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

Kirke

243

better than, a moon-goddess1. Moreover, it is easy to imagine
more ways than one in which a circle might be fittingly attributed
• to a solar Kirke. She was a 'Hawk,' and the hawk may have been
fastened zj/nx-like to a solar wheel'2. She was a magician, and
magicians have always dealt in magic circles3. But above all she
was a goddess comparable with the island-queen of Celtic myths4,
and Celtic myths—especially in their Welsh form—spoke of the
island-palace as the 'Revolving Castle5.' In that castle was a mystic
vessel, the pagan original of the Holy Grail. And it is to be
noticed that the heroes best qualified to seek the Grail on the one
hand are the chief representatives of the 'Table Round/ and on the
other stand in intimate relation to the hawky. Thus Arthur's
favourite knight was Gwalchmei, the 'Hawk of May,' whose brother,
even stronger than himself, was Gwalchaved, the' Hawk of Summer.'
The latter is better known to us as Galahad; the former, as Gawain
—a name which Sir John Rhys derives from Gwalch-gwyn, the
'White Hawk,' or Gwalch-hevin, the 'Summer Hawk7.' Now in
the myth of Kirke it is easy to recognize the mystic vessel and the
human Hawk. But can we also detect any trait to correspond with
the ' Revolving Castle' or the 'Table Round'? In short, has the
notion of circularity left any mark upon it? Not, I think, on Greek
soil, real or imaginary. But it is to Italy rather than to Greece
that we should look for correspondence with Celtic myth; and the
Italian Kirke seems to have dwelt on a circular island. In the ter-
ritory of the Volsci—whose name may be akin to that of the Welsh9

1 Io. Antioch. frag. 24. 10 {Frag. hist. Gr. iv. 551 Mttller) KaXui^o; /cat KipKr) "HXLov
/cat SeX^^s rjaav tepetat is indecisive.

2 Supra p. 226, infra p. 253 ff. Cp. Ail. de nat. an. 10. 14 (the leg-bone of a hawk
attracts gold) (vyyi diropp^rq} tlvl.

3 A wall-painting from the Casa dei Dioscuri at Pompeii shows a peasant consulting
a sorceress, who is seated in the middle of a circular base, holding her wand and present-
ing him with a cup (Helbig Wandgem. Camp. p. 392 f. no. 1565, Daremberg—Saglio Diet.
Ant. iii. 1500 fig. 4781). This sorceress has been sometimes identified with Kirke (e.g.
Smith—Marindin Class. Diet. p. 233), but the identification is precarious.

Supra p. 239.

5 J. Rhys Studies in the Arthurian Legend Oxford 1891 pp. 116, 302 f., 325, 392,
A. C. L. Brown ' Iwain' in Stu'dies and Notes in Philology and Literature (Harvard
University) 1903 viii. 53, 56, C. Squire The Mythology of the British Islands London 1905
pp. 319 n. 3, 366 ff., J. L. Weston The Legend of Sir Perceval London 1909 ii. 266 n. 1.

6 Peredur Paladr-hir, the 'Spearman of the Long Shaft' (Sir Percivale), is not so
related to the hawk. But then Miss J. L. Weston The Legend of Sir Perceval London
1906 i. 171 f., 1909 ii. 301, 305 ff. proves that Perceval was not the original hero of the
Grail.

7 J. Rhys op. cit. pp. 13 f., 166 ff., C. Squire op. tit. p. 369.

8 F. Kluge Etymologisches Worterbuch der deutschen Spraehe6 Strassburg 1899 p. 420
compares welsch with the Celtic tribal name Volcae. So do W. W. Skeat A concise
Etymological Dictionary of the English Language new ed. Oxford 1901 p. 599 s.v.

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