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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#0491

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The Golden Lamb in Epeiros 413

open of itself ; and, after they had gone through many more chambers, they
came to a second door. Here the king again cried : " Open, Tartara Martara
of the earth !" Then the door flew open of itself; and they came to the room,
where the princess lived. Its floor, walls, and ceiling were of solid silver. The
king, when he had greeted the princess, gave her the lamb. She was delighted
with it : she stroked it and fondled it and played with it. But when, shortly
afterwards, the lamb eased itself, the princess said to the king: " Father, the
lamb has eased itself!" And he replied: "It is just a lamb, why should it
not?" Then he left the lamb with the princess and went his way.

During the night the young fellow drew off the skin. And the princess,
seeing that he was so handsome, fell in love with him and asked : "Why did
you hide in the skin and come here?" He replied: "When I saw that so
many failed to find you and lost their lives, I contrived this trick and came to
you." Then the princess exclaimed : " Ah, you have done well ! But you
must know that, even if you have found me here, your wager is not yet won.
For then my father changes me and my maidens into ducks and asks you:
' Which of these ducks is the princess ?' But I will turn my head round and
plume my feathers with my beak, so that you can recognise me."

When they had prattled away for three days together, the herdsman came
back to the king and demanded his lamb. And the king' went to his daughter
to fetch it. She was woe-begone at her sporting with the lamb being so soon
over. But the king said : " I cannot leave it with you, for it is only lent." He
took it away and returned it to the herdsman.

The young fellow now pulled off the skin, went to the king and said : " Sire,
I can find your daughter." The king, seeing' the handsome lad, answered him :
" I'm sorry for your youth, my boy. This adventure has already cost so many
their lives, and it will be the death of you too." " I stand by my word, sir
king; I will either find her or lose my head." So saying, he went in front of
the king, and the king followed him till they came to the great door. Then
said the young man.to the king: "Speak three words, and it opens." And the
king made answer : "What words are they? Shall I say: Lock, Lock, Lock ?"
"No," cried he, "say: Open, Tartara Martara of the earth!" The king did
so, and the door opened. They went in, and the king bit his moustache for
anger. Then they came to the second door, where the same thing happened
over again. They entered, and found the princess.

Next the king said : "Well done, you have found the princess, But now
I am going to turn her and her maidens into ducks ; and, if you can guess
which of them all is my daughter, then you shall have her to wife." And
without more ado the king changed all the maidens into ducks, brought them
before the young man, and said to him : "Now show me, which is my daughter."
Then the princess, as she had agreed to do, plumed her wings with her beak;
and the young man answered : "The one yonder, pluming her wings, is the
princess." There was then no help for it; the king had to give her to him for
a wife, and he lived with her in grandeur and in happiness.'

Popularia carmina GrcBcice recentioris Lipsiae i860 no. 368. 1 Karoo <rrd Tdprapa rrjs yijs,
kcltoj crrbv Karoo KdcTfjLo, J. C. Lawson Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion
Cambridge 1910 p. 98. The same word Tdprapa survives in Rhodes as a name for
the deepest part of Hades (B. Schmidt -Das Volksleben der Neugriechen i. 235 citing
Benetoklis in the ''Ecprjp.eph robv QCkop.adoov i860 p. 1257). Mdprapa is a meaningless
jingle formed on the analogy of Tdprapa (J. Pio op. cit. p. 238).
 
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