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

Zeus of the Oasis a Graeco-Libyan god 367

Earth, though it is hard to discover who was the first of her sons.
After naming in true Pindaric fashion various possible claimants
our fragment proceeds:

The Libyans say that first-born Garamas

Rose from parched plains and made his offering

Of Zeus' sweet acorn.

May we not venture to see in these lines another confirmation of
Silius' statements concerning the oaks of the Oasis ?

Again, the fauna as well as the flora of the two oracular centres
was alike. Birds, according to Aristophanes, were an essential
feature of both1. The doves of Dodona are sufficiently notorious2.
But, as we have already seen, the sister oracle in the Oasis was
likewise founded by a dove from Thebes. Moreover, Semiramis is
said to have learnt her destiny from Amman* and to have fulfilled
it by becoming a dove4. Finally, small wild doves are numerous
in the Oasis nowadays5.

The institution of both oracles was also connected with a
shepherd. Proxenos, a contemporary of king Pyrrhos, in his
History of Epeiros wrote6:

'A shepherd feeding his sheep in the marshes of Dodona stole the finest of
his neighbour's flocks and kept it penned in his own fold. The story goes that
the owner sought among the shepherds for the stolen sheep, and, when he
could not find them, asked the god who the thief was. They say that the oak
then for the first time uttered a voice and said—"The youngest of thy followers."
He put the oracle to the proof, and found them with the shepherd who had but
recently begun to feed his flock in that district. Shepherds go by the name of
followers. The thief was called Mandylas7. It is said that he, angered against
the oak, wished to cut it down by night; but that a dove showed itself from the
trunk and bade him desist from so doing. He in fear gave up the attempt and
no longer laid hands on this sacred tree. The Epeirotes, however, were wroth
with him for his rash deed.' Etc.8

Similarly with regard to the Oasis Leon of Pella, a contemporary

1 Aristoph. av. 716 iap.ev 8' i>fiTp"Afifi(av...A(ad(bvr]. Alexander the Great was guided
to the oracle of Amnion by two or more ravens (Aristoboulos ap. Arrian. 3. 3. 6;
Kallisthenes ap. Plout. v. Alex. 27, Strab. 814; Diod. 17. 49, Curt. 4. 7. 15, Eustath. in
Dionys.^ter. 211).

2 Class. Rev. 1903 xvii. 185 f.

3 Diod. 2. 14.

4 Id. 2. 20.

5 G. Rohlfs Von Tripolis nach Alexandrien*1 Bremen 1882 ii. 115 ff., 121 mentions
that the Fountain of the Sun is known locally as Ain el hammam, which he renders 'the
Doves' Bath.' But this appears to be a mistranslation : infra p. 382.

6 Proxenos Epirotica frag. 2 {Frag. hist. Gr. ii. 462 Miiller) ap. schol. Od. 14. 327.

7 Ma^SuAas Q. MapSvXas V. MavSpevXas cj. C. Midler.

8 The concluding sentence odev /ecu Xafiovras 8lkt]v ravrrjp eicrirpd^acrdai tt}s air avrou
vTTOfj.ovrjs (iinfMovTjs cod. Barnes.) top [x&vtlv irpoayet. stands in need of emendation.