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

Dionysiac traits in the cult of Zeus 107

Korybantes as the first men, who had sprung from the ground in the
shape of trees1. It all comes to the same thing. The Korybantes
were akin to the great mountain-goddess or earth-mother, whom
they served with wild enthusiastic rites. Their name, if I am not
mistaken, is derived from *korybe the Macedonian form of koryphe,
'a mountain-peak,' and means the ' Peak '-men2. In Roman times,
if not earlier, the Korybantes were connected with Mount Olympos.
According to Clement of Alexandreia3, they were three brothers,
two of whom slew the third, wrapped his head in a crimson cloak4,
decked it with a wreath and buried it, bearing it on a bronze shield
to the foot of Olympos. Bloodshed and burial were the essential
features of their mysteries5. The priests of the mystics, who were
known as Anaktotelestai* or 'initiates of the Kings7,' forbade wild
celery (selinori) with its roots to be placed on the table, believing
it to be sprung from the blood of the slain Korybas8. Further,
these Korybantes—says Clement—were called Kabeiroi; and the
story told of them was that the two fratricides took up the basket
containing the member of Dionysos and brought it to Etruria9,
where they lived in exile teaching the Etruscans to worship the

1 Frag, adesp. 84 Bergk4 (33 Hiller), 6 f. ap. Hippol. ref. haeres. 5. 7 p. 97 Miller 7)
Qpvyioi Kopvfiavres, \ ovs "AXtos irp&Tovs eirecdeu devbpocpvets avafiXaGTovTas. Cp. Norm.
Dion. 14. 25 f. Yrjyevees TZopvj3ai>Tes 6p:7j\v5es, cop iroTe 'Pet^ | e/c x^ov^s (".VToreXecfTos
dve/3\daT7]ae yevedXrj.

2 Dr Giles, whom I consulted on the matter, writes (July 15, 1911): Kopuj3avres
'might as you say be Macedonian. The formation is odd. It looks like a participle
from Kopijcpa/uLL—not Kopv<pdw—if, as Hoffmann argues, Macedonian was a kind of Aeolic'

A. F. Pott in the Zeitschrift fur vergleichende Sprachforschung 1858 vii. 241 ff. derived
Kop6[3<xj>Tes from K.opv<p7}, 'crown of the head,' and rendered the word: 'im wirbel sich
drehend,' 'taumelnd,' 'in orbem saltantes' (cp. K6p(3a$, Kijpfiecs). He is followed by
O. Immisch in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 1607. Gruppe too {Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 257 n. 12,
p. 899 n. 1) favours the connexion of Kopuj3as with Kopv<prj, but appears to interpret the
name of a 'peaked' head-dress. He compares the alternative form KvpfBas (Soph. frag.
778 Nauck2, Kallim. h. Zeus 46, Lyk. Al. 78, Strab. 472, Orph. h. Koryb. 39. 2, Nonn.
Dion. 14. 35, Souid. s.v. KvpfHas, Hesych. s.v. Kijp^aures, et. mag. p. 547, 39 m) with
KvpfiacrLa (used of a cock's crest, the upright tiara of the Persian king, the conical cap of
the Salii, etc.: see Stephanus Thes. Gr. Ling. iv. 2137 A—c).

3 Clem. Al.protr. 2. 19. 1—4 p. 15, iff. Stahlin. Cp. the abbreviated accounts in
Arnob. adv. nat. 5. 19, Firm. Mat. n.

4 So the Korybantes found the infant Bacchos, left as a horned child among the rocks,
irop<pvp£i$ KeKaXvfxpLePov olvoiri w^TrXo: (Nonn. Dion. 13. j 39).

5 Orph. h. Koryb. 39. 6 (poiviov, ai/xaxQevTa KaaiyvrjTuv virb dtacrSiv.

6 Hesych. dvaKToreXevrai (leg. ava.KTOTe\e<TTai) • oi t&s reXeuras (leg. reXeras) eime-
Xovvres t&v iepQv (? leg. tG>v 'Kafieipwv or ruiv lep&v <ava,Krwv >).

7 Orph. h. Koryb. 39. 1 fiaaiXria [xeyiarov, 5 avaKra. On the "Ai/a/ces, 'Avanoi, "AvaKres
see O. Jessen in Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. i. 2033 f., Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 718 F.

8 The wreath of aeXivov worn by the Nemean and Isthmian victors perhaps originally
marked them out as re-incarnations of the dead—a point to which I must return.

9 See further Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 1621 f.