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

164 Zeus superseded by Saint Elias

with Dia or Dia, the early name of Naxos1, but also with that of
Zeus2. Mr J. T. Bent describes the mountain as follows3. 'Its
slopes,' he says, ' are rugged and covered with the holly oak {Ilex
aquifolium), with the prickly leaves of which the peasants feed
their cattle. We first climbed up to a steep cave, which goes deep
into the heart of the mountain : at its entrance is an altar called
the " church of Zia," where a priest goes once a year in the summer
time and holds a liturgy for the mountain shepherds ; around it
are a few incense pots and bits of wood which have been sacred
pictures in days gone by. At this altar a shepherd is accustomed
to swear to his innocence if another charges him with having stolen
a sheep or a goat. An oath by the altar of Zia is held very sacred
by the mountaineers, and is an earnest of innocence. It is curious
still to find the actual word [Zeus] existing, in this form.... The
old myth related how the king of the gods was brought from his
birthplace in Crete to Naxos, where he was brought up4...is it not
highly probable that this is the cave in which Zeus was supposed
to have spent his youth ? It runs a very long way into the rock,
and we had it lighted up for us by brushwood, but it contains
nothing remarkable, save a spring of hot water, which in ancient
times may have given rise to superstition.' Upon the northern
slope of the mountain, beside a spring on the road towards Philoti,
is a rough rock inscribed :

OPOS • Boundary
AlOSMHAnSlOY of Zeus Melosios*.

The title Melosios is usually taken to denote * Guardian of sheep'
(me/a)6. It might, however, signify 'Clad in a sheep-skin \melote) ;
in which case the cult probably resembled that of Zeus Aktaios on

1 Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. v. 298, after L. Ross Reisen auf den griechischen Inseln
des agdischen Meeres Stuttgart and Tubingen 1840 i. 43.

2 Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. loc. cit. admits that Ata must be related to 5tos (on which
see supra p. 3 f.).

3 J. T. Bent The Cyclades London 1885 p. 354 f.

4 Zeus in the form of an eagle came from Crete to Naxos, where he was nurtured.
On reaching manhood he became king of the gods. When he set out from Naxos to
attack the Titans, he offered sacrifice and received a good omen from an eagle, which
appeared bringing him thunderbolts. He placed the bird among the stars (Aglaosthenes
Naxiaca frag. 2 [Frag. hist. Gr. iv. 293 Muller) ap. pseudo-Eratosth. catast. 30, schol.
Caes. Germ. Aratea p. 411, 19 ff. Eyssenhardt, Lact. div. inst. 1. ir, Hyg. poet. astr.
2. 16).

5 Corp. inscr. Gr. ii no. 2418. J. T. Bent loc. cit. read the last word as MIAHSIOT
and translates ' the mountain of Milesian Jupiter'! Cp. a conical stone at Korkyra
inscribed AI02 | MHAfi2I0T {Corp. inscr. Gr. ii no. i870 = CoHitz-Bechtel Gr. Dial.-
Inschr. iii. 1. 100 no. 3215). There was also a precinct Aids | 'O\vfnrl[ov] in Naxos (Corp.
inscr. Gr. ii no. 2417).

6 O. Hofer in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 2649.