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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#0497

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The Golden or Purple Ram of Phrixos 419

and rescued by the miraculous ram1. In fact, the golden, or sub-
sequently gilded, ram was found among the flocks of Athamas,
just as the golden lamb was found among the flocks of Atreus2.
Another point of resemblance between the two is that Simonides,
who spoke of Atreus' golden lamb as purple3, spoke also of Athamas'
golden ram as white, and again as purple4. I am therefore
disposed to see in the golden ram of Athamas, as in the golden lamb
of Atreus, a theriomorphic epiphany of Zeus. This, in fact, is
definitely stated by the first Vatican mythographer, who says that
Pelias sent Iason to Kolchis ' in order that he might fetch thence
the golden fleece in which Zeus climbed the sky5! The words
that I have italicised are indeed, as G. H. Bode observes, foreign
to the usual tradition6; but they are not on that account open to
suspicion, and they must be accepted as a record of the belief that
the golden ram, when he ascended the sky, was none other than
Zeus in animal form.

Again we may suspect a solar interpretation as a secondary
development of the myth. Thus the analogy between Helle, who
fell from the golden ram into the Hellespont, and Phaethon, who
fell from the sun's chariot into the river Eridanos7, becomes in-
telligible. And the elevation of the ram to a position among the
signs of the zodiac8 is seen to be appropriate. It is noticeable
that the constellation of Aries ' rules the season of the year
when wheat is sown ' or c when all things are born anew9.' Medeia
the grand-daughter of the Sun-god, naturally chose a ram for her
experiment in rejuvenation10.

1 Supra p. 415. 2 Supra p. 405 n. 5. 3 Supra p. 406.

4 Simonid. frag. 21 Bergk ap. schol. Ap. Rhod. 4. 177, cp. schol. Eur. Med. 5
ir&yxpvcrov depas' to dep/xa. tovto oi fiev bXbxpvcrov elvai cpacriv, oi 8e irop<pvpovv. /ecu
^i/jlo}vl8t]s be ev rep els tov IloaeLdQua v[Ai>q) airb t&v i'v rfj daXdrTrj ivop(f>vp&v KexpGiadaL
avrb Xeyec, Eudok. viol. 262.

5 Myth. Vat. r. 24 ob hanc causam eum Colchos misit, ut inde detulisset pellem
auream, in qua Iuppiter in caelum ascendit.

6 G. H. Bode Scriptores rerum myihicaru.ni etc. Cellis 1834 ii. 12 ad loc.

7 Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 2175^".

8 Hes. and Pherekyd. ap. pseudo-Eratosth. catast. 19, Hyg. poet. astr. 2. 20, cp.
schol. Caes. Germ. Aratea p. 400, 16 ff. Eyssenhardt.

9 Hyg. poet. astr. 2. 20 arietis ipsius effigiem ab Nube (ad love Scheffer) inter sidera
constitutam habere tempus anni quo frumentum seritur, ideo quod hortum (quod id Ino
tostum Muncker) severit ante, quae maxime fugae fuit caussa.

According to Hermippos ap. Hyg. loc. cit., the constellation is the ram that once led
the army of Liber, when perishing of thirst in Africa, to the spring of Iupiter Mammon.
Liber 'arietem inter sidera figuravit ita ut, cum sol in eius foret signo, omnia nascentia
recrearentur, quae veris tempore confiunt, hac re maxime quod illius fuga Liberi recreavit
exercitum.'

10 Supra p. 245. In Folk-Lore 1905 xvi. 325 n. 1 I have compared this incident with
the boiling of Pelops in a caldron. Again, ij Qeris els Xe^-qra vdaros ^eovra evefiaXe tovs
 
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