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

Marriage of the Sim and Moon in Crete 527

Coins of Gortyna from c. 430 B.C. onwards show a goddess
seated in a tree, one of the most charmingly picturesque figures to
be found in the whole field of ancient numismatics. Most scholars
have concluded, and concluded rightly, that this can be none other
than Europe, the bride of Zeus1. She is, however, seated not

Kvirpcp irXdravos elvcu Toiavrrj, Varr. rer. rust, i. 7. 6 itaque Cretae ad Cortyniam dicitur
platanus esse, quae folia hieme non amittat, itemque in Cypro, ut Theophrastus ait, una,
Plin. nat. hist. 12. 11 est Gortynae in insula Creta iuxta fontem platanus una insignis
utriusque linguae monimentis, numquam folia dimittens, statimque ei Graeciae fabulositas
superfuit Iovem sub ea cum Europa concubuisse, ceu vero non alia eiusdem generis esset
in Cypro. This last passage is quite misconceived by J. Escher-Biirkli in Pauly—
Wissowa Real-Enc. vi. 1290: 'Auf Kypros endlich war die Vermahlung des Zeus mit
E. lokalisiert (Plin. n. h. XII 11), und fiihrte Zeus den Beinamen EI'A^ti (= 'EAAwnos ?
Hesych.).' As to Hesych. EtA^rt • Zeus ev KtfVpy, Favorin. lex. p. 574, 48 f. EiXrjTios
Zetis, ev Kvirpy, quot capita tot sententiae: see J. Alberti and M. Schmidt on the
Hesychian gloss, also O. Hoffmann Die griechischen Dialekte Gottingen 1891 i. 112.

Clem. Rom. horn. 5. 13 (ii. 184 Migne) Eupu>7r?7 ry Qolvikos Sid ravpov avvrfkdev (sc. 6
Zevs) stands alone. Whether it preserves an older form of the myth, or is due to the
analogy of the Pasiphae-story, can hardly be determined.

1 So e.g. W. Wroth in the Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Crete etc. pp. xxxiv, 37 ff.,
P. Gardner Types of Gk. Coins p. 165, G. Macdonald in the Hunter Cat. Coins ii. 184 ff.
(Europa?), Head Hist, num.'2 p. 466 f. Mr G. F. Hill A Handbook of Greek and Roman
Coins London 1899 p. 163 says cautiously 'the.Cretan goddess seated in her tree.'

The chief dissentient is Mr J. N. Svoronos, who in the Rev. Beige de Num. 1894
p. 113 ff. argues that the coins in question illustrate a myth preserved by Kallim. h. Artem.
189 ff. Britomartis, a Gortynian nymph in the train of Artemis, was loved by Minos,
and, being pursued by her lover, took refuge Xaaiyaiv inrb dpvaL. When after a nine
months' chase he was about to seize her, she plunged from a height into the sea; and,
being caught by the nets of the fishermen, was thenceforward called Diktyna, while the
height was named Mt Dikte. The latter part of this tale is aetiological and late.
Mr Svoronos thinks that the earlier version of it can be restored from the coin-types:
Minos, taking upon him the form of an eagle, wooed and won his oak-nymph in a Cretan
oak. This reconstruction is supported by two main'considerations. On the one hand,
Mr Svoronos regards Minos as a hypostasis of the Cretan Zeus, citing Echemenes frag. 1
(Frag. hist. Gr. iv. 403 Midler) ap. Athen. 601 E 'E^e/ieV^s yovv ev reus KpyriKois ov tov
Aia (pr/criv aptrdaai tov TavvpLySyv dXXd Mwa. On the other hand, Mr Svoronos believes
that the tree on the coins is an oak ; and here he is able to adduce the opinion not only
of numismatists such as Prof. P. Gardner (Types of Gk. Coins p. 166 'serrated leaves as
of oak') and Messrs F. Imhoof-Blumer and O. Keller (Tier- und Pflanzefibilder auf
Miinzen und Gemmen des klassischen Altertums Leipzig 1889 p. 63 'Der Baum sieht
mehr einer Eiche als einer Platane ahnlich'), but also of Mr Spyridion Miliarakis,
Professor of Botany at Athens, who states that 'les feuilles des arbres...qui sont les
mieux representees de toutes, ainsi que tout le reste, laissent reconnaitre facilement a
toute personne qui connait les arbres de la Grece, que ce n'est pas un platane, mais bien
un chene (fyOs).'

Mr Svoronos' view is attractive. In the Class. Rev. 1903 xvii. 404 f. I accepted it
and argued further in its support. But I now believe that I was mistaken : (a) It is more
likely that the coins of Gortyna would represent the famous union of Zeus with Europe,
which took place under a neighbouring plane-tree, than the comparatively obscure pursuit
of Britomartis by Minos, which—so far as our literary evidence goes—was connected
with places remote from Gortyna and was never consummated in a marriage-union at all.
(b) The supposed metamorphosis of Minos into an eagle is a matter of pure conjecture,