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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#0321

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248 The Solar Wheel in Greece

now of Medeia herself? 'Zeus/ says the old scholiast on Pindar,
'was enamoured of her there; but Medeia would not hearken to
him, as she would fain avoid the wrath of Hera1.' Curiously enough
the love of Zeus for Medeia was balanced by the love of Hera for
Iason 2. Analogous cases3, to be considered later, suggest that this
reciprocity implies the Zeus-hood, so to speak, of Iason4 and the
Hera-hood of Medeia.

Thus the myth of Medeia as told by Eumelos serves to connect
the earliest dynasty of Corinth with Zeus; but it does not help us to
decide whether the serpent-chariot was of solar or lunar origin. On
this point Euripides is the first to satisfy our curiosity. His Medeia,
when about to be banished from Corinth by king Kreon, makes her
escape to Athens in the car of Helios—a device somewhat unfairly
criticised by Aristotle5. Ere she goes, she flings the following
defiance at her husband:

Cease this essay. If thou wouldst aught of me,
Say what thou wilt: thine hand shall touch me never.
Such chariot hath my father's sire, the Sun,
Given me, a defence from foeman's hand6.

Euripides does not, indeed, definitely state that the Sun's chariot
was drawn by serpents. But later writers are unanimous. Medeia,
say they, received from the Sun a chariot of winged snakes and on
this fled through the air from Corinth to Athens7. That her

1 Schol. Pind. 01. 13. 74^ e/cei 5e avrrjs 6 Zeds rjpdaOf], ovk eireideTO be 17 M^Seta top rrjs
''Hpas eKKkLvovcra xoXop • k.t.X.

2 Od. 12. 72 d\X' "Hpt] irapeirep<\pep, eirei (pLXos rjev 'Irjcroop, Ap. Rhod. 3. 66 £ri koX irpiv
i/Aoi (sc. Hera) pieya <piXaT"Irjo-o:p, schol. Pind. Pyth. 4. 156 ^ on 5e evirpeir-qs rjv 6 'I&ctwp,
drjXop in tov Kal t7)v"Hpai> Kara, tlpcls <xvtu) £irip.avrivai,—cited by K. Seeliger in Roscher
Lex. Myth. ii. 68.

3 See Class. Rev. 1906 xx. 378.

4 For AiofATjdrjs as the alleged older name of Iason see K. Seeliger op. cit. ii. 64 and
C. von Holzinger on Lyk. Al. 632.

5 Aristot.poet. 15. 1454b if., with the comment of A. E. Haigh The Tragic Drama
of the Greeks Oxford 1896 p. 289. See, however, E. Bethe Prolegomena zur Geschichte
des Theaters im Alterthum Leipzig 1896 p. 143 ff.

6 Eur. Med. 1319 ff. trans. A. S. Way.

7 Dikaiarch. hyp. Eur. Med. e-rrl dp/naros SpaKOVTWv irrepcorCiv, 6 Trap 'HXt'ou eXafiev,
e'-rroxos yevofxevT) k.t.X., Apollod. r. 9. 28 Xa^oucra irapa^HX'tov appia ttttjplov dpaKOVTWV (tti
toijtov (pevyovaa k.t.X., Tzetz. in Lyk. Al. 175 (p. 83 Scheer) ecj> appiaros SpaKovTuv
TTepwTuiv [tQv irapa'aXiov XrjcpdevTwv ins. Miiller, om. Scheer] els 'Adrjvas dirob-qpLel.

Cp. Ov. met. 7. 398 f. hinc Titaniacis ( = Solis) ablata draconibus intrat | Palladias
arces, Val. Flacc. 5. 453 aligeris aut quae secet anguibus auras. Hor. epod. 3. 14 serpente
fugit alite uses the singular, and is followed by Myth. Vat. 1. 25 and 2. 138 alato
serpente aufugit. The schol. Eur. Med. 1320 says vaguely oxov/xev-r] dpaKOPTLPois dpfiaai.

In Sen. Med. 1031 ff. squamosa gemini colla serpentes iugo j submissa praebent.
recipe iam gnatos parens. | ego inter auras aliti curru vehar we have a description of the
older type of solar vehicle, in which the chariot is winged, not the snakes (supra
p. 226 n. 3.)
 
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