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

The Fleece of Zeus

423

animals sacrificed to Zeus Meilichios and to Zeus Ktesios were
kept and used by those who marshalled the procession of the
Skirophoria, by the torch-bearer at Eleusis, and by others who
directed rites of purification1. It follows that this purificatory
skin, though used in a variety of ceremonies, was in every case the
skin of a victim sacrificed to Zeus2. Moreover, it was regularly
called the 'fleece of Zeus' or the 'Zeus-fleece3.' These names may
be taken to imply that Zeus was originally believed to be, not
merely the god to whom as to an owner the fleece belonged, but
the very animal from which the fleece was stripped. Hence to
stand upon the fleece, or to have the fleece carried round one, was
to claim identification with the deity and consequent freedom from
guilt. The same idea may underlie the old Roman custom that a
man who had unwittingly perpetrated a homicide must take his
stand upon a ram4. The Romans themselves derived their custom
from that of the Athenians5.

A few representations of the ' fleece of Zeus' have come down
to us in Greek vase-paintings and Roman reliefs. A red-figured
hydria in the Lambert collection (fig. 305)6 shows a scene of initia-
tion, probably at Eleusis. In the centre a nude youth crouches
beside a large shallow bowl with his left foot on a spotted object.
This object is plausibly regarded by F. Lenormant7 and J. de Witte8

1 Souid. s.v. Atds Kibdiov. ov rb lepelov Att redvrai' dtiovai re rip re MeiXi^V KaL TV
Krijcitf) Att. ra 8e Kio8ia rovrwv cpvXdaaovcn, At'a (5m J. E.. Harrison, Atos T. Gaisford)
irpoaayopevovres. xpaWcu 5' avrois o'i re "ZKipoipopiiov rr\v irop,iry]v areWovres /cat 6 §a5oC%oj
ev '^IXevaivi /cat aXXot rives viroaropviuvres avra rois iroai rCov evay&v.

2 I cannot, therefore, but regard as somewhat misleading Miss J. E. Harrison's
statement [Proleg. Gk. Rel.2 p. 24) : ' this fleece was by no means confined to the ritual of
Zeus.' Indeed, I dissent wholly from her view (ib. p. 23) that the Atucrta of Zeus
MetXt%tos and the Aiov or Atos Kibdiov of Zeus MetXtxtos and Zeus Krrja-ios had originally
nothing whatever to do with Zeus, but are rather to be referred to the root that appears in
Latin as diro- (Greek *<5tcro- 5to-) and denote consequently a 'festival of curses' with its
associated 'rites of placation and purgation.' True, we cannot derive Al&cria from Atos;
but we can and ought to derive it from Atos, the adjective meaning ' of or ' belonging to
Zeus' {supra p. 3 n. 3). I would explain in the same way the Ata of Teos (Michel
Recueil ctlnsc?'. gr. no. 1318, Nilsson Gr. Feste p. 33) and the lldudia of Athens (Phot.
lex. s.v. Havfiia, Bekker anecd. i. 292, 10f., Harpokr. s.v. IIa^5eta, Mommsen Feste
d. Stadt Athen p. 432 f.). The termination of the word Ata-crta may be due, as my friend
Dr P. Giles suggests, to the analogy of Aiovvaia, Tevecria, Ne/cwta, ~$ep,ecna, etc.

3 Atos icdbdiop or Ato^ niodiov. The latter phrase gave rise to the verbs b lotto pur elv,
cLTroSioTroiJLwelv [supra p. 422 n. 7), 'to send away evil by means of the Zeus-fleece': see
Stephanus Thes. Gr. Ling. ii. 1528 D—1529 A, i. 2. 1420 D—-1421 c.

4 Cic. top. 64, Serv. in Verg. eel. 4. 4.3, georg. 3. 387.

5 Cincius ap. Fest. p. 347 b 2 ff. Midler, cp. ib. p. 351 a 8 ff.

6 Daremberg—Saglio Diet. Ant. ii. 265 fig. 2450 (E. Pottier).

7 F. Lenormant in the Contemporary Review 1880 ii. 137.

8 J. de Witte Description des collections d^antiquites conserves a VHotel Lambert
Paris 1886 p. 68 pi. 22.