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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#0172

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Dionysiac traits in the cult of Zeus 111

succession of seasons and the difference of days, the changing
spirits that caused the former and the opposing influences that
determined the latter. He beheld choruses of daimones chanting,
warring, lying in ambush, deceiving and confounding each other.
He saw too the phalanx of each several god and goddess. After
sundown he fed on fruits (not meat). And, generally speaking, he
was initiated into the decay and birth of herbs, trees, and bodies.
It is altogether a singular recital, but we can hardly be wrong in
supposing that these were puberty-rites, Corybantic or Cabiric in
character1.

It would seem, then, that from first to last certain orgiastic
quasi-Dionysiac elements appear in the cults of Olympos, and
it is highly probable that throughout the worship of Zeus was
affected by them. In early days the Muses were to Zeus what
the mountain-roaming Maenads were to Dionysos. This explains
Hesychios' statement that the Macedonians called the Muses
thoiirides11—a name elsewhere given to the Maenads3. Eustathios'
assertion that the Muses, like the Maenads, were nurses to Diony-
sos4 may be a Byzantine blunder5; but the very possibility of such
blundering proves the similarity of Muse and Maenad. At Dodona6,

1 L. Preller in Philologus 1846 i. 349 ff. argues that the reference is to Orphic rites in
the neighbourhood of Olympos. Orphic admixture is indeed likely enough. Orpheus, him-
self the son of one of the Muses, played for them on Olympos (Eur. Bacch. 560 ff.), there
taught Midas (Konon narr. 1), and there according to many met his death (Hyg. poet,
astr. 1. 7) and was buried (Anth. Pal. 7. 9. 1 f. Damagetos, cp. Apollod. 1. 3. 2) : see
further O. Gruppe in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 1082 f. L. Heuzey—H. Daumet Mission
Archeologique de Macedoine Paris 1876 Texte p. 270 f. identify Orpheus' tomb with a
tumulus near the village of Karitza.

2 Hesych. dovpides' vv/Mpai. /jlovctcu. Maneddves.

3 O. Hoffmann Die Makedonen Gottingen 1906 p. 97 n. 132 argues that dovpidts is a
Thessalian or Macedonian form of Oeiopides (Hesych. detopides- at irepc tov Aiovuffov
/3d/cxat, cp. Nonn. Dion. 9. 261 and probably Soph. frag. 698 Nauck2 ap. Athen. 592 b).

4 Eustath. in Od. p. 1816, 4 ff. Xeyovrcu de, cpaai, /cat MoOcrat Aiopticrov rpocpoi, ui}p,<pai
rives ov<rai /cat avrai, cos /cat irapa hvubcppovi euprjTai.

5 Yet Dionysos was often associated with the Muses: see Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel.
pp. 76 n. 9, 213 {., 245 n. 6, 743 n. 3, 829 n. 3, 1427 n. 7, 1435 n. 1.

6 Six nymphs of Dodona, identified with the Hyades and named Kisseis, Nysa,
Erato, Eriphia, Bromie, Polyhymno, or Arsinoe, Ambrosie, Bromie, Kisseis, Koronis,
were by some apparently regarded as the nurses of Zeus (Hyg. fad. 182), though others
explained that Zeus had given them Dionysos to tend (Pherekyd. frag. 46 (Frag. hist.
Gr. i. 84 Midler) dp. schol. //. 18. 486, Myth. Vat. 1. 120, alib). See Gruppe Gr.
Myth. Rel. p. 825 n. 4 : ' Die Hyaden sind Erzieherinnen des Bakchos...; in verschollenen
dodonaiischen Legenden vielleicht auch des Zeus, wie ihre Gleichsetzung mit den Dodo-
nides...und der N. der Hyade Dione nahelegen.'

Strab. 329 relates on the authority of Souidas the historian ( = Kineas frag. 3 (Frag,
hist. Gr. ii. 463 Miiller)) that the cult of the Dodonaean Zeus came originally from the
Pelasgian district about Skotoussa, that most of the women of Skotoussa followed along
with it, and that the priestesses of Dodona were descended from them.
 
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