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

176 Zeus superseded by Saint Elias

or Aphroditos Tychon}; and Dr J. Rendel Harris has shown some
reason for believing that Saint George himself is but Zeus Georgos
in a thin disguise2.

457 ff.) argues that the cult of Aphrodite in the Levant produced a whole crop of saints.
These include among others of like origin (1) Pelagia nicknamed Margarito, a dancer of
Antioch, who being converted by Bishop Nonnos donned male attire and lived for three
years on the Mount of Olives as the monk Pelagios. Festival Oct. 8. (2) Margarita, who
fled from her bridal chamber in male costume to become the monk Pelagius. On account
of her blameless conduct she was made prior of a nunnery; but, when the nuns' female
porter was found to be with child, the prior was accused and driven out. She now retired
to a cave and led the hard life of a hermit. Shortly before her death, however, she avowed
her sex, thereby proving her innocence, and was thenceforth known as St Reparata. The
legend probably belongs to the Maronite monastery of Kanobin on Mt Lebanon. On Oct. 8
the Romish church worships a St Reparata, a virgin of Kaisareia in Palestine, of whom it is
said that, when she was beheaded by Decius, her soul flew up to heaven in the form of a white
dove. (3) Porphyria, a prostitute of Tyre, who became the nun Pelagia. (4) Pelagia, a
virgin of Antioch, who finding her house surrounded by troops dressed herself as a bride
and committed suicide probably by leaping from the roof. Festival, according to the
Roman calendar June 9; according to the Greek synaxdria June 9, June 10, or more often
Oct. 8. (5) Pelagia of Tarsos, who was betrothed to a son of Diocletian, but became a
Christian and was baptised by Klinon. The news of her baptism caused the young man
to kill himself; whereupon Pelagia, after refusing to marry his father, was done to death in
the jaws of a red-hot bronze bull. Festival May 4, May 5, Oct. 7, or more commonly Oct. 8.

For TLeXayia as an epithet of Aphrodite see Artemid. oneir. 2. 37 ' A<ppo8irri i] ireXayLa,
Lyd. de mens. 4. 64 p. 117, 21 Wiinsch TreXayLa 8e i] 'A0poStr?7, Corp. inscr. Lat. iii
no. 3066 (Dessau Inscr. Lat. sel. no. 3179) Veneri Pelagiae. For Porphyria, Anakr.
frag. 2, 3 Bergk4 7rop(pvpet] t 'AcppodLrr), interp. Serv. in Verg. Aen. 1. 720 Venus...
dicitur...et Purpurissa. For Mapyapiru, Margarita, Plin. nat. hist. 9. 116 divus Iulius
thoracem quern Veneri Genetrici in templo eius dicavit ex Britannicis margaritis factum
voluerit intellegi (cp. ib. 37. 11). The shift from TLeXayia to IIeXayios suggests the shift
from 'A<ppo8irrj to 'A0p65tros and the cult of the masculine Venus, on whom see K. Tiimpel
in Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. i. 2794 f. and Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 1359 n. 3.

1 H. Usener Der heilige Tychon Leipzig and Berlin 1907. St Tychon was bishop of
Amathous in Kypros. The central incident in his career is the following. He was
present, when certain vine-dressers were pruning vines at a place called Ampelon. Taking
one of the withered branches rejected by them, he prayed that it might have Up.d8a farjs,
exxpopiav KapwQv, ara(pv\rjs TjSvTrjra Kal irpwifAov fiX&GTrjcriv. He then planted it with his
own hands and bade the vine-dressers witness the result. It sprang up to be a memorial
of him; and on his festival, June 16, when grapes are not yet fit to eat, the vine of
St Tychon bears clusters that are either ripe or rapidly ripening. Indeed, when laid
on the holy table and distributed to the communicants, they at once become dark and
sweet, though a moment before they may have been light and bitter.

Usener detects as the heidnische Unterlage of this saint the minor Dionysiac divinity
Tu%wi', sometimes identified with Hermes (O. Kern Die Inschriften von Magnesia am
Mdander Berlin 1900 p. 136 no. 203 'Ep/j.7}s ei/xl Tuxwv k.t.X., Clem. Al. protr. 10. 102. 1
p. 73, 17 Stahlin rbv 1tixwva 'Epfirjv—so Meursius for MSS. rvcji&va, cp. Theognostos in
Cramer anecd. Oxon. ii. 33, 31 Hywv Tuxwi>os • 6 'Epp.ijs, Hesych. Ttixw ivcoi rbv 'Epixrjv,
dXXoL 8e rbv irepi rrjv 'KcppoMrriv), sometimes with Aphroditos (Papadopulos-Keramevs
Lexicon Sabbaiticum St Petersburg 1892 p. 3, 19 'Air^)XXo(pdvT]s ~Kp7jaiv 'AaKXrjiribs
KiWeios, 'A(pp68iTos Ttixwv).

2 Zeus Tewpybs was worshipped at Athens on Maimakterion 20 with bake-meats and
a dish of mingled grain (Corp. inscr. Att. iii. 1 no. 77, 12 ff. M.cufjLaKTr]p(.Cbi>os Ad FeupyCo
k -rroiravov | x0LV'iKiaiov 6pd6v<paXov du}8eK6v^>aXov, | vaarbv xoiv'ikicuov eirLireTrXaa[j.evov,\