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

180 Zeus superseded by Saint Elias

the same century Chrysostom declared that poets and painters had
borrowed their conception of Helios' car from the scriptural
account of the prophet Elias1, his blunder was not unnatural.
Finally, rites that are probably derived from a primitive sun-worship
are still celebrated in honour of Saint Elias. On July 20—a day
described in the Greek calendar as that of ' The fiery ascent to
heaven of the holy and glorious prophet Helias the Thesbite2'—
pious folk toil up to the topmost peak of Mount Taygeton, now
known as Hdgios Elias or Hagiolids. Here, when it gets dusk,
they kindle numerous bonfires and throw plenty of incense on to
them as an offering to Saint Elias. The dwellers of the district,
especially those inhabiting the village of Kardamyle, as soon
as they see the blaze on the mountain-top, set light to heaps of
hay and straw, and keep the day by dancing round or leaping
over them. This custom takes the place of the midsummer fires
kindled elsewhere in Greece, and indeed throughout Europe, on
June 24, the festival of Saint John the Baptist3. Miss M. Hamilton
notes ' that the ikon of St Elias in the shrine on the top of
Taygetos bears the inscription, "The Prophet of the Sun4."'

The foregoing arguments may be held to prove that in the
fourth century and later Saint Elias was sometimes viewed as the
Christian counterpart of Helios. But they do not suffice to prove
that Saint Elias is worshipped on mountain-tops in virtue of his
equation with that deity. For of all the heights on which Saint
Elias has a chapel, and they are very numerous, the only one
possessing a definite tradition of Helios-cult is Mount Taleton in
Lakonike, where horses used to be sacrificed to the sun5. On the

pi. 70 (wall-painting), W. Lowrie Christian Art and Archccology New York 1901 p. 258
fig. 97 (fourth century sarcophagus in the Lateran Museum at Rome), L. von Sybel
Christliche Antike Marburg 1906 i. 222 f. (wall-paintings of the fourth century = J. Wil-
pert Die Malereien der Katakomben Roms Freiburg 1903 pi. 160, 2 and pi. 230, 2).
Cp. a rough dictibv in the little church of St Elias on the summit of the pass between
Livadia and St Luke's monastery (Miss M. Hamilton in the Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1906
—1907 xiii. 354 and in Greek Saints and Their Festivals p. 21).

1 Io. Chrys. 6pu\. 7' ei's'HA. 27 cited by N. G. Polites. The statement of E. Burnouf
La science des religions Paris 1872 p. 266 ff. that in early Christian art, e.g. in the sixth
century mosaic of St Apollinaris at Ravenna, Elias and Moses flanking the cross represent
the sun (r;Xtos) and the moon (Skt mas), is rashly accepted by Polites, but must be
regarded as quite chimerical.

2 N. Nilles Kalendarium manuah utriusque ecclesiae orientalis et occidentalis CEniponte
1896 i. 218 'H wvpcpopos avafiacris eis ovpavovs rod ayiov iudo^ov Trpo<pijTov 'HAt'ou rod
Qeaftirov.

3 N. G. Polites'0 "HXtos Kara rods S^/iwSets p.6dovs Athens 1882 p. 45 f.

4 Miss M. Hamilton Greek Saints and Their Festivals p. 21 '0 Trpo<pr)TT)s rod 'HAt'ou
(sic), citingvA7ts Qepos, Arj/uoTiKa Tpayotidia, p. ri.

5 Append. B Lakonike. A text which appears to have escaped notice in this con-
nexion is Fest. p. 181 a 2 ff. Miiller multis autem gentibus equum hostiarum numero haberi