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

Zeus superseded by Saint Elias 177

Cases of this kind could be multiplied without much difficulty.
But the facts are sufficiently notorious. Confining our attention to
the mountain-cults of Zeus, we note that as a rule they were
transferred to Saint Elias. The precise extent to which this was
done on Greek soil will be seen from the map accompanying
Appendix B. Inspection shows that Saint Elias has succeeded to

TrauKapiriau prjcpaXiov). His import was obviously agricultural, and his festival fell in the
season of sowing: see Nilsson Gr. Feste p. 115.

St George too is an agricultural power. F. C. H. L. Pouqueville Voyage de la Grece^
Paris 1827 vi. 142 f. says: 'saint Georges protege les laboureurs et les moissons.'
G. F. Abbott Macedonian Folklore Cambridge 1903 p. 44 quotes a folk-song from Sochos,
in which St George carries 'wheat and barley, and grains of pearl,' and is asked to 'Give
to the bride chestnuts and to the groom walnuts.' J. Rendel Harris The Annotators of
the Codex Bezae London 1901 p. 83 shows that in south Italy St George 'is the protector
of cattle' with an ' agricultural and pastoral value,' and op. cit. p. 100 f. cites from Frazer
Golden Bough?1 i. 209 ff. [ib? The Magic Art ii. 75 f., cp. 79 for a Russian parallel]
evidence that in Carinthia and among the gypsies of Transylvania and Roumania the
chief figure on the festival of St George (April 23) is a ' Green George' clad in leaves and
blossoms, who is carried in procession along with a tree, or officiates beside a young
willow tree set up in the ground, and is finally ducked in person or in effigy with the
express intention of securing rain and food for the cattle.

Dr Rendel Harris can therefore urge similarity of name and similarity of function in
favour of his proposed identification. Yet we must not jump to hasty conclusions with
Mr J. O'Neill, who in his book The Night of the Gods London 1893 i. 198 wrote : 'Of
course we have...a supreme antique origin for St George's Day in the Athenian pagan
calendar which put the feast of Zeus Georgos [sic] in the month of Memakterion [sic]
(Nov.-Dec.).' Dr Rendel Harris op. cit. p. 100 does not thus blink the difficulty: 'the
confirmation is lacking of a connexion between Zeus Georgos and April 23rd, the
inscription being incomplete, and we must leave this part of the problem unsolved, merely
remarking that on the Latin side of the house the date in question is that of the Vinalia,
which can be demonstrated to be sacred to Jupiter.'

Further evidence is, however, available. The chief centre of the cult of St George
was Lydda or Diospolis—the ' city of Zeus '—in Samaria. Here he was born; here, after
his martyrdom at Nikomedeia, he was buried; and here a church was subsequently
erected in his honour (E. Robinson Biblical Researches in Palestine etc. London 1841
iii. 51). The saint stood in some relation to a sacred pillar. According to the Greek
menaia as reported in the Acta Sanctorum edd. Bolland. Aprilis iii. 142, when the church
at Ramleh was being built, a pious widow wished to contribute a column. She had
bought it and conveyed it as far as the coast, when the prefect or curator Palatinus refused
her gift and would not transport it by sea with the other columns. Hereupon the widow
besought St George, who appeared and, after writing on the marble with his finger ' Let
this column of the widow occupy the second place on the right hand side of the church,'
helped her to fling it into the sea. Next day it was found lying in the mouth of the
harbour, having reached its destination before all the other columns, to the amazement of
Palatinus, who acknowledged his error. Arculfus de locis Sanctis 3. 4, a work written
down by Adamnan c. 688 a.d. and translated by J. R. Macpherson {Palestine Pilgrims'
Text Society London 1895 iii. 1 ff.), states that in a house at Diospolis there was a
' marble column of George the Confessor, to which, during a time of persecution, he was
bound while he was scourged, and on which his likeness is impressed.' An unbeliever,
mounted on horseback and instigated by the Devil, struck with his lance at the saint's
likeness. The head of the lance penetrated the marble as if it were mere snow and could not
be withdrawn; its shaft was broken against the outside. The horse too fell dead on the

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