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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#0167

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io6 Dionysiac traits in the cult of Zeus

formerly in the Hamilton collection (fig. 76)1 shows Zeus as a
mighty eagle in a blaze of celestial splendour carrying Thaleia
from earth to heaven. The maiden has been playing at ball and
picking flowers on a mountain-side. The mountain is indicated
by the little Satyr on high ground. To the right are the ball and
the basket of Thaleia; to the left, the flowers and the altar of Zeus,
too near to which she had ventured. The myth, as preserved for
us by Clement of Rome2, Rufinus3, and Servius4, makes this Thaleia
a nymph of Mount Aitne in Sicily, whom Zeus in the form of a
vulture (or eagle ?) wooed and won. He subsequently entrusted her
to the earth-goddess, in whose domain she brought forth the twin
Palikoi. In all probability Thaleia the mountain-nymph is only
the romanticised Sicilian form of Thaleia the mountain-muse ; and,
if so, her story hints at a relationship between Zeus and the Muses
other than that of the Homeric and Hesiodic tradition.

Thaleia the muse became by Apollon mother of the Korybantes5.
Another account made their parents Zeus and Kalliope, and ex-
plained that the Korybantes were one with the mystic Kabeiroi6.
Others declared that Korybas, eponym of the Korybantes, was
a son of Iasion by .Kybele7, the Asiatic mountain-goddess. Others
again—for the theme had many variations8—spoke of the

1 Tischbein Hamilton Vases i. 90 ff. pi. 26, Lenormant—de Witte El. mon. cir. i. 31 ff.
pi. 16, Overbeck Gr. Ktmstmyth. Zeus pp. 401 f., 418 f. Atlas pi. 6, 6, Miiller-Wieseler-
Wernicke Ant. Denkm. i. 64 f. pi. 6, 3.

2 Clem. Rom. ham. 5. 13 (ii. 184 Migne) "EpcraLov vup.(pri, yevop.evos yvip, £1; rjs oi ev
Si/ceXi'ct irdXcu aocpoi. 'Upcraiov has been amended into Mrvaia (Valckenaer) or Airvrj
(Migne) or 'H0cu<jtou (Bloch) or'Epcrcua (Levy); iraXai aocpoi, into UaXiicol.

3 Rutin, recognit. 10. 22 Thaliam Aetnam nympham mutatus in vulturem, ex qua
nascuntur apud Siciliam Palisci.

4 Serv. in Verg. Aen. 9. 584 Aetnam nympham [vel ut quid am volunt Thaliam]
Iuppiter cum vitiasset et fecisset gravidam, timens Iunonem, secundum alios ipsam
puellam, Terrae commendavit, et illic enixa est. Etc. Interp. Serv. ib. alii dicunt
Iovem hunc Palicum propter Iunonis iracundiam in aquilam commutasse. On the fre-
quent confusion of eagles and vultures see D'Arcy W. Thompson A Glossary of Greek
Birds Oxford 1895 p. 3 f.

For Zeus ~ Thaleia see further Aisch. Aetnaeae frag. 6 f. Nauck2 ap. Macrob. Sat. 5.
19. 17, 24, and Steph. Byz. s.v. IIaAi/07; and for Zeus ~ Aitne, Lact. Plac. in Stat. Theb.
12. 156, Myth. Vat. 1. 190, 2. 45. The best account of the Palikoi is that by L. Bloch
in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 1281—1295.

5 Apollod. 1. 3. 4, Tzetz. in Lyk. Al. 78. 6 Strab. 472.

7 Diod. 5. 49, cp. interp. Serv. in Verg. Aen. 3. in.

8 The Korybantes were sons of Kronos and Rhea (Strab. 472 £ti de Kpovov rives <xal
'P6xs> : the last two words have been expelled by tovs Kopv^avras repeated from the line
below. Cp. schol. Aristoph. Lys. 558 rjcrav <5e tt)s 'P^as iraides — Souid. s.v. KoptifiavTes),
sons of Apollon and Rhytia (Pherekyd. ap. Strab. 472 : see Roscher Lex. Myth. iv. 127),
sons of Helios and Athena (a Rhodian version ap. Strab. 472), sons of Sokos and Kombe
(Nonn. Dion. 13. 135 ff.). Korybas was the son of Kore without a father (interp. Serv.
in Verg. Aen. 3. in).
 
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