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

172 Zeus superseded by Saint Elias

have inevitably passed. Saint Merkourios, who nowadays cures
ear-ache in Samos1, is described by Malalas in terms of Mercurius
—as a divine messenger commissioned to slay the emperor Julian2.
Another Latin deity first canonised in Italy and then naturalised
in Greece is Venus, who is known as Saint Venere in western
Albania and as the Holy Mother Venere among the Vlachs of
Pindos3. The myth of Hippolytos is told afresh of his Christian
name-sake4, while his consort the virgin goddess has handed over
her festival to the Virgin of the victorious faith5. Even gender
proved no bar to such reformations. Saint Artemidos in Keos
is the protector of ailing children, being—as Mr J. T. Bent was
the first to observe—credited with the attributes of Artemis6.

first they sang like birds. When they drank deeper, they became strong as lions.
When they drank deeper still, they resembled asses.' The tale is published in trans-
lation by J. G. von Hahn Griechische tmd albanesische Mdrchen Leipzig 1864 ii. 746°.
no. 76, N. G. Polites Me\er?7 eirl rod filov r&v ~NewTipuv 'JZXXrjviov Athens 1871 i. 43 f.,
H. Carnoy in La Tradition 1887 i. 89. For parallels see O. Dahnhardt Natursagen
Leipzig and Berlin 1907 i. 308 f. Cp. also C. Wachsmuth Das alte Griechenland im
neuen Bonn 1864 p. 24 f., and Miss M. Hamilton in the Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1906
—1907 xiii. 350 ff. and in Greek Saints and Their Festivals p. 16 f., who concludes
that the Dionysios in question was the monk of Meteora of the twelfth century because
—according to N. G. Polites llapadocreis i. 98 f. no. 175, ii. 778 ff.—the saint was
journeying to Naxos from Mt Olympos.

1 Miss M. Hamilton Greek Saints and Their Festivals p. 32, citing Sa/xta/ca.
p. 6 n. (a).

? Io. Malal. chron. 13 p. 333 f. Dindorf ev aurrj 8e tti vvktI eX5ev ev bpa/iari /cat
6 oaLdoTaros eirLo~Koiros BacrtXetos 6 Katcrapetas Ka7T7ra5o/aas tovs ovpavovs rjvecpyp.evovs
/cat top o~WT?ipa ~Kpi.o~Tbv eirl dpovov Ka.drip.evov /cat eiivovra Kpavyrj, Mep/co^pte, aireXd&v
(povevcrov 'lovXcavbv tov /3a<xtXea t6v Kara tG>v ILpiaTiav&v. 0 8e dyios Mepnovptos earios
gpLTrpoadev tov Kvpiov ecpopei dwpana aidrjpouv dirocrTLX^ovTa' /cat aKouaas tt;v KeXevciv
d(pavr]s eyiveTo. Kai ttoKlv evpedr] ecrTWS ^fxirpoaOev tov KvpLov /cat Znpa^ev, 'lovXiavos 6
jSacrtXeus acpayeis dtr^Oavev, ws eK^Xevaas, Kvpie. /cat irTor]6els ck tt}s Kpavyrjs 6 eiricrKOTros
BacrtXeto? SiVKviadr] TeTa.payp.evos.

3 Miss M. Hamilton op. cit. p. 33 f.

4 S. Reinach Cultes, Mythes et Religions Paris 1908 iii. 56 f., who gives references to
earlier writers on the subject.

5 J. Rendel Harris The Annotators of the Codex Bezae London 1901 p. 102, Class.
Rev. 1902 xvi. 368 f.

The ground-plan of the precinct at Lousoi in Arkadia published by W. Reichel and
A. Wilhelm {Jahresh. d. oest. arch. Inst. 1901 iv. 26 f. fig. 16, cp. ib. p. 23 fig. 13
section and p. 32 fig. 19 view) shows in direct superposition : (1) the temple of Artemis
'Hyuepa, (2) a Byzantine church, (3) a chapel of the Panagia built c. 1850.

6 J. T. Bent The Cyclades London 1885 p. 457 : 'In Keos St Artemidos is the patron
of these weaklings, and the church dedicated to him is some little way from the town on
the hillslopes; thither a mother will take a child afflicted by any mysterious wasting,
"struck by the Nereids," as they say. She then strips off its clothes and puts on new
ones, blessed by the priest, leaving the old ones as a perquisite to the Church; and then
if perchance the child grows strong she will thank St Artemidos for the blessing he has
vouchsafed, unconscious that by so doing she is perpetuating the archaic worship of
Artemis, to whom in classical times were attached the epithets ira.i8oTpo(pos, KovpoTpocpos,
(piXop-eLpai; [leg. irai5oTp6(f)os, KovpoTpo<po$, (ficXopLeipa!;]; and now the Ionian idea of the