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

2 12 The Solar Wheel in Greece

or of Eleusius by Hioma1, or of Eleusinus by Cathonea2 or
Cyntania3—variants which attest his connexion with Eleusis. The
hero Eleusis was said by some to be the son of Hermes by Daeira,
daughter of Okeanos4; and it is noteworthy that another account
represented Triptolemos as the child of Okeanos and Ge5. Verses
ascribed to Orpheus asserted that Eubouleus and Triptolemos were
sons of Dysaules, and that Demeter, as a reward for information
given her about her daughter, entrusted them with grain to sow13.
Dysaules, Triptolemos, and Eubouleus were reckoned by the
Orphists among the'earth-born' dwellers of Eleusis7. Choirilos, an
early tragedian of Athens, took Triptolemos to be the son of Raros8.
Others made him the son of Rar9, or the son of Keleos son of
Raros10—names which point to the Rarian Plain near Eleusis. One
late writer, doubtless by a mere confusion, has him as the son of
Icarus (sic), eponym of the Attic deme Ikaria11. But in the time of
Pausanias there was only one real rival to the Athenian tradition,
namely that of the Argives, who maintained that Trochilos, a priest
of the mysteries, had fled from Argos to Attike and had become
by an Eleusinian wife the father of two sons—Eubouleus and
Triptolemos12.

In this tangle of names Aristophanes found ample material for
a parody of the divine pedigree13. But it will be observed that, so
far as Triptolemos is concerned, all roads lead to Eleusis. His cult
left traces of itself from Syracuse to Gordyene, from Scythia to
Egypt; but all such traces are compatible with the belief that
Eleusis was its prime centre14. It is, therefore, to Attic art that we
naturally turn for further light on the wheeled seat of Triptolemos15.

I Lact. Plac. in Stat. Theb. 2. 382. 2 Hyg. fab. 147.
3 Interp. Serv. in Verg. georg. 1. 19. 4 Paus. 1. 38. 7.

5 Mousaios p. 222 Kinkel ap. Paus. 1. 14. 3, Pherekyd. frag. 12 [Frag. hist. Gr. i. 72
M idler) ap. Apollod. 1. 5. 2.

y Orph. frag. 217 Abel ap. Paus. 1. 14. 3.

7 Orph. frag. 215 Abel ap. Clem. Al. protr. 2. 20. 2 p. 15, 27 ff. Stahlin.

8 Choirilos Alope frag. 1 Nauck'2 ap. Paus. 1. 14. 3, Hesych. s.v. 'Pdpos.

9 Phot. lex. s.v. 'Pdp.
10 Souid. s.v. 'Vapcds.

II Interp. Serv. in Verg. georg. 1. 19.

12 Paus. 1. 14. 2.

13 Aristoph. Ach. 47 ff.

14 Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 1173 n. 5.

15 The vases, sculptures, wall-paintings, coins, and gems, illustrating the myth of
Triptolemos have been collected and studied by Gerhard Atcserl. Vasenb. i. 217 ff.
pis. 41—46, id. Ueber den Bilderkreis von Eleusis Berlin 1865 ii Beilage A {Gesammelte
akade?nische Abhandhcngen Berlin 1868 ii. 370 ff., 415 ff.), Lenormant—de Witte El. mon.
cer. iii. 97 ff. pis. 46—48, L. Stephani in the Compte-rendu St. Pdt. 1859 p. 82 ff., 1862
pp. 32, 58, 1873 p. 115 n. 1, C. Strube Studien iiber den Bilderkreis von Eleusis Leipzig