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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#0584

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'Minoan' Bull-fights

in contact with the bull by methods resembling those of the
'Minoan' athletes. Of Kynaitha in Arkadia Pausanias writes :

'There is here a sanctuary of Dionysos, and in winter a festival is held, at
which men anoint themselves with oil, pick out a bull from a herd of cattle—
whichever bull the god puts it into their head to take,—lift it up and carry it to
the sanctuary. Such is their mode of sacrifice1.'

Again, near Nysa in Lydia was a village called Acharaka,
which had a grove and temple of Plouton and
Kore. Above the grove was Charon's Cave,
where cures were wrought by incubation etc.2
The god is represented on imperial copper
coins as Zeus Ploutodotes (fig. 365)3, ' Giver
of Wealth'4; and it will be observed that this
title, of which Plouton5 is but a shorter

Fig. 365.

fig. 9, Head Hist, num? p. 888. The obverse of this coin has a bearded male head,
which, according to Mliller, represents a personification of the people. Perhaps we may
conclude that Dionysos and his bull were vitally connected with the full-grown manhood
of the people as a whole.

Dionysos holds up a spirally twisted horn, probably meant for a cornu copiae, on a
black-figured pinax from Marathon (Ath. Mitth. 1882 vii. 400 pi. 3f, Farnell op. at. v. 245
pi. 35), with which cp. a black-figured kylix by Nikosthenes {Arch. Zeit. 1885 xliii.251 pi. 16,
1 f., Reinach R6p. Vases i. 462, 1 f.: Dionysos seated to right holding horn with dancing
Maenad and Silenos on either hand), a black-figured psykter at Deepdene (Dionysos
seated to right holding horn between two dancing Maenads), and another black-figured
vase formerly in the Hamilton collection (Tischbein Hamilton Vases v pi. 22, Reinach
Re'p. Vases ii. 340, 1): see further L. Stephani in the Compte-rendu St. Pet. 1867 p. 180 f.
Coins of Nysa in Lydia show a cornu copiae filled with corn-ears, poppy, and grape-
bunches : a child, seated on it, raises one of the bunches and is commonly regarded as
Dionysos (F. Imhoof-Blumer Lydische Sladtmiinzen Geneva and Leipzig 1897 p. 108f.,
Head Hist, num.1 p. 552; but in Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Lydia p. 179 pi. 20, 8
Dr B. V. Head identifies the child as Ploutos).

1 Paus. 8. 19. 2. P. Stengel Opferbrduche der Griechen Leipzig and Berlin 1910
p. 108 f. compares this lifting of the live bull en route for sacrifice with the exploit of
Biton (Paus. 2. 19. 5, supra p. 448) and the order of Menelaos (Eur. Hel. 1559 ff.), but
distinguishes it from the raising of oxen already struck that their blood might flow over
the altar etc. (atpeadcu tovs (3ovs) : the former was an exceptional, the latter a normal usage.

2 Strab. 649, cp. 579, Eustath. in Dionys. per. 1153. A. Bouche-Leclercq Histoire
de la divination dans Vantiquite" Paris 1880 ii. 373 n. 1 : ' Arundell et Pococke ont
retrouve le souvenir vague d'une grotte insondable et quelques vestiges de l'oracle pres
d'Akkeuy ou Akchay, nom dans lequel on reconnait encore celui d'Acharaca.'

3 Imhoof-Blumer Kleinas. Aliinzen i. 178 no. 2 pi. 6, 9 (Domitian), Brit. Mus. Cat.
Coins Lydia pp. lxxxiii, 175 pi. 20, [ (Nero), Head Hist, num? p. 654: TTAOVTO-
AOTHC NVCAEflN.

; 4 Other examples of the title are collected by O. Hofer in Roscher Lex. ]\Iyth. iii.
2567 f. Cp. also Men IIAoi/toSwttjs [Bull. Corr. Hell. 1899 xxiii. 389 pi. 1) and Apollon
ir\ovTodoT7jp {Anth. Pal. 9. 525. 17).

5 Cp. Loukian. Timou 216 IYKovtwv...are irXovroSorris /cat fxeya\6dtopos /cat avrbs wv
dr]\oL yovv /cat ry 6vbfj.ai.Ti, Orph. h. Plout. 18. 4 f. IIXoijtcijv... \ irXovToboT&v yeverjv ftporeTjv
Kapirols iviavTuv.
 
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