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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#0607

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526 Marriage of the Sun and Moon in Crete

Europe, then, was a Cretan earth-goddess responsible for the
vegetation of the year. Viewing her as such, we begin to under-
stand better both her monuments and her myth. Artists in-
numerable represented her (pi. xxxii)1 as she rode upon the divine
bull2, clinging with one hand to his fertilising horn and holding in
the other a flower, symbol of her own fertility. Theophrastos and
later writers averred3 that Zeus took her to wife on or under an
evergreen plane-tree near Gortyna4: the exceptional foliage of the
tree was attributed to the fecundity of the goddess.

out the resemblance of the rite to the Boeotian Daidala. He also notes the addition of
Kotyto, a Thracian Artemis (A. Rapp in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 1399 m whose cult
there is evidence of a May-pole (Nilsson loc. cit. n: 2).

The cult of Athena 'EXXwtLs at Marathon, mentioned, by the schol. Pind. 01. 13.
56 a, d, and et. mag. p. 332, 48 f., is attested by the calendar of the Attic Tetrapolis
(J. de Prott Leges Graecorum sacrae Lipsiae 1896 Fasti sacri p. 49 no. 26 b, 34 ff., 41 f.,
and p. 53).

1 Of many possible illustrations (listed by L. Stephani in the Compte-rendu St. Pet.
1866 p. 79 ff. Atlas pi. 3, 1870—1871 p. 181 ff. Atlas pi. 5, O. Jahn Die Entfiihrung der
Europa auf antiken Kunstiverken with 10 plates Wien 1870, Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth.
Zeus pp. 420—465 Miinztaf. 6, r—ir, Gemmentaf. 5, 6—8, Atlas pi. 6, 7—22, pi. 7,
4—6, 22 f., J. Escher-Biirkli in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. vi. 1296—1298) I figure but
one, the ~Emope-hylix at Munich (Jahn Vasensamml. Miinchen p. 63 no. 208). This
masterpiece, painted by an Attic artist c. 470 b.C., was found in 1811 a.d. still lying on a
stone table in the opisthodomos of the temple of Aphaia in Aigina. Here, as A. Furtwangler
remarks, it may have been used for pouring a libation when Pindar's ode to the goddess
(Paus. 2. 30. 3) was performed. O. Jahn published it in colour {Die Entfiihrung der
Europa p. 44 f. pi. 7, Overbeck op. cit. p. 428 ff. Atlas pi. 6, 19). Since his day the vase
has suffered some further damage: the bracelet on Europe's right arm has disappeared;
her golden flower is hardly to be traced; her right foot has gone; so have her golden

earring and the golden balls hanging from her hair; the inscription is reduced to I.

What is left has been carefully redrawn by K. Reichhold for A. Furtwangler {Aegina
Miinchen 7906 Text p. 498 f. fig. 406, F. Hauser in Gr. Vasenmalerei ii. 2836". pi. 114, 1).
I have had Jahn's colour-plate copied with the insertion of various details—the inner
markings of the bull, etc.—first brought to light by Furtwangler and Reichhold.

The bull is black for aesthetic rather than religious reasons, and I doubt whether any
mythological meaning attaches to the golden birds with which Europe's piplos is adorned.
The sea is simply omitted (contrast infra figs. 405, 414).

2 H. Prinz in the Ath. Mitth. 1910 xxv. 169 n. 2 hints that the key to the myth of
Europe is furnished by certain Hittite cylinders, on which we see e.g. {a) a nude goddess
holding a festoon as she stands on a recumbent bull with birds, hares, and a lion grouped
around and a worshipper kneeling on either side of her (W. H. Ward in the Am. Journ.
Arch. 1899 m- 27 nS* 34)' (^) a nude goddess holding a festoon as she stands on a
recumbent bull, the halter of which is in the hands of a god grasping a club and a crook
and treading upon mountain-tops (W. H. Ward Cylinders and other ancient seals in the
library of J. Pierpont Morgan New York 1909 pi. 31, 237). The latter design suggests
that the bull belonged to the god, not to the goddess.

3 Prof. R. C. Bosanquet tells me, on the authority of F. Halbherr, that a single
specimen of the evergreen plane is still growing in a village near Gortyna.

4 Theophr. hist. pi. 1. 9. 5 ejc Kp^r?? de Xeyerai irXaravbv riva eluai ev rrj ToprvvaiQ
irpbs Trriyrj tlvl, 7} ov <pvXXo[3oXei. /mvdo\oyov(tl de <bs eirl (sic codd., virb cj. Hemsterhuis)
raiTTj e/Miyr) rfj 'Evpwirr] 6 Zeiss' ras de irXyaiov Trdtras (pvXXo/3oXeiv.. .Xeyerai de Kai ev
 
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