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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#0165

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104 Dionysiac traits in the cult of Zeus

I seventy mountain-summits have, and two-and-sixty fountains;
To every bush an Armatole, to every branch a Klephte.
And perched upon my highest peak there sits a mighty eagle;
A mirror, in his talon grasped, he holds on high exalted,
And in it he his charms admires, and on his beauty gazes!1

(b) Dionysiac traits in the cult of Zeus
on Mount Olympos.

The Zeus of Olympos was associated with other mountain
powers. Such were the Muses, whose name—as Prof. J. Wacker-
nagel has shown—is most simply derived from mont- c mountain2.'
According to the orthodox tradition, the Muses were daughters of
Zeus3, the Zeus of Olympos4, by Mnemosyne5; but variants are
not wanting0, and it is permissible to suppose that in the far past
Zeus had as his consort the Mousa or ' Mountain '-mother, whose
pipes and timbrels were borne by a band of inspired female
followers. Zeus, says Ovid7, took the form of a shepherd when
he met Mnemosyne—a tale which recalls that of Attis and Kybele;
indeed hundreds of terra-cottas representing Attis as a shepherd

1 L. M. J. Garnett—J. S. Stuart-Glennie Greek Folk Poesy London 1896 i. 51 f.
The mirror probably stands for the sun. The eagle's test of its genuine offspring was

that it should look straight at the sun (D'Arcy W. Thompson A Glossary of Greek Birds
Oxford 1895 p. 6 collects the evidence, from Aristot. hist. an. 9. 34. 620 a 1 ff. onwards);
and certain philosophers, very possibly following popular belief, conceived the sun to be
a sort of mirror (so Philolaos the Pythagorean in Stob. eel. phys. 1. 25. 3d Wachsmuth
and in Plout. de plac. phil. 2. 20 ecroTrrpoeLdes; Empedokles frag. 44 Diels ap. Plout. de
Pyth. or. 12, cp. Plout. de plac. phil. 2. 20 and ap. Euseb. praep. ev. 1. 8. 10).

2 J. Wackernagel in the Zeitschrift fur vergleicheude Sprachforschung 1895 xxxiii.
571—574, Walde Lat. etym. Worterb. p. 393.

This derivation (which occurred independently to Dr Giles, to myself, and doubtless
to others also) is supported by the fact that all the most important cult-centres of the
Muses were on mountains or hills. O. Bie in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 3239 ff. shows that
their worship originated on Olympos and spread thence to Helikon (Strab. 471, Paus. 9.
29. 1—4), Delphoi, Athens, etc. Gruppe Gr. Myth. Pel. p. 1077 n., though not accepting
the derivation from *[iovt- 'mountain,' cites in its support Cornut. theol. 14 p. 17, 16
Lang iv de rots 8peaL (pa<ri xop^ew, k.t.X. Cp. also Hes. theog. 54 Mvt]ixoaivt] yovvoiaiv
'EXevOrjpos fxedtovcra with schol.

3 Already in the Homeric poems they are Kovpai Atos alyioxoio (11. 2. 598), Kovpai
Kpovideu Atos (h. Sel. 2), Kovpai Aids, dy\aa reKva (Horn. ep. 4. 8), Atos aiyioxoio | dvyarepes
(II. 2. 491 f.), Aids dvycnrjp /meydXoio (h. met. th. 2), Aids 7rdis (Od. 8. 488).

4 '0\u/U7rtd§es (//. 2. 491 and Zenodot. in //. 2. 484), 'QiXijx-Kia hwjxar e%owai (//. 2.
484, 11. 218, 14. 508, 16. 112).

5 First in Hes. theog. 915 m, h. Herm. 429 f., Eumelos frag. 16 Kinkel Mvr}fj.ocnjvr)s
/cat 7irivbs,0\vixir'i.ov ivvta Kovpai ap. Clem. Al. strom. 6. 2 p. 430, 9 f. Stahlin, alio.

6 See Gruppe Gr. Myth. Pel. p. 1075 n. 2.

7 It was as a shepherd that Zeus wooed Mnemosyne (Ov. met. 6. 114, Clem. Rom.
horn. 5. 14 (ii. 184 Migne)), with whom he passed nine nights (Hes. theog. 56 f. with
schol., Cornut. theol. 14 p. 17, 20 ff. Lang, Nonn. Dion. 31. 168 ff.).
 
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