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

244 The Solar Wheel in Greece

and consequently denote a 'Hawk' tribe1—was the coast town
of Cercei, later called Circei (the modern Circelli), at the foot
of the Cerceius or Circeius mons {Monte Circello). This calcareous •
and cavernous mountain was originally an island; and here the
myth of Kirke^ the 'Hawk,' was localised2, where her image was
said to catch the first rays of the rising sun3. Nonnos makes her
as the mother of the Italian Faunus inhabit—

Deep-shaded circles of a rocky home4.

He is presumably referring to Monte Circello and, if I mistake not,
intentionally hinting at its circularity.

On the whole I am disposed to conclude that Kirke began life
as a solar hawk, that originally and in Greece she had nothing to
do with Revolving Castles or Tables Round, but that later and in
Italy5, under the influence of folk-etymology, she may have been
brought into connexion with Celtic ideas of the solar circle.

(S) Medeia. *

We come now to Medeia, the niece or, according to some, the
sister of Kirke6. As grand-daughter of Helios she too could
summon the solar chariot at need. Diodoros7 relates that Medeia,
when she fled from Kolchis with the Argonauts, put in to Iolkos
and there plotted the death of king Pelias. She made a hollow
image of Artemis, stuffed it with all sorts of charms, and passed
herself off as a priestess of the goddess. She declared that Artemis
had come from the country of the Hyperboreoi, travelling through
the air in a car drawn by serpents and seeking the world over for
the most pious of kings, in order that she might establish her cult
with him and bless him with renewed youth. As proof of her

'Walnut,' J. Rhys op. cit. p. 13 n. 1, and A. Nutt in Folk-Lore 1910 xxi. 233 n. 3. The
Volcae were a tribe of southern Gaul (Tolosa, Nemausus, etc.). ? Cp. Volci in Etruria
and Volceii in Lucania. On Volsci (for * Volc-sci) corresponding with the Celtic Volcae
see H. Hirt Die Indogermanen Strassburg 1905 i. 164, cp. ib. 127, 169.

1 See J. Rhys op. cit. p. 13.

2 K. Seeliger in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 1201 f., C. Hulsen in Pauly—Wissowa Real-
Enc. iii. 2565 ff.

3 Eustath. in Od. p. 1705, 31 f. vxprfkov (pacrlv ovtos tov KipKaiov "HXtos £k pvktos
iirCka[JLivei to rrjs Ki/j/oys ^bavov.

4 Nonn. Dion. 13. 332 $Kee irerpaioLO fiaQticriaa kvk\<x fxe\adpov.

5 Near Luna in northern Etruria was an aKpov ^eXrjurjs (Ptol. 3. i. 4). W. H. Roscher
Uber Selene und Verwandtes Leipzig 1890 p. 15 identifies this with the *L€kr)vo.lov 6pos,
on which were shown the mortars used by Medeia and Kirke for pounding their charms
(schol. Theokr. 2. 15). This supports a lunar rather than a solar connexion.

6 Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 2482.

7 Diod. 4. 51 f.