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

2\2 The Solar Wheel in Greece

former was, like the latter, a humanised bird. And the parallel of
the ' Speaking Bird,' which in a Sicilian folk-tale turned men into
statues1, is at least worth noting.

The exact species of the kirkos cannot be determined from the
casual notices of it found in ancient authors2. But the same word
is used by the modern Greeks3 of the gyr-falcon (falco gyrfalco
Linnaeus), a bird so called from its wheeling flight. Now there was
another word kirkos in ancient Greek, which was akin to the Latin
circus, circulus, and meant 'circle4.' It is, therefore, tempting to
suppose with A. Kuhn5 that the bird kirkos derived its name from
the circularity of its motion. Circular motion would make it all the
more appropriate as a symbol of the sun. Still, in view of the
enormous number of purely onomatopoeic bird-names, it is safer to
assume6 that kirkos the 'hawk' was so called on account of the shrill
cry kirk! kirk! with which it wheels its flight7. If so, any connexion
with kirkos a 'circle' must be due to popular misconception8.

J. F. Cerquand long since surmised that Kirke's name was
related to circus, a 'circle'; but he regarded Kirke as a moon-
goddess and Odysseus as a sun-god9. Obviously, however, the
connexion with circus would suit a sun-goddess as well as, if not

1 Append. F.

2 D'Arcy W. Thompson A Glossary of Greek Birds Oxford 1895 p. 83 f.

Ail. de nat. an. 4. 5, 4. 58 distinguishes the KipKrj from the Kipnos, as does Eustath. in
II. p. 1262, 50 ff., id. in Od. p. 1613, 65 f. But one author is late, the other later.

3 N. Contopoulos Greek-English Lexicon^ Athens 1903 p. 320.

4 L. Meyer Handb. d. gr. Etym. ii. 409, Prellwitz Etym. Worterb. d. Gr. Sj>r.2p. 224,
Boisacq Diet. e'tym. de la Langue Gr. p. 458, Walde Lat. etym. Worterb. p. 122.

5 A. Kuhn Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Gb'ttertranks'2 Glitersloh 1886 p. 144
n. 1. See also L. Hopf Thierorakel und Orakelthiere in alter und neuer Zeit Stuttgart
1888 p. 93.

6 So Boisacq op. cit. p. 458, cp. p. 440 f. s.v. KepK<x£. See also Eustath. in II. pp. 1126,
46 ff., 1262, 59 ff., in Od. p. 1734, 2 iff.

7 L. Hopf op. cit. p. 93.

8 Since this paragraph was written A. Fick has discussed the word dpKos in the
Zeitschrift fiir vergleichende Sprachforschung 1911 xliv. 345 ff. He rejects the rendering
'der Kreisende' and inclines to the onomatopoeic explanation 'der Kreischer.' He adds,
however, a third possibility, that the bird was so called from its 'crooked ' claws, cp.
Aristoph. nub. 337 ya/u.\povs olojvofo for ya/j,\{/d>vvxas, Paul, ex Fest. p. 88 Miiller falcones...
a similitudine falcis, Hesych. apiryf etdos opveov. /ecu dpeiravov.. .7} lktIvov Kp^res. After
this he gives free rein to his fancies. Kt/o/oj Aiaif] is the goddess of the circular or rather
semicircular path described by Eos and Helios in the course of the year. She is in-
constant, because the point at which Eos rises is always shifting. As mistress of the
zodiac she is surrounded by the lion (summer), the swine (winter : vs suggests tiec), the
wolf (Xu/cos plays on \jjkt}, \vicd[3as). Her four maidens are the four Seasons. Etc. etc.

9 J. F. Cerquand Etudes de Mythologie grecque. Ulysse et Circe. Les Sirenes. Paris
1873 pp. 28 ff., 67 ff. So too R. Brown The Myth of Kirke" (reviewed by H. Bradley in
The Academy 1884 xxv. 40 f.). W. H. Roscher fiber Selene und Verwandtes Leipzig 1890
pp. 15, 99, 144 likewise derives KipKT] from /ap/cos = the moon's disk.