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

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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14695#0314

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Kirke

Egypt too the hawk was sacred to the sun1, or to Horos, Ra, Osiris,
Seker, and other solar deities2: it was here regarded as the only
bird that could look with unflinching gaze at the sun3, being itself
filled with sunlight4 and essentially akin to fire5. These beliefs
certainly found an echo in Greek literature6; and they may serve
to explain the frequent association of the hawk with Apollon7. To
Homer the hawk was the • swift messenger of Apollon8,' who himself
on occasion took its form9. Aristophanes implies that Apollon was
sometimes represented with a hawk on his head or on his hand10.
The mythographers told how Apollon had transformed Daidalion
son of the Morning Star into a hawk11. And later writers agreed
that the hawk was the sacred bird of Apollon12 or of Helios
Apollon13. All this goes to make it probable that Kirke was
originally a solar power conceived as a ' Hawk.' A relic of her
ornithomorphic state may perhaps be traced in the curious Homeric
description of her as a 'dread goddess endowed with human
speech14.' Had she been purely anthropomorphic, the phrase would
have been superfluous, not to say impertinent. Given that her
name betokened her nature, the explanation is not only pardonable,
but necessary. Again, it might fairly be urged that the Italian
myth of Kirke's love for Picus15 becomes more intelligible if the

1 Porph. de abst. 4. 9, Euseb. praep. ev. 3. 12. 2.

2 E. A. Wallis Budge The Gods of the Egyptians London 1904 ii. 372, A. Erman
A Handbook of Egyptian Religion trans. A. S. Griffith London 1907 pp. 7, 10, 22, 187-
See Ail. de nat. an. 7. 9, 10. 14, 12. 4 (Horos); Plout. de Is. et Os. 51 (Osiris) ; Philon
Bybl. frag. 9 {Frag. hist. Gr. hi. 572 Miiller) ap. Euseb. praep. ev. 1. 10. 48 (Kneph).

3 Ail. de nat. an. 10. 14.

4 Porph. de abst. 4. 9 ev oh to rfXtaKov KaroiKetv ireinaTeTUKaaL cpQs.

5 Ail. de nat. an. 10. 24.

6 Infra ch. i § 6 (e).

7 Ail. de nat. an. to. 14 expressly equates Horos the hawk-god with Apollon.

8 Od. 1 c. C26

9 II. 15. 237 tp7)kl eOLK<j)S.

10 Aristoph. av. 516, schol. ad loc.

11 Ov. met. 11. 339 ff., Hyg. fab. 200, infra ch. i § 6 (e).

12 Porph. de abst. 3. 5, Eustath. in II. p. 1014, 22.

13 Eustath. z>z II. p. 87, 6 iepat; de lepojrai 'HAiy 'AttoWiovl k.t.X.

14 Od. 10. 136, ri. 8, 12. 150 8eivr] debs aiS-qeaaa. The same expression is used of
Kalypso (Od. 12. 449), who in various respects is the doublet of Kirke (O. Immisch in
Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 940 ff.) and may well have borrowed an epithet belonging to her.
Similarly of the horse Xanthos, gifted with human speech, we read: //. 19. 407 avdrjevTa
5' ^drjKe dea XevK&Xevos "Hpyj. Conversely Leukothea, v irplv p.ev '4r]v fiporbs avdrjeaaa
(Od. 5. 334), dives into the sea aidvirj eluvia (ib. 353, cp. 337).

15 K. Seeliger in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 1202, 22 ff. collects the evidence. TIikoXoos,
the giant who fled to Kirke's isle and was there slain by Helios—the plant p.Q\v springing
from his blood—(Alexandros of Paphos ap. Eustath. in Od. p. [658, 49 ff-), is possibly
related to the Lithuanian deity Pikiilas or Pikullos (H. Usener Gotternamen Bonn 1896
p. 98).

C. 16
 
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