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

Zeus superseded by Saint Elias 171

had never seen boats or the sea, and he stayed on the hilltops1.'
Who fails to recognize Odysseus2?

Sometimes the shift from heathen deity to Christian saint
is barely disguised by a slight deflection of the ancient name ;
sometimes it dispenses with any disguise at all. At Athens the
Tritopatreis were superseded by the Trinity3. Dionysos lives on
in the person of Saint Dionysios, to whom his cult4 and myth5

1 Miss M. Hamilton in the Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1906—1907 xiii. 356 n. 1 after
N. G. Polites llapadocreLS Athens 1904 i. 116 no. 207, ii. 801 f. My friend Dr W. II.
D. Rouse in The Cambridge Reviezv 1905—1906 xxvii. 414 tells how he heard the same
tale from an old Coan skipper:-—' "Ah well," says Giorgis, "'tis a poor trade this, as
the holy Elias found." "What was that?" I asked. "The prophet Elias," quoth he,
"was a fisherman; he had bad weather, terrific storms, so that he became afraid of the
sea. Well, so he left his nets and his boat on the shore, and put an oar over his shoulder,
and took the hills. On the way, who should he see but a man. ' A good hour to you,'
says he. 'Welcome,' says the man. 'What's this, can you tell me?' says St Elias.
'That?' says the man, ' Why that's an oar.' Eh, on he goes till he meets another man.
' A good hour to you,' says St Elias. ' You are welcome,' says the man. ' What's this?'
says St Elias. 'Why, that's an oar, to be sure,' says the man. On he goes again, until
he comes to the very top of the mountain, and there he sees another man. ' Can you
tell me what this is?' asks St Elias. 'That?' says the man, 'Why, that's a stick.'
' Good !' says St Elias, ' this is the place for me, here I abide.' He plants his oar in the
ground, and that is why his chapels are all built on the hill tops." '

2 Od. ri. 1191!"., 23. 266ff. 3 A. Struck Griechenland Wien u. Leipzig 1911 i. 131 f.
f The ancient deme of Ikaria is habitually called by the peasants Dionyso—a clear

trace of the god Dionysos. When Chandler visited the place in 1766, its church was
sacred to St Dionysios, presumably Dionysios the Areopagite (C. D. Buck in Papers of
the American School of Classical Shidies at Athens 1886—1890 v. 47 ff.: see also Miss M.
Hamilton Greek Saints and Their Festivals Edinburgh and London 1910 p. 15 f.).

Mr J. C. Lawson Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion Cambridge 1910
p. 43 says: 'It is perhaps noteworthy too that in Athens the road which skirts the
south side of the Acropolis and the theatre of Dionysus is now called the street of
S. Dionysius the Areopagite. I was once corrected by a Greek of average education for
speaking of the theatre of Dionysus instead of ascribing it to his saintly namesake.'

5 Prof. C. Siegel of Hamburg at Kokkino in Boiotia in 1846 heard the following
folk-tale :—' W7hen Dionysios was still a child, he travelled through Hellas on his way to
Naxia. But, since the road was long, he got tired and sat on a stone to rest. As he sat
there looking in front of him, he saw a little plant spring from the ground at his feet, and
thought it so pretty that he at once resolved to take it with him and plant it. He pulled
it up and went off with it. But the sun was so hot that he feared it might wither before
he reached Naxia. Thereupon he found a bird's leg, stuck the plant in it, and went on.
However, in his holy hand the plant grew so fast that it soon came out at both ends of
the bone. Again he feared it might wither, and thought what he could do to prevent it.
He found a lion's leg, which was bigger than the bird's leg, and stuck the bird's leg with
the plant into the lion's leg. But the plant soon grew out of the lion's leg also. Then
he found an ass's leg, which was still bigger than the lion's leg, and stuck the plant with
the bird's leg and the lion's leg into the ass's leg, and so came to Naxia. When he
wanted to plant the plant, he found its roots twined fast about the bird's leg, the
lion's leg, and the ass's leg. As he could not pull the roots out without hurting
them, he planted the plant just as it was. It sprang up quickly and to his delight
bore the finest of grapes. Of these he at once made wine for the first time and gave
it to men to drink. But now what wonders followed ! When men drank of it, at