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

394 The Ram and the Sun in Phrygia

Deo in fierce anger took the title Brimo,' the Wrathful,' and would
not be appeased till Zeus came before her in a mood of mock-
repentance, pretended to have made a eunuch of himself, and in
proof of his words flung the severed parts into her lap. In reality
they were those of a fine ram, which he had gelded. The issue
of his union with Deo was Kore or Pherephatta, with whom he
again had intercourse under the form of a monstrous snake. This
time the offspring was shaped like a bull. Hence the well-known
line :

Bull begat Snake, Snake begat Bull.

Hence too the practice of those who were initiated into the rites
of Zeus Sabdzios by passing a golden adder through their bosoms
and out below.

In this crude, not to say repulsive, tale we have beyond a doubt
the aetiological myth of the Sabdzios-c\i\t. The devotees of the
great mother-goddess sacrificed to her their own virility or, failing
that, the virility of a ram1. Why they did so, we do not know
for certain. Dr Farnell2 suggests that they wished to assimilate
themselves to her and took this desperate way of becoming feminine,
or at least non-masculine. But this explanation hardly fits all the
facts3. More probably the worshippers sought to increase the

sinum ducunt, id. 26. 1 sequitur adhuc aliud symbolum, quod pro magno miserorum
hominum credulis auribus traditur : ravpos dp&Kovros /cat ratipov dp&Ktov (dpaKicv ravpov
Woweij irar-qp.

1 H. Hepding Attis seine Mythen und sein Kult Gieszen 1903 p. 192: ' Diese
Erzahlung sieht aus wie das clltiov fur Ablosung der Selbstentmannung durch em
Widderopfer {crioboliumf)? So too Frazer Golden Bough* \ Adonis Attis Osiris2
p. 224 n. 1.

2 Farnell Cults of Gk. States iii. 300 f. (of the PdWot): ' Even the self-mutilation
necessary for the attainment of the status of the eunuch-priest may have arisen from the
ecstatic craving to assimilate oneself to the goddess and to charge oneself with her power,
the female dress being thereupon assumed to complete the transformation.' Cp. also
W. Leonhard Hettiter und Amazonen Leipzig and Berlin 1911 p. 131 ff.

Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 1545 n. 5 is content to explain the rite as primarily ' eine
Poenitenz' and cp. Arnob. adv. nat. 5. 7 mammas sibi demetit Galli filia pellicis,
id. 5. 13 quid admiserat Gallus, quid pellicis filia, ut ille se viro, haec mammarum
honestate privaret? But this aetiological tale is equally intelligible on Farnell's showing
(assimilation to the Amazonian goddess). Nor can we lay stress on the view of the
Naassenes (Ophites) that the emasculated Attis symbolises the soul freed from sensuality
(Hippolyt. ref. haeres. 5. 7 p. 99 Miller). Other practices of the TaWoi Gruppe regards
as vices arising 'aus den niedrigsten Motiven.' Yet even these might be covered by
Farnell's charitable hypothesis.

E.g. the deposition of the genitalia in the 'chambers' of Rhea Lobrine (schol. Nik.
alex. 8 Ao{3pivr}S da\d/xai (6a\ap,oi codd.)- rbiroi iepoi vrroyeioi, ava.Keip.evoi rrj'Pea, ottov
eKTep.vbp.evoL ra p.r)8ea KarerldevTO 01 rep "Arret /cat rrj 'Pea Xarpevovres. etVt 8e ra A6(3piva
Spy) Qpvyias 7) t6ttos Kv^Lkov k.t.X.). On Mt. Lobrinon see F. W. Hasluck Cyzicus
Cambridge 1910 p. 219. Apparently the relics were buried in the ground and stelai,