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

The Kyklops of the East and West 311

they were terrible ; and in their pride they attacked the gods. Indeed, what
Homer says of Ephialtes and Otos refers in reality to these ; 1 mean, that they
attempted to scale the sky, intending to make an assault upon the gods.'

Aristophanes goes on to tell how Zeus frustrated their efforts
and punished their pride by cutting them in halves like so many
eggs. Ever since that fell catastrophe man has gone about the
world in search of his other half. And, if Zeus hears much more
of his insolence, he will cut him in halves again, so that in future
he will go hopping on a single leg ! This interesting recital, despite
the humorous turn given to its denouement, is evidently based on
the serious beliefs of the past. When Platon speaks of a third sex
compounded of the other two, he has in mind the ' whole-natured
types' of Empedokles1, that is to say, types neither male nor
female, but both. And, when Platon relates his human Catherine-
wheels to the sun, the earth, and the moon, he recalls the same
philosopher-poet's expression 'the swift limbs of the Sun2.' But
he is also throughout thinking of Pherekydes' twin Moliones3 and
of the Orphic Phanes, first-born of the gods, a strange bi-sexual
being4, perhaps two-bodied5, certainly four-eyed6, and commonly
identified with the sun7. According to one account, Phanes had
the heads of rams, bulls, a snake, and a lion8, together with golden
wings9: according to another, golden wings on his shoulders, heads
of bulls attached to his sides, and on his head a monstrous snake
resembling all manner of wild beasts10. This composite conception
suggests comparison with the various theriomorphic and anthropo-
morphic modifications of the Lycian solar wheel11.

In the western Mediterranean anthropomorphism went a step
further. We hear of no Cheirogdstores with multiple limbs. The

1 Emped. frag. 62, 4 Diels ovko<pveh.. .ttjttol.

2 Id. frag. 27, 1 Diels 'HeAtoto...w/cea yvia.

3 Append. F (t).

4 Orph. frag. 62 Abel ap. Prokl. in Plat. Tim. i. 429, 28 ff. Diehl (cp. ib. i. 450,
22 ff.) and Lact. div. inst. 4. 8, Rufin. recognit. 10. 30. With Plat. symp. 191 B cp. the
Orphic texts cited by Lobeck Aglaophamus i. 491 f.

5 In Orph. frag. 36 Abel ap. Damask, quaest. de primis principiis p. 387 debs
dauparos was corrected to debs Sto-w^aros by Lobeck Aglaophamus i. 486 n. : see further
O. Gruppe in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 2251 f.

6 Orph. frag. 64 Abel ap. Herm. in Plat. Phaedr. p. 135 Terpdcriv 6<p6a\p,6lcnv
bpLo/xevos ev9a /ecu 'e'vda. Lobeck op. cit. i. 491 remarks that the same verse was used to
describe Argos by the author of the Aigimios (schol. Eur. Phoen. 1116). Is it accidental
that Qdv-qs and"A/ryos are names of similar meaning? See further infra ch. i § 6 (g) ix.

7 Supra p. 7 n. 6.

8 Orph. frag. 63 Abel.

9 Orph. frag. 65 Abel.

10 Orph. frag. 36 Abel.

11 Supra pp. 299 ff., 304 ff.