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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#0223

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The Mountain as the Burial-place of Zeus 157

a mountain in Lesbos1 and whose town was situated on an almost
inaccessible crag of Mount Sipylos2.

The remarkable tradition, current in the vicinity of Mount
Olympos, that heaven and earth once met upon the summit will
be discussed in another connexion.

(e) The Mountain as the Burial-place of Zeus.

The Cretans declared that Zeus was a prince, who had been
ripped up by a wild boar and buried in Crete,—an assertion which
is supposed to have earned for them their traditional reputation as
liars3. Numerous writers of Hellenistic and Byzantine times men-
tion the tomb of Zeus as an object of interest in Crete4, though
they do not agree as to its exact locality. Ennius5 places it at
Knossos, Varro6 and Porphyrios7 on Mount Ide, Nonnos8 on the
top of. Mount Dikte. Conceivably more districts than one had
a local legend of Zeus dead and buried on a mountain. His tomb

1 Steph. Byz. s.v. lavrakos, cp. s.v. Tlokiov.

2 Supra p. 137 ff.

3 My friend Dr J. Rendel Harris ' The Cretans always Liars' in the Expositor 1906
pp. 305—-317 cites from the Gannett Busame or ' Garden of Delights ' (a Nestorian com-
mentary on Scripture full of extracts from Theodore of Mopsuestia etc.) the following
note on Acts 17. 28 : ' " In Him we live and move and have our being." The Cretans
used to say of Zeus, that he was a prince and was ripped up by a wild boar, and he was
buried: and lo! his grave is with us. Accordingly Minos, the son of Zeus, made over
him a panegyric and in it he said: " A grave have fashioned for thee, O holy and high
One, the lying Kretans, who are all the time liars, evil beasts, idle bellies; but thou diest
not, for to eternity thou livest, and standest; for in thee we live and move and have our
being".' Dr Rendel Harris suggests that the panegyric in question may be the poem by
Epimenides on Minos and Rhadamanthys (Diog. Laert. 1, 112) and cp. Kallim. h. Zeus
8 f. Kprjres del xj/evaTai.' /ecu yap rd<pov, to ava, creio | Kprjres ereKTrjuavro. av 8' ov Oaves'
ecrai yap cu'et. Another explanation of the proverb is given in Athenodoros of Eretria
frag. 1 [Frag. hist. Gr. iv. 345 Miiller) : cp. also Io. Malal. ehron. 4 p. 88 Dindorf.

4 Kallim. h. Zeus 8f. with schol., Enn. sacr. hist. ap. Lact. div. inst. 1. 11, oracl.
Sibyll. id., Varr. ap. Solin. 11. 7, Cic. de nat. deor. 3. 53, Diod. 3. 61, Anth. Pal. 7. 275.
6 Gaetulicus, Lucan. 8. 872, Mela 2. 112, Stat. Theb. 1. 278 f., Tatian. or. adv. Graee.
27, Loukian. lup. trag. 45, de sacrif. 10, philopatr. 10, philopseud. 3, Ti??wn 6, Theophil.
ad Auto/. 1. 10, 2. 3, Clem. Al. protr. 2. 37. 4 p. 28, 7 ff. Stahlin, Philostr. v. soph.
2. 4 p. 74 Kayser, Orig. c. Cels. 3. 43, Min. Fel. Oct. 21. 8, Cypr. de idol. van. 1,
Porph. v. Pyth. 17, Arnob. adv. nat. 4. 14, 4. 25, Firm. Mat. 7. 6, Serv. in Verg. Aen.
7. 180, Epiphan. adv. haer. 1. 3, Rufin. recognit. 10. 23, Chrysost. in ep. Paul, ad Tit. 3,
Paulin. Nob 19. 86 (lxi. 515 Migne), Kyrill. Al. c. Julian. 10. 342 (Ixxvi. 1028 Migne),
Nonn. Dion. 8. ii4ff., Sedulius Scotus in ep. Paul, ad Tit. 3, Souid. s.v. Utjkos, Kedren.
hist. comp. 15 D (i. 29 Bekker).

5 Enn. sacr. hist. ap. Lact. div. inst. r. 11.

6 Varr. ap. Solin. n. 7.

7 Porph. v. Pyth. 17, Kyrill. Al. c. Iulian. 10. 342.

8 Nonn. Dion. 8. 114 ff.
 
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