindly drew my attention.

3 Detail of an Apulian amphora from Ruvo (Heydemann Vasensamml. Neape p. 517 f. no. 3223, Mon. d. Inst. ii pl. 43, E. Braun in the Ann. d. Inst. 1837 ix. 198 ff., O. Jahn ib. 1848 xx. 204 ff., Overbeck Gall. her. Bildw. i. 735 f. Atlas pl. 30, 4, J. H. Huddilston Greek Tragedy in the light of Vase Paintings London 1898 p. 127 ff. fig. 18). Archaic altars of this type have been found in south Italy and Sicily, e.g. the great ash-­altar of Demeter at Selinous (R. Koldewey - O. Puchstein .Die griechischen Tempeln in Unteritalten und Siciltum Berlin 1899 p. 84. F. Studniczka in the fahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch. Inst. 1911 xxvi. 94 f. fig. 30).

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Similarly ram's horns affixed to an altar (flg.381) 1 became volutes curving either downwards (figs. 3822, 3833, 3844) or upwards (fig. 385) 5; and these volutes in turn were combined with a simple (fig. 385) or more elaborate pediment (fig. 386) 6 and treated as architectural akrotiria. The climax of magnificence is reached in the Ludovisi altar, which has both sculptured fenders and upturned decorative volutes 7. The fenders, as viewed from the side, still bear some faint resemblance to, the 'Minoan' altar-horns.

Here and there religious con­servatism retained clearer traces of the old usage. The keraton at Delos was, according to Kallimachos, constructed by Apollon from the horns of the goats shot by Artemis on Mount Kynthos 8; according to Plutarch, from left horns 9 or from right horns only 10. Again, the Kabeiros of Thessalonike had a horn, which was either planted in the ground. beside him 11 or fixed on a base resembling an altar 12.

Fig, 387.

1 From a 'Caeretan' hydría at Vienna (Furtwangler-Reichhold Gr. Vasenmalerei i. 255 ff. pl. 51). Cp. W. Robertson Smith Lectures on the Religion of the Semites London 1907 p. 478 on the horns of sheep figured upon the cippi of Tanit.

2 From a late black-figured amphora at Berlin (Gerhard Auset. Vasenb. iv. 5 f. pl. 241, 3 f.).

3 From a red-figured kántharos by Nikosthenes at Boston (Wien. Vorlegebl. 1890­-1891 pl. 7, 2).

4 From a red-figured kjlix by Hieron at Heidelberg (Wien. Vorlegebl. C pl. 2).

5 From a red-figured kálpis formerly in the Canino collection (Gerhard Auserl.Vasenb. i. 96 ff. pl. 28). Cr. the great altar of Demeter at Pergamon (W. Dorpfeld in the Ath. Mitth. 1910 xxv. 374 ff. fig. 7 and pl. 18) with its finely carved upstanding 'horn' (F. Studniczka in the Jahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch. Inst. 1911 xxvi. 7I fig. 14), and the still greater altar built by Hermakreon at Parion in Mysia (Strab. 487, 588, Eustath. in J. p. 355, 15 f.) which appears on coppers of the town c. 350-300 B.C, or later (fig. 113: Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Mysia p. 97 ff. pl. 21, 10-13, Imhoof-Blumer Monn. gr. p. 250 nos. 114-116, Head Hist. tum.2 p. 531).

6 From a red-figured kjlix by Hieron at Berlin (Wim.. Vorlegebl. A pl. 4).

7 F. StudniczKa loc. cit. p. 76 f. figs. 16-17.

8 … Ap. 60 ff.

9 Plout. V. Thes. 21.

10 Plout. de sollert. an. 35.

11 Supra p. 108 fig. 79

12 Supra p. 108 f. figs. 80, 81. Cr. the single horns of  stone found in a neolithic pillar-precinct at Terlizzi in Apulia (A. Mosso and F. Samarelli in the Not. Scavi 1910 p. 116 ff.), the single horns of earthen­ware found in several Sicilian burying-grounds or settlements - Castelluccio, Monteracello, etc. - of the chalcolithic age (Orsi 'Necropoli e Stationi Sicule di transizione' in the Bullettino di paleontologia italiana Third Series 1907 xxxiii. 92 ff.), and the single horns of earthenware found in a bronze-age sanctuary of the early Siculans at Cannatello near Girgenti (A. Mosso in the Mon. d. Linc. 1907 xviii. 573 ff., T. E. Peet The Stone and Bronze Ages in Italy and Sicily Oxford 1909 p. 451 ff. fig. 250).

514­

Ritual Horns

The closest parallel to the Dinka bull-shrine is, however, to be sought, not in any artistic modification of the horned altar, but in an artless custom of the country-side. Antigonos of Karystos, c. 250 B.C. writes:

'In Egypt if you bury the ox in certain places, so that only its horns project above the ground; and then saw these off, they say that bees fly out; for the ox putrefies and is resolved into bees 1.'

This curious method of obtaining a swarm is often mentioned by classical authors and lingered on through mediaeval times well into the sixteenth century 2. The fullest account of it is given by Florentinus 3, who begins by naming his authorities:

'Iobas king of the Libyans states that bees must be made in a wooden coffer; Demokritos and Varra in the Roman tongue state that they should be made in a house, which is even better.'

Then follows the recipe for making them. A fat bullock; thirty months old, is confined in a narrow chamber measuring ten cubits every way and pierced by a door and four windows. He is then beaten till bones and flesh alike are crushed, though blood must not be drawn. Next, every aperture in his body is stuffed up with pitched rags, and he is laid on a heap of thyme. The door and windows are plastered up with mud so as to exclude light and air. After three weeks the chamber is thrown open, but care must be taken not to admit a strong wind. When aired enough, the relics are fastened up as before and left for ten days longer. On the eleventh day clusters of bees will be found, while of the bullock nothing remains but horns, bones, and hair. 'King' bees come from the spinal marrow, or better still from the brain; ordinary bees from the flesh. The main idea of this singular superstition is that the life of the bull passed into that of the bees. As Ovid puts it,­

One life thus slain begat a thousand lives 5.

The buried bull, or bull-shrine, if we may so describe it, was in fact the centre of a vital force, which radiated outwards especially through the head and horns. If, as I am contending, some such custom is really presupposed by the horned altar of the Mediterranean peoples, we can understand why the suppliant clung to its horns 6

1 Antiq. hist. mir. 19.

2 W. Robert-Tornow De apium mellisque apud veteres significatione et symbolica et mythologica Berolini 1893 pp. 1 f. 18 Journ. Hell. Stud. 1895 xv. 8-10.

3 Geopon. 15. … ff.

4 Journ. Hell. Stud. 1895 xv. 9 f.

5 Ov. fast. I. 380 mille animas una necata dedit.

6 1 Kings 1. 50, 51, 1. 18.

515

or offered sacrifice 1 and prayer 2 holding it as by a handle. He was thereby himself filled with the life of the divine beast. Moreover, the frequent practice of affixing a bucranium to the altar or carving bucrania upon it is seen to be highly appropriate, if not actually reminiscent of its origin.

The foregoing method of procuring bees from a bull was believed by the ancients to have come from Egypt or Libye. We may therefore venture to compare with it a remarkable scene depicted in the Egyptian Book of the Dead (fig. 388) 4. According to Dr Budge, Hathor the cow-god­dess of the Underworld looks out through a clump of papyrus-plants from the fune­ral mountain, at the foot of which is the tomb. Now it is highly probable that such vignettes were originally in­spired by actual custom. And Mr F. W. Green kindly in­forms me that at Deir el Bahri the relative positions of Hathor-shrine, mountain, and tombs agree well with those here represented 5. The divine cow buried in the earth, but yet looking forth upon the world and by her own peculiar virtue causing fresh vegetation to spring up, thus furnishes an exalted parallel to the humbler rite of the buried bull and its resultant swarms.

Fig. 388.

1 Varr. a; Macrob. Sat. 3. 2. 8 inde Varro Divinarum libro quinto dicit aras primum asas dictas, quod esset necessarium a sacrificantibus eas teneri: ansis autem teneri solere vasa quis dubitet? Cp. interp. Servo in Verg. Am. 4 219. Varro's etymology is of course faulty, but his facts are sound.

2 Verg. Aen. 6. 124 talibus orabat dictis arasque tenebat (cp. 4. 219. 12. 201) with Servo ad loc. rogabant enim deos ararum ansas tenentes. For other examples see the Thes. Ling. Lat. ii. 386, 7 ff.

3 E. Saglio in Daremberg-Saglio Diet. Ant. i. 351.

4 E. A. Wallis Budge Facsimile of the Papyrus of Ani London 1894 pl. 37. id. The Gods of the Egyptians London 1904 i. 430 pl. 18. cp. Lanzone Diziolt. di Mitol. Egiz. pp. 896, 898 f. pls. 321. 1, 323.

5 Mr H. R. Hall points out to me that Mr Somers Clarke (Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology 1905 xxvii. 179) has explained the pyramidal tomb-chapel in the vignette as copied from a pyramid at Deir el Bahn, which was especially connected with Hathor-worship, and the hills as being the cliffs of the same locality.

516

Ritual Horns

To the same cycle of ideas belongs the Mithraic sacrifice of a bull (fig. 389, 390) 1.

Fig. 389

1 Figs. 389 and 390 are the front and back of a Mithraic altar-piece found in 1826 in the Heidenfeld near Heddernheim and now preserved in the Museum at Wiesbaden (F. Cumont Textes et monuments figures relatifs aux mysteres de Mithra Bruxelles 1896 ii. 362 ff. fig. 248 pls. 7 f., id. in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 3050 ff. figs. 6 f., id. in Uarem­berg-Saglio Diet. Ant. iii. 1950 fig. 5088. id. Die Mysterien des Mithra trans. G. Gehrich Leipzig 1911 pl. 3. I). Fig. 389 = Front. (a) In a recess representing the cave Mithras slays the bull, accompanied by dog with collar and crow perched on fluttering mantle. A scorpion nips the testicles of the bull. A snake would drink from a kratér placed below the bull's belly and guarded by a lion. To right and left are Cautes and Cautopates with raised and lowered torches - a duplication of Mithras himself (Dionys. Areop. epist. 7 …). Behind Cautes is a tree with a snake coiled round it. (b) Above the cave are the twelve signs of the zodiac, from Aries to Pisces. (e) In the spandrels Mithras in oriental dress and Phrygian cap shoots an arrow towards another personage wearing Phrygian cap and kneeling in front of rock.

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(d) Higher up an oblong space shows four scenes separated by three cypresses: Mithras appearing out of the foliage of a tree (cypress?); Mithras dragging the bull by its hind legs, while a snake threatens its muzzle; Mithras extending his hand towards the radiate crown on the head of Sol (hands broken); Sol with radiate nimbus (traces visible) kneeling before Mithras (body restored). (e) The top member of the frame has three cypresses enclosing two scenes: Sol standing in his chariot (horses and rocks restored) extends his hand to Mithras, who is about to mount the chariot; Luna reclining in her chariot is drawn by two horses down a rocky slope. (f) The angles of the frame contain medallions of four wind-gods - winged heads, of which three at least are bearded and one, if not more, ejects a cone of wind from his lips. (g) Below the upper and above the lower medallions are the four seasons: on the left above, Spring with rose-wreaths in hair and round neck; on the right above, Summer with band round brow; on the right below, Autumn with wreath of corn (?) and flowers and fruit in bosom (?); on the left below, Winter with covered head. (h) Between Winter and Spring are two scenes: below, a bearded figure resting on rocks (Oceanus?); above, a bearded figure with chlamys on left arm and elongated object (stick? sword? thunderbolt?) in right hand advancing towards rock or shapeless person (Iupiter and Giant ?). Between Summer, and Autumn are two more scenes: above, Mithras as a child emerging from rock (hands lost); below, Mithras as a youth advancing to seize the branches of a bush, of which the lower part is seen.

Fig. 390 = Back.

Fig. 390

518

Ritual Horns­

Mithras - whose myth has been largely reconstructed from his monuments 1 - was bidden by the raven, messenger of the Sun, to slay the great bull that had escaped from his cave. Reluctantly he went in pursuit and caught the bull just as it re-entered the cave. Closing its nostrils with his left hand, with his right he plunged a knife deep into its flank. Thereupon wonders ensued. Fresh forms of life sprang from the body of the dying beast. Corn arose from its spinal marrow - witness the bunch of corn-ears at the end of its tail. A vine grew from its blood. The one plant furnished the mystics with bread, the other with wine. In vain did the emissaries of darkness, the scorpion, the ant, and the snake, attack the moribund monster, fastening on its genitals or seeking to drain its blood. The seed of the bull, collected and purified by the Moon, begat all manner of serviceable creatures; and its soul, guarded by Mithras' faithful hound, ascended to heaven, where under the name of Silvanus it became the protector of all flocks and herds. In short, the death of the bull meant new life to the world at large 2.

Before passing from the present section we must face one outstanding difficulty. We have been maintaining that the horned altar of the Mediterranean originated as the shrine of a buried beast. It may be objected that, on this showing, the altar - hardly to be distinguished from the divinity dwelling in it - was at one time the actual object of cult.

That is a conclusion from which in fact we must not shrink.

(a) In the recess representing the cave the bull lies dead. Behind it stand two figures - on the left Mithras in oriental dress and Phrygian cap holding a horn, on the right Sol with long hair, chlamys, belt, etc. carrying a whip. Sol holds out a big bunch of grapes to Mithras, who raises his hand in admiration. Between them a Phrygian cap, surrounded by a circlet with seven rays (in part restored), rests on a pole. To right and left of the bull are two children in oriental dress and Phrygian caps bearing baskets of fruit (the child on the left almost entirely modern). (b) Above the cave is a scene now much damaged. In the centre a male figure, probably Silvanus, stands erect (lower half can be traced); and about him are grouped, from left to right, various animals - boar, hound, horse (hoof and part of leg visible), sheep (?), hound, hound, hound, bull.

This relief was originally so mounted as to turn about in its three-sided frame on two iron pivots. Hence the absence of decoration on the back of the frame.

1 F. Cumont Textes et monuments etc. i. 159 ff., in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 3050 ff., in Daremberg-Saglio Diet. Ant. iii. 1953, Die Mysterien des Mithra p. 115 ff. 2 Cp. Porph. de antr. nymph. ... The parallelism between the procreation of bees from a bull and the Mithraic myth is here distinctly recognised.

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W. Robertson Smith 1 long since pointed out that in the Semitic area 'the sacred stone is altar and idol in one,' citing inter alia Porphyrios' strange account of the worship at Dumat:

'The Dumatenes in Arabia used every year to sacrifice a boy and to bury him beneath an altar, which they treat as an image 2.'

Even more explicit is the divinity of the altar in the cult of certain Syrian gods. A long day's march west of Aleppo rises a bare and almost conical mountain known to the Greeks as Koryphe 3 and to the modern inhabitants as Djebel Shêkh Berekât. On the summit is a levelled precinct c.68 metres square, enclosing the tomb of the Mohammedan saint who has dispossessed the former occupants of the site. The walls of the precinct bear on their outer surface dedicatory inscriptions, nine of which, ranging in date from c. 70 to c. 120 A.D., were copied by an American archaeological expedition, in 1899-1900 4. The votive formula is:

'To Zeus Mádbachos and to Selamanes, gods of the country 5.'

Already in 1897 Prof. C. Clermont-Ganneau 6, though hampered by inexact transcripts, had with the utmost acumen divined the true meaning of both names. He compared Selamanes with the Assyrian god Salmânu and the Phoenician Slmn, the 'Peaceful or Peace-bringing One.' And he suggested. that Mádbachos, if that were the right spelling, might be connected with the Aramaic madbah, 'altars.' He even ventured to add that, if so, Zeus Mádbachos would be the Syrian equivalent of a Greek Zeus Bomós, a god identified with his own altar. Three years later this hypo­thetical deity was actually found.

1 W. Robertson Smith Lectures on the Religion of the Semites London, 1907 p. 205.

2 Porph. de ahst. 2. 56 … Perhaps we may cp. Paus. 2. 32. 7 (between Troizen and Hermione) …

3 Theodoret. relig. hist. 4 (lxxxii. 1340 Migne).

4 H. C. Butler in the Am. Journ. Arcit. 1900 iv. f3f f., W. K. Prentice iv. 1902 vi. 27 f.and more fully in Hermes 1902 xxxvii. 91-120 with ground-plan, figs., etc… (so inscr. nos. 1, 2: nos. 5, 7, 8 have...

6 Clermont-Ganneau Etudes d'archeologie orientale 'Paris 1897 ii. 35-Sf.especially p. 49 n. 2, id. Recueil'd'arcklolo{{ie orientale Paris 1901 iv. 164 f. ,

7 So too G. Hoffmann in the Zeitscltrift fiir Assyriologie xi. 246, E. Littmann up. W. K. Prentice in 'Hermes 1902 xxxvii. 1(7 f., O. Hofer in Roscher Lex. My cit. iv. 641.

8 So too E. Littmann ap. W. K. Prentice loc. cit. p. 118, M. Lidzbarski in the EPkemeris fur semitiscke Epigrapkik' 1908 ii. 81, Gruppe My/It. Lit. 1908 p. 639, L. R. Farnell in Tke Year's Work i1l Class. Stud. I909 P' 61,.R. Eisler Weltenman/el und Himmelszelt Munchen 1910 ii. 723 n. 7

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A day's journey south of Djebel Shêkh Berekât is a place called Burdj B­akirha, situated at the northern end of Djebel Barîsha. Here was once a fine Roman temple, built in the time of the Antonines; and a few paces to the east of it are the foundations of a very ancient altar. Temple and altar were enclosed by a precinct-wall, now almost wholly destroyed. On the lintel of the precinct-door Dr E. Littmann deciphered a dedication to Zeus Bomós 1, the god whose existence was postulated by Prof. Clermont-Ganneau.

Zeus Bomos, no doubt, was the Grecised form of a Syrian god. But the Hellenic Zeus too was here and there believed to inhabit a hewn slab or pillar of stone: e.g. at Sikyon, in Arkadia, at Tarentum 2.

1 … (W. K. Prentice in Hermes 1902 xxxvii. u8).

2 In dealing with aniconic representations of Zeus as a stone we must carefully distinguish artificial from natural forms. This distinction is not well observed by Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus p. 3 ff, or even by Farnell Cults of Gk. States i. 102 ff., though it is rightly emphasised by W. Robertson Smith Lectures on the Religion of the Semites London 1907 p. 206 f.

The statement of Maximus Tyrius that the earliest men dedicated mountain-tops ­ Olympos, Ide, etc. - as [agalmata] to Zeus (supra p. 102 n. 5) may be an erroneous inference from the fact that Zeus was worshipped on such high-places, or a generalisation from the case of Mt Argaios (ib.). There is, however, good evidence for the identification of natural stones, probably meteorites, with Zeus: e.g. the stone near Gythion called Zeus [Kappotas] (infra ch. ii § 10 (f»; the stone at Delphoi said to have been swallowed by Kronos in place of Zeus (infra ch. ii § 10 (d»; the stone of Elagabalos, the god of Emesa in Syria, who was regarded as a solar Zeus or Iupiter (infra ch. ii § 10 (c». Among artificially-shaped stones we may notice several types - the pillar, the pyramid, the pyramid on a pillar, the omphalós.

Zeus is represented on Apulian vases by a pillar pure and simple (supra p. 36 fig. 9), or by a pillar inscribed [DIOS] (supra p. 36 ff. pl. iii). This presumably had behind it long-standing local tradition; for it is known that Zeus [Kataibatais] had a pillar-cult at Tarentum in very early times (infra ch. ii § 3 (a) ii (c})). Cp. also art Apulian bell-krater (Brit. Mus. Cat. Vases iv. 42 no. F 62) on which is a stepped stele bearing the inscription [TERMON], i.e. Zeus [Termon] as the equivalent of Iupiter Terminus (Plout. V. Hum. 16 with Plat. leg. 842 E f., Dem. de Halonnes. 39f.=Anth. Pal. 9. 786).

Zeus [Meilichios] at Sikyon was a mere pyramid (Paus. 2. 9, 6 Ion … cp. the conical stone inscribed … at Korkyra (supra p. 164 n. 5) and the bronze pyramids of Iupiter Dolichenus (infra ch. i § 6 (g) xx (0». Zeus … (A. S. Arvanitopoullos in the … 1906 p. 63 f. fig., K. A. Rhomaios ib. 1911 p. ISO fig. I, infra ch. ii § 3 (c)"iv (E», Zeus IIaolos (K. A. Rhomaios loc. cit. p. 152 fig. 7), and Zeus … (id. ib. p. 153 fig. 9) were, like other Arcadian deities, represented at Tegea by small pyramids surmounting four-sided pillars of Doliana marble: these pillars are inscribed … in lettering of the fifth century B.C., of the third or perhaps late fourth century B.C., and of the end of the second century A.D., respectively. A triple iconic herm at Tegea is inscribed … in lettering of the first century A.D. (id. ,ib. p. 156 f. fig. 12). The pyramid-on-pillar is obviously tantamount to the iconic herm.

In the east we find omphaloid stones regarded as Zeus: e.g. the omphalós of Zeus Kásios at Seleukeia Pieria (Append. B Syria); that of Zeus (?) at, Uhalkis sub Libano (Append. B Syria); that of Zeus [Ammon], the Semitic character of which has been already discussed (supra p. 355 ff.).

It would seem, then, .that the genuinely Greek forms of aniconic Zeus included (a) natural stones such as meteorites, and (b) artificially-shaped stones of certain definite types - the pillar, the pyramid, and a combination of the two.

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The Frontispiece of this volume will serve to show how such beliefs lingered on into our own era. Behind the god as portrayed by latter-day Pompeian art still stands the squared block from which in a sense he has emerged. That block was once his vehicle, his seat, his abode, for all practical purposes his embodiment. As time went on, the sacred stone was differentiated into a variety of distinct forms, to each of which was assigned its separate use. It did duty as the god's altar 1. It was modified into his throne 2. It survived as a perch for his eagle 3, or as a pedestal for his statue 4. But from first to last it was, strictly interpreted, the place where Zeus was to be found rather than the very Zeus himself. The distinction might indeed be overlooked by the vulgar; but it was vital to the progress of religion.

xviii. The Marriage of the Sun and the Moon in Crete.

If the bull that consorted with Pasiphae stood for the sun, Pasiphae herself, concealed in her wooden cow 5, stood for the moon. Plutarch 6 informs us that at Thalamai - a frontier town between Messene and Lakonike - there was a sanctuary and oracle of

1 E. Reisch in Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. i. 1642. An instructive case is that of Zeus … at Tarentum (infra ch. ii § 3 (a) ii (0)).

2 See W. Reichel tiber vorhellenisehe Gottereulte Wien 1897 pp. 38-50 (' Altare als Throne '). Cp. Iupiter seated on a pillar (supra p. 62 fig. 38) and Zeus … seated on his altar (supra p. 93 fig. 65). A comic scene depicted on a bell-krater from Apulia (L. Stephani Pm'erga arehaeologiea St Petersburg 1851-1876 no. 18, F. Wieseler in the Ann. d. Ins/. 1859 xxxi. _79 ff. pl. N, Reinach Rtfp. Vases i. 302, 2, W. Reichel of. ci. p. 42 fig. 12) shows Zeus sitting on his altar and threatening with uplifted bolt Herakles, who stands before him greedily eating the fruit that he ought to be presenting - a painful contrast to the pious personage, who is pouring a libation on the altar to the right.

3 Supra p. 34 f. pl. ii (well-mouth at Naples), p. 35 n. 6 fig. 8 (paste at Berlin), pp. 66, 83 pl. viii (pillars on Mt Lykaion).

4 E.g. supra p. 38 f. pl. iv, I, p. 39 n. 2 pl. iv, 2 (Apulian vase in British Museum), p. 39 pl. v (Apulian vase in Soane Museum), p. 39 f. fig. II (Campanian vase at Dresden), p. 279 n. 4 fig. 206 (red-figured vase at Bonn).

5 Supra p. 464 f.

6 Plout. v. Agid. 9.

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Pasiphaa, whom, some took to be a daughter of Atlas and mother by Zeus of Ammon, while others identified her with Kasandra the daughter of Priam who had died there and been called Pasipháa, 'She that gives light to all,' because she gave to all her oracular responses l. Plutarch adds that, according to Phylarchos 2, Daphne, the daughter of Amyklas when fleeing from the embraces of Apollon was changed into a laurel (dáphne) and received the gift of prophecy: it is implied, though not stated, that Pasipháa was an epithet of the illuminating Daphne. Pausanias still further complicates the case by speaking of the oracle as that of Ino 3. It seems clear that the Laconian Pasiphaa was an ancient oracular goddess, whose nature had been so far forgotten that it had become possible to identify her with a variety of better-known mythological characters. Fortunately for our understanding of the facts Pausanias, an honest eye-witness, goes on to, describe the sacred precinct:

'Two bronze statues stand there in the open air, one of them a statue of Pasiphae 4, the other of Helios : the statue in the temple itself could not be seen clearly owing to its wreaths, but this too is said to be of bronze. There is also a sacred spring of water that is sweet to drink. Pasiphae is not a local deity of Thalamai but an epithet of Selene 5.'

This is in an probability the truth of the matter. The statues of Pasiphae and Helios were statues of the moon-goddess and the sun-god 6. When, therefore, in the Cretan myth, the 'bull of dazzling whiteness 7' approached Pasiphae in her cow, we are justified in supposing a union between the sun and the, moon.

Behind the myth, as is so often the case, we may detect a ritual performance, in which the Cnossian queen actually placed within a wooden cow was symbolically married to a bull representing the sun-god 8.

1 By means of incubation (Plout. v. Cleom."t, Cic. de divtn. I. 96). See further Tert. de animo 46, Alistox. Tarent.frag. 76 (Frag. hist. Gr. ii. 288 Muller) ap. Apollon. Dysk. hist. mir. 49.

2 Phylarch. frag. 33 (Frag. hist. Gr. i. 342 Miiller), cp. Parthen. narr. am. ...emma. 3 Paus.

3 26. 1, where for … Wolff de novisdma oraculorum aetate p. 31 ff. would read Ious.

4 The manuscript reading … was corrected by Cameratius to …. Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 156 n. 6 defends the old reading on the ground that Pasiphae of Thalamai was a lunar Aphrodite, cp. Lyd. de mens. 4' 64 p. 117. 12 f.

5 Paus. 3. 26. 1.

6 Cp., Maximus pl ... See H. Usener Gotternamen Bonn 1896 p. 57 f.

7 Supra p. 467.

8 This view, which I put forward in the Class. Rev. 1903 xvii.. 412, was adopted in 1905 by Dr J. G. Frazer (Lect. Hist. Kingship p. 175). In 1911, however, Dr Frazer, improved upon it by pointing out that Pasiphae was not, as I had described her, the representative of 'a sky-goddess or sun-goddess,' but rather, as others had seen, the representative of the moon (Golden Bough: The Dying God p. 71 n. 2).

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We know, at least, that in the territory of the Cnossians, near the river Theren, there was in historical times a sanctuary, at which once a year the people of the district assembled to offer a solemn sacrifice and to celebrate with ancient mimetic rites the ­marriage of two divinities then described as Zeus and Hera 1. I would suggest that the later union of Zeus with Hera 9 had here taken the place of an earlier ceremony, the ritual pairing of the solar bull with the lunar cow.

That a queen should submit. to being enclosed in a wooden cow will not surprise those who are familiar with primitive religious rites, In view of the similarity existing between Cretan and Egyptian bull-worship it is to be noted that the queens of Egypt were sometimes buried in cow-shaped sarcophagi, being thus made one with Hathor the cow-goddess 3. Herodotos 4, for example, describes how Mykerinos (Men-kau-Rá), a king of the fourth dynasty, when his daughter, an only child, died, buried her in a hollow wooden cow. This cow stood, or rather knelt, in a decorated chamber of the royal palace at Sais, its head and neck thickly plated with gold, and the rest of its body, covered with a scarlet cloak. Between its horns was a golden disk to imitate the sun; and once a year, when the Egyptians made mourning for a certain god, presumably Osiris, the cow was brought out into the light, for the princess on her death-bed had besought her father that once a year she might look upon the sun. Whether the Minoans ever assimilated their dead rulers to bulls and cows we do not know, though it has been conjectured by Mr B. Staes that the splendid silver cow's head with golden horns and a gold-plated rosette between them, found in the fourth shaft-grave at Mykenai, was originally affixed to the exterior surface of a wooden coffin 5.

In various parts of the world it has been held that the stars are the children of the sun and moon 6.

1 Diod. 5. 72.

2 Infra ch, iii§ I.

3 Cp. R. Lepsius Die q,tpwnologie tier Ai:gypter Berlin 18...9 i. 309 n. 3.

4 Hdt. 2. 1_9 ff.,

5 B. Staes … 1907 pp. 31-60 fig. 12.

6 E. B. Tylor Primitive Cultures London 1891 i. 356 (the Mintira of the Malay Peninsula, the Ho of Chota-Nagpore in north east India), P. Sebillot Le Folk-lore de France Paris 1904 i. 10 (Tr...guier). My friend the Rev. J. Roscoe informs me that a similar 'belief occurs among the Baganda of central Africa. W. H. Roscher in his Lex. My cit. ii, 3198 cites further parallels from A. Schleicher in the Sitzungsber. ii. kais. Akad. d. Wiss. in. Wkn Phil.-hist. Classe 1853 xi. 99. T. Waitz-G. Gerland Antltropologie tier NaturUolker Leipzig 1872 vi. 266, W. Mannhardt in the Zatscltrift fur ...gie 1815 vii. 303.

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Marriage of the Sun and Moon in Crete