DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14695#0067
Zeus Amdrios
15
But, confining our attention to the Greek area, we may further
illustrate the same change.
Macrobius states that 'the Cretans call the day Zeusv—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 in-
cluded Achaeans,Eteo-Cretans,Cydonians,Dorians and Pelasgians2;
and to choose between these, and perhaps others, is a precarious
undertaking. Nevertheless the dialect of Crete as a whole through-
out 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 Diklaios3. The hymn appears to have been written down
about the year 200 A.D.; but its wording is perhaps five centuries
older4, and its refrain preserves what I venture to regard as a
survival of the original conception of Zeus:—
Hail, greatest Lad of Kronos' line5,
Almighty Brilliance, who art here
Leading thy followers divine :
To Dikte come for the new year
And dance with joy this dance of mine6.
W. M. Lindsay The Latin Language Oxford 1894 p. 389, Walde Lai. etyin. Wqrterb.
P- 313-
1 Macrob. Sat. 1. 15. 14 Cretenses Ata tt)v rj/j.e'pav vocant.
2 Od. 19. 175 ff.
3 Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1908—1909 xv. 339 ff.
4 G. Murray, id. xv. 364 f.
5 With Kovpe...Kp6vie cp. Aisch. P. v. 577 f. c3 Kpovie | irat, Pind. 01. 2. 22 c3 Kpovie
iral'Yeas. For Kovpos — ttcus see Stephanus Thes. Gr. Ling. iv. 1895 A.
6 tc6, I /xeyiare Kovpe, xcupe fxoi, \ Kpovie, irayKpares ydvos, | /3e/3a/ces | dai/xovwv
dywp:evos' \ A'iKrav is iviavrbv ep-\ire /cat yeyadi fxoXira.
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 ydvos. The face has in line 2 TTATIKpATGC fANOC altered into ttanKpATGC
rANoyc, and in line 20 nan KpAT6C fANOYC- This suggests an attempt to make sense
of an old defective copy, and on reading it I conjectured (see Trinity College Lechire
Room paper of Nov. 4, 1910) that the original phrase was irayKpares ydvos, cp. Enn.
ap. Cic. de nat. deor. 2. 4 aspice hoc sublime candens, quern invocant omnes Iovem
{Folk-Lore 1905 xvi. 261). Prof. G. Murray printed irayKpares ydvovs in his restored text
and translated it 'Lord of all that is wet and gleaming.' He now (Aug. 15, 191:1)
writes to me d p7'opos of ydvos: ' 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.
15
But, confining our attention to the Greek area, we may further
illustrate the same change.
Macrobius states that 'the Cretans call the day Zeusv—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 in-
cluded Achaeans,Eteo-Cretans,Cydonians,Dorians and Pelasgians2;
and to choose between these, and perhaps others, is a precarious
undertaking. Nevertheless the dialect of Crete as a whole through-
out 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 Diklaios3. The hymn appears to have been written down
about the year 200 A.D.; but its wording is perhaps five centuries
older4, and its refrain preserves what I venture to regard as a
survival of the original conception of Zeus:—
Hail, greatest Lad of Kronos' line5,
Almighty Brilliance, who art here
Leading thy followers divine :
To Dikte come for the new year
And dance with joy this dance of mine6.
W. M. Lindsay The Latin Language Oxford 1894 p. 389, Walde Lai. etyin. Wqrterb.
P- 313-
1 Macrob. Sat. 1. 15. 14 Cretenses Ata tt)v rj/j.e'pav vocant.
2 Od. 19. 175 ff.
3 Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1908—1909 xv. 339 ff.
4 G. Murray, id. xv. 364 f.
5 With Kovpe...Kp6vie cp. Aisch. P. v. 577 f. c3 Kpovie | irat, Pind. 01. 2. 22 c3 Kpovie
iral'Yeas. For Kovpos — ttcus see Stephanus Thes. Gr. Ling. iv. 1895 A.
6 tc6, I /xeyiare Kovpe, xcupe fxoi, \ Kpovie, irayKpares ydvos, | /3e/3a/ces | dai/xovwv
dywp:evos' \ A'iKrav is iviavrbv ep-\ire /cat yeyadi fxoXira.
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 ydvos. The face has in line 2 TTATIKpATGC fANOC altered into ttanKpATGC
rANoyc, and in line 20 nan KpAT6C fANOYC- This suggests an attempt to make sense
of an old defective copy, and on reading it I conjectured (see Trinity College Lechire
Room paper of Nov. 4, 1910) that the original phrase was irayKpares ydvos, cp. Enn.
ap. Cic. de nat. deor. 2. 4 aspice hoc sublime candens, quern invocant omnes Iovem
{Folk-Lore 1905 xvi. 261). Prof. G. Murray printed irayKpares ydvovs in his restored text
and translated it 'Lord of all that is wet and gleaming.' He now (Aug. 15, 191:1)
writes to me d p7'opos of ydvos: ' 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.