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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#0561

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482 The Labyrinth at Knossos

round the keraton1 altar, so named because it consists of horns ikerata) all taken
from the left side. They state also that he instituted a contest in Delos and
therein was the first to award a palm to the victors.'

Again, the game of 'Troy2,' which the Etruscan potter repre-

Ergotimos, Attic work of c. 600—550 b.c., Theseus, lyre in hand, is leading the dance,
which consists of seven youths and seven maidens : they have just landed from their ship
(Furtwangler—Reichhold Gr. Vasenmalerei \. 60 f. pi. 13).

I have elsewhere (Transactions of the Third International Congress for the History oj
Religions Oxford 1908 ii. 186 f.) pointed out that this curious combination of bull and
crane recurs in the Celtic area. On an altar found at Paris in 1710, beneath the apse
of Notre-Dame, four sculptured panels show (a) Iupiter (iovis) with sceptre and eagle,
(b) Volcanus (volcanvs) with tongs, (^r) a bearded god (esvs) felling a willow-tree with
uplifted axe, (d) a great bull wearing a long saddle-cloth or dorsnale. On his head and
back are three cranes visible against the foliage of the willow. The inscription above is
tarvos • trigaranvs, ' the Bull with the Three Cranes ' (see A. Bertrand La Religion
des Gaulois Paris 1897 p. 351 f. fig. 50 and especially S. Reinach Cultes, Mythes et
Religions Paris 1905 i. 233 ff. figs. 1—4). On another altar found near Treves in 1895
the three sculptured faces show (a) Mercurius with caduceus, purse, etc. and his consort
(Rosmerta?) standing on either side of an altar. A small animal (goat? ram?) is be-

. . . „ , . . .... ndvs mediom •

tween the feet of Mercurius. Beneath runs the incomplete inscription

merc.vrio v • vs

(b) the lower portion of a small draped female figure, (c) a beardless (?) wood-cutter
cleaving or splitting a tree, probably meant for a willow. High up on the tree are
a bull's head to the left and three large birds with long beaks to the right (Bertrand
op. cit. p. 352 f. fig. 51, Reinach op. cit. i. 234 ff. figs. 5 f.). H. Steuding in Roscher Lex.
Myth. i. 1603 cp. the stout shepherd Garanus (Verrius Flaccus ap. Serv. in Verg. Aen.
8. 203) or Recaranus (Aur. Vict. orig. gent. Rom. 8, where Steuding ingeniously cj.
Trigaranus), who slew Cacus the thief of Geryones' oxen.

It may also be remarked that a Japanese crest has three storks or cranes grouped
together on the solar disk (N. Gordon Munro in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society
of fapan 1911 xxxviii. 3. 64 pi. 20, 22, cp. 21).

1 The form tcepardiv is found also in a Delian inscription (Dittenberger Syll. inscr, Gr?
no. 588, 172). Plout. terr. an aquat. anim. sint callidiora 35 regards the Keparipos
/3wlu6s of Delos as one of the seven wonders of the world (so anon, de incred. 2, Mart.
lib. spec. 1. 4) and states that it was made of right horns only, without glue or bonding
of any sort. Anon, de incred. 2 says that it was composed of the right horns of victims
offered to the god on a single day. Kallim. h. Ap. 61 ff. asserts that the four-year-old
Apollon built it with the horns of goats shot by Artemis on Mt Kynthos. It is also
mentioned by Ov. her. 21. 99. The existing remains are described by T. Homolle
* L'autel des cornes a Delos' in the Bull. Corr. Hell. 1884 viii. 417 ff. pis. 17 ff., Durm
Baukunst d. Gr.2 p. 230 figs. 152 f., L. Biirchner in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. iv. 2468.
They include a long narrow temple measuring 67*20 by 8'86 metres. This is divided
into three parts. First comes a irpovaos with four Doric columns. Then, an elongated
vads, the centre of which forms a sunk oblong space. This is separated from the third
and innermost portion of the edifice by two pairs of Doric half-columns forming three
intercolumniations : the middle opening has on either side of it a pilaster, the capital of
which is the forepart of a kneeling bull. Lastly, there is an inner va6s, oblong in shape,
where once stood the famous horn-altar. It is noteworthy also that a colonnade 125
metres in length, which runs along the northern side of the precinct, has its triglyphs
decorated with bulls' heads. Examples of the forepart of a bull used as an architectural
member are collected by A. H. Smith in the Brit. Mus. Cat. Sculpture ii. 263 f.

2 G. E. Marindin in Smith—Wayte—Marindin Diet. Ant. ii. 899 f. Cp. also Hesych.
s.v. Maiavdpos '.. .Kai eTSos liriracrias irapa lirirodaixdffTaLS.
 
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