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

Medeia

247

This genealogy throws some light on early Corinthian religion;
for it enables us to see that the kings of Corinth were regarded as
near akin to Zeus, or perhaps even as successive incarnations of
him. Korinthos, the eponym of the town,—who must be carefully
distinguished from Korinthos, the personification of the town1,—is
represented on a bronze mirror, found at Corinth and now in the
Louvre, as a majestic Zeus-like man seated on a throne and holding
a sceptre. A himdtion is wrapped about him, and Leukas the
Corinthian colony is in the act of placing a wreath upon his head
(fig. 178)2. This Korinthos, according to Eumelos, was the son of
Marathon. But Pausanias, who cites the Eumelian pedigree,
begins by the following naive admission: 'That Korinthos was the
son of Zeus has never yet, to my knowledge, been seriously asserted
by anybody except by most of the Corinthians themselves*? The
claim of the Corinthians was indeed so well known to the Greeks
in general that it passed into the proverb 'Korinthos son of Zeus '
used in cases of wearisome iteration4. If then the Corinthian
populace regarded Korinthos, son of Marathon, as the son of Zeus,
it is not unlikely that Marathon was held to be an embodiment of
Zeus. Indeed, a scholiast on Aristophanes—if the text of his
scholion is sound—declares: 'This "Korinthos son of Zeus" was the
son of Zeus a king of Corinth5.' Again, Marathon in his turn was
the son of Epopeus; and an epic poet, probably of the seventh
century B.C., informs us that Epopeus had the same wife as Zeus6.
It would seem then that, when Medeia came to Corinth, the kings
of the town had for three successive generations (Epopeus, Marathon,
Korinthos) stood in a relation of peculiar intimacy to Zeus. What

1 The former is masculine (Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 1381 f.), the latter feminine (Athen.
201 d).

2 A. Dumont in the Monuments grecs publies par VAssociation pour P encouragement
des Etudes grecques en France No. 2 1873 p. 23 ff. pi. 3, K. D. Mylonas in the 'E0.
'A.px- 1873 P- 44° ff- ph 64, id. 'EWyviKa KaroTrrpa Athens 1876 p. 17 ff. pi. a', 3,
V. Duruy History of Greece English ed. London 1892 ii. 130 n. 1 fig.

3 Paus. 2. 1. 1.

4 Pind. Nem. 7. 155 with schol., Aristoph. ran. 439 with schol., eccl. 828 with schol.,
frag. 434 Dindorf, Plat. Euthyd. 292 e with schol., Ephor. frag. 17 {Frag. hist. Gr.
i. 237 Midler), Liban. ep. 565, Theodoros Hyrtakenos in Boissonade anecd. ii. 433, 2 f.,
Zenob. 3. 21, Makar. 7. 46, Apostol. 6. 17, 12. 30, Hesych. s.v. Atos Kopivdos, Phot. lex.
s.vv. 6 Atos Kopivdos, HvdwSe 686s, iiirepov irepiTpoirrj, Souid. s.vv. Atos Kopivdos, 6 Atos
Kopti^os, iiirepov irepirpoirr). On the attempts made by the later grammarians to explain
this proverb see Appendix C.

5 Schol. Aristoph. ran. 439 6 5e Atos Kopivdos irais Atos j3aai\ews KopLvdov. Unfor-
tunately the text is not free from suspicion. Cod. V omits the word ^aaiXeus; and
F. H. M. Blaydes ad loc. woidd read (SaaiXevs. Blaydes' emendation may be right, for
another scholion on the same passage has 6 5e Atos Kopivdos irous Atos fiaciXevs Kop'ivdov.

6 Infra ch. i. § 7 (d).