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

Triptolemos

237

in Syria1—better known as Antiocheia on the Orontes2—, and
even settled in Gordyene beyond the Tigris3. If Triptolemos
followed Io thus far afield, he may well have pursued her to Gaza4.

(i. 453 Foerster) states that Triptolemos founded at lone a sanctuary of Zeus N^ueios,
whom the inhabitants after learning agriculture called Zeus 'E7ri/cap7rios.

1 Io. Malal. chron. 2 p. 28 ff. Dindorf, Chron. Paschale i. 74 ff. Dindorf, cp. Io.
Antioch. frag. 6. 14 {Frag. hist. Gr. iv. 544 Muller), Kedren. hist. comp. 20Dff. (i. 37 f.
Bekker), Souid. s.v. Tu>, Exc. Salmasii in Cramer anecd. Paris, ii. 387, 22 ff. The
narrative of Ioannes Malalas, our fullest source, is as follows:—In the days of Pikos Zeus
a certain man named Inachos, of the tribe of Japheth, arose in the west. He was the
first king over the land of Argos, where he founded a town and named it Iopolis; for he
worshipped the moon, and 16 is a mystic name by which the Argives have known the
moon from that day to this (infra, ch. i § 6 (g) viii). Inachos, then, built a temple to the
moon with a bronze stile inscribed 'Icb /uuxicaipa XafXTradrjfpope. His wife Melia bore him
two sons, Kasos and Belos, and a fair daughter called Io after the moon. Pikos Zeus,
king of the west, sent and carried off Io, by whom he became the father of Libye. Io, in
shame and anger, fled to Egypt and stayed there; but on learning that Hermes, son of
Pikos Zeus, ruled over Egypt she was afraid and went on to Mt. Silpion in Syria, the
site of the later town of Antiocheia. According to Theophilos, Io died in Syria; accord-
ing to others, in Egypt. Inachos meantime sent her brothers and kinsfolk in search of
her under the guidance of Triptolemos. The men from Iopolis in Argos heard that she
had died in Syria. So they went and sojourned there awhile, knocking at the door of
each house and saying ^tuxv Tous aw^eadu). But, when they had a vision of a heifer that
spoke with human voice and said to them 'Eurav9d et'/xt iyco rj 'Iu>, they decided to stop
where they were on Mt. Silpion, arguing that Io must be buried on that very mountain.
They therefore founded a sanctuary for her there and a town for themselves, named
Iopolis. They are in fact still called Ionitai by the Syrians of the district. And to this
day the Syrians of Antiocheia, in memory of the search-party of Argives sent out to find
Io, year by year at the self-same season knock on the doors of the Hellenes. The reason
why these Argives took up their abode in Syria was because Inachos had bidden them
either return with his daughter to Argos, or not return at all. So the Ionitai aforesaid
founded a sanctuary of Kronos on Mt. Silpion. The sources other than Malalas give no
important variants (lepov Kpoviwvos for tepbv Kpovov Chron. Paschale: Kpovoures eis rds
aW-qXwp dvpas /car' £tos £\eyoi> Tw Tu> Souid.).

In this, as in other Levantine stories of Io, we may suppose that the Argive heroine
was but the Greek equivalent of a foreign deity. . In Egypt she was identified with Isis,
cow-goddess and moon-goddess {infra ch. i § 6 (g) viii); in Syria, with Astarte, whose
art-type with bovine horns and lunar disk was determined by that of Isis (E. Meyer in
Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 652). Cp. Philon Byb\. frag. 2. 24 (Frag. hist. Gr. iv. 569 Muller)
'AffTapTrj 8e i) fxeyiar-q /cat Zei>s A-rj/xapovs /cat "Adwdos (3acri\evs 6eG>v efiaaLXevov rrjs xw/)as
Kpovov yvihfxrj. i} be 'Aardprr) eTredrjKe ry idiq, KecpaXfj /3a<rt\etas irapaarffiov KecpaKijv ravpov
irepiPOffTovaa 8e rr\v olKovp.evqv k.t.X. (infra ch. ii § 10 (b)). The OvpoicoirLa of the
Antiochenes probably implies a ritual search for Astarte as a goddess of fertility annually
lost and found (cp. Gruppe Gr. Myth. Pel. p. 970 n. 8, infra ch. iii § 1 (a) i). The
Babylonian form of this incident was the well-known 'descent of Ishtar,' daughter of
the moon-god Sin, into the nether world (M. Jastrow The Religion of Babylonia and
Assyria Boston etc. 1898 p. 563 ff.). 2 Strab. 750.

3 Strab. 747, 750, Steph. Byz. s.v. Topbvcua (from Gordys, son of Triptolemos). Cp. the
supposed image of Io with budding horns at Nineveh (Philostr. v. Apoll. 1. 19 p. 19 Kayser).

Others told how Inachos sent out Kyrnos (not Triptolemos), who founded Kyrnos in
Karia (Diod. 5. 60), and Lyrkos, son of Phoroneus, who settled at Kaunos in Karia
(Parthen. narr. am. r. 1 ff. = Frag. hist. Gr. iv. 313 f. Muller).

4 That the influence of Triptolemos was felt at Gaza might be inferred from the fact