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Cook, Arthur B.
Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 1): Zeus god of the bright sky — Cambridge, 1914

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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14695#0164

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The cult of Zeus on Mount Olympos 103

wind or weather, but would be found again after a year's interval
precisely as they had been left1. Every year victims were led in
procession up the mountain-side, and those who led them, on
reaching the top, found intact certain letters formed in the ashes
on the occasion of their last visit2. The same beliefs attached to
Mount Kyllene in Arkadia3 and to Mount Athos in Chalkidike4.
The Zeus-cult of Mount Olympos has even survived, in a modified
form, to the present day. On the highest peak of the mountain
is a small chapel of Saint Elias, built of rude stones collected on
the spot. To it once a year go the monks from the monastery of
Saint Dionysios in the ravine of Litokhoro. Their procession starts
at night by torch-light, and they say a mass in the chapel on the
summit5. Here, as elsewhere6, Zeus himself has been replaced by
Saint Elias. But his eagle still haunts the height, at least in the
popular imagination. A folk-song heard by Mr J. S. Stuart-
Glennie, when ascending from the pass of Petra, makes Olympos
exclaim :

1 Solin. 8. 6 ara est in cacumine Iovi dicata, cuius altaribus si qua de extis inferuntur,
nec difflantur ventosis spiritibus nec pluviis diluuntur, sed volvente anno cuiusmodi relicta
fuerint eiusmodi reperiuntur : et omnibus tempestatibus a corruptelis aurarum vindicatur
quidquid ibi semel est deo consecratum. After consecratum codd. A. P., two good
manuscripts, insert litterae in cinere scriptae usque ad {ad usqtie P.) alteram anni ceri-
moniam permanent. Th. Mommsen does not admit this addition into his text (Berolini
1864); but at least it agrees with the authorities cited infra n. 2. See further supra
p. 82 n. 1.

2 Plout.jfazf. 96 Diibner ap. Philop. in Aristot. met. 1 p. 82 ra yap v^prfKoTara ru>v 6pQv
virepvecprj re e<yri Kal V7reprji'e/j,a. rkcppav yap iv tmti rovrcov dirodeixevoi rcves ?) Kal eK dvai&v
tG>v ev ^KeivoLS yevopLevcov airoXeXoLirbres, fxera irXdarovs eviavrobs irepiepyacrapievoi, Keip.evqv
evpov avrrjv ovtojs <hs edeaav. /cat ev KvXKrjvri 5£ cpaatv ('Ap/caStas 5' opos) (3\T]deiaav, ixi]re
vtto irvevfiaTOjv 8ieffKe8acrjxivqv. iaropel 8i UXoirapxos Kal ypapL/xara fxelvai els erepav t&p
iepeioov avdj3a<uv ek tt}s irporepas ev 'OXvixiruy MaKedoviKcp, Aug. de Genesi ad litt.
imperf. 1. 14 in illo autem neque nubes concrescere asseruntur neque aliquid procellosum
existere, quippe ubi ventus adeo nullus est, ut in vertice Olympi montis, qui spatia huius
humidi aeris excedere dicitur, quaedam literae in pulvere solere fieri perhibeantur et post
annum integrae atque illaesae inveniri ab iis qui solemniter memoratum montem
ascendebant.

Probably omens were drawn not only from the flame and the smoke of the sacrifice
(L.-F. A. Maury Religions de la Grece Paris 1857 ii. 444 ff.), but also from the accidental
arrangement of the ashes on the altar. It was customary to leave these undisturbed from
one sacrifice to the next (Pers. sat. 6. 44 f., Plin. nat. hist. 2. 240).

3 Plout. loc. cit., Gemin. elem. astr. 1. 14 (the thigh-pieces and ashes of the yearly
sacrifice to Hermes on the top of Mount Kyllene are found undisturbed by those who take
part in the next year's procession, because the summit is cloudless and windless).

4 Solin. 11. 33 (Mount Athos is believed to be too high for rain to fall on its summit,
because the altars there have none of their ashes washed away and lose nothing of their
bulk).

5 H. Holland Travels in the Ionian Isles, Etc. p. 303, L. Heuzey Le Mont Olympe et
Acarnanie pp. 135, 138.

Infra ch. i § 5 (f).
 
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