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

522 Marriage of the Sun and Moon in Crete

Pasiphaa, whom some took to be a daughter of Atlas and mother
by Zeus of Ammon, while others identified her with Kasandra the
daughter of Priam who had died there and been called Pasiphaa,
' She that gives light to all,' because she gave to all her oracular
responses1. Plutarch adds that, according to Phylarchos2, Daphne
the daughter of Amyklas when fleeing from the embraces of Apollon
was changed into a laurel {daphne) and received the gift of prophecy:
it is implied, though not stated, that Pasiphaa was an epithet of the
illuminating Daphne. Pausanias still further complicates the case
by speaking of the oracle as that of Ino3. It seems clear that the
Laconian Pasiphaa was an ancient oracular goddess, whose nature
had been so far forgotten that it had become possible to identify
her with a variety of better-known mythological characters.
Fortunately for our understanding of the facts Pausanias, an
honest eye-witness, goes on to describe the sacred precinct:

' Two bronze statues stand there in the open air, one of them a statue of
Pasiphae4, the other of Helios : the statue in the temple itself could not be seen
clearly owing to its wreaths, but this too is said to be of bronze. There is also
a sacred spring of water that is sweet to drink. Pasiphae is not a local deity of
Thalamai but an epithet of Selene5.'

This is in all probability the truth of the matter. The statues of
Pasiphae and Helios were statues of the moon-goddess and the
sun-god6. When, therefore, in the Cretan myth, the ' bull of dazzling
whiteness7' approached Pasiphae in her cow, we are justified in
supposing a union between the sun and the moon.

Behind the myth, as is so often the case, we may detect a ritual
performance, in which the Cnossian queen actually placed within
a wooden cow was symbolically married to a bull representing the
sun-god8. We know, at least, that in the territory of the Cnossians,

1 By means of incubation (Plout. v. Cleom. 7, Cic de divin. 1. 96). See further
Tert. de anim. 46, Aristox. Tarent./raf. 76 {Frag. hist. Gr. ii. 288 Muller) ap. Apollon.
Dysk. hist. mir. 49.

2 Phylarch.yrag-. 33 [Frag. hist. Gr. i. 342 Muller), cp. Parthen. narr. am. 15 lemma.

3 Paus. 3. 26. 1, where for 'Ivovs Wolff de novissima oraculorum aetate p. 31 ff. would
read 'Ious.

4 The manuscript reading Ylacpi-qs.. .Iia<pLy] was corrected by Camerarius to ILao-Mpdrjs...
Ilaaupar]. Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 156 n. 6 defends the old reading on the ground that
Pasiphae of Thalamai was a lunar Aphrodite, cp. Lyd. de mens. 4. 64 p. 117, 12 f.
Wiinsch KaXeirai Se (7/ 'AcppodiTT]) woXKaxov /ecu Uao~L<pd7), 7/ irdaiv eircupLelcra rrju rjSovijv,
Aristot. mir. ausc. 133 Kvdrjpa TlacrMpaeaari k.t.X.

5 Paus. 3. 26. 1.

6 Cp. Maximus irepl Karapx&v 146 iraaLcf>aris...irav81a 2e\rjV7], Orph. h. Hel. 8. 14
( HXte) e&die, 7racrt0aes, Kocrfiov to rrepidpoiMov o/uLfia. See H. Usener Gbtternamen Bonn
1896 p. 57 f.

7 Supra p. 467.

8 This view, which I put forward in the Class. Rev. 1903 xvii. 412, was adopted in
1905 by Dr J. G. Frazer {Led. Hist. Kingship p. 175). In 1911, however, Dr Frazer