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

534 Marriage of the Sun and Moon in Crete

Was the intention here to communicate the life of the dead to the
tree, or the life of the tree to the dead?

The oldest specimens of the Gortynian coins (figs. 391, 392) bear
the enigmatic legend Tzsyroi (SOIVMST) partly on, partly off the
tree. The word appears to be a dialect form of Tztyroi; and it has
been suggested that Tityros was the name of a Cretan township1.
But our evidence for such a town is of the flimsiest2. Besides, in
Greek numismatics the name of the issuing state is regularly ex-
pressed in the genitive, not the nominative, case3. I would therefore
submit that Tztyroi here, as elsewhere, denotes ' Satyrs4.' The earliest
mention of these woodland spirits makes them akin to the Kouretes5
—a point insisted on by Strabon6; and it is on record that the
Kouretes clashed their weapons round the tree in which the cradle
of Zeus was hung7. Not improbably, then, the Tztyroi or ' Satyrs '
danced round the tree in which Zeus met Europe. Indeed, I would
venture to explain the coin-legend by assuming that at Gortyna a
yearly festival known as the Tztyroi was held8, at which a Satyric

(xrjiJba %ee<T#cu ' | dXX' ev adeiprjTOMTL naTeiXvaavTe /Soetats | SevSpewv e^dirreiv e/cds dareos.
rjepi §' larjv \ /cat ~xfi^>v '^P-I^opev alcrav, ewel x&ovi rapxvovcnv \ OrjXvTepas ' rj yap re 8'lkt]
deap.olo TeTVKTai. On this see Nymphodoros frag. 17 {Frag. hist. Gr. ii. 380 Muller)
ap. schol. Ap. Rhod. 3. 202 rd tlov dpaevwv crdb/xara ov de/xis K6\%otj ovre KaLeiv oure
dcLTTTeLP • fivpaais 8e veapous eiXovvres eK.pep.wv tCjv dpahwv rd c/w/mTa, rd 8e drjXea rrj
777 edLdoaav, tUs (prjac Nu/a065wpos, d) rjKoXovdrjae SoKel odros 7}Ko\ovd7)k.evou cod. Paris.).
ceSovTCLL 8e fidXiara ovpavbv /cat 7771'.

1 Head Hist. nu7H.'2 p. 466.

2 Schol. Theokr. 3. 2 SvopLa Kvpiov 6 Tirvpos, rives [Se] cpaaiv, (lis to I^lX^vos 6
St/ceAtumis. dXXot 8e tovs rpdyovs ' eVepot tovs ^ardpovs' 'ivioi 6vop.a iroXews KprjTTjs '
aXXoi Se tovs irpoo-irbXovs tQv deGsv ' Tives 8e /cat KaXap^ov. ovk Zoti 8e aXXo 7} 8vop.a
aiirbXov tlvos. There was a Mt. Tityros near Kydonia (Strab. 479 tt)s p-evToi KucWtas
opos earl TLrvpos, ev (3 lepbv eariv, ov AiKralov, dXXd Aucrtivvaiov, Phrantzes chron. 1. 34
p. 102 Bekker rd Se oprj rd eyyvs avrrjs {sc. KvSojvLas) rd vxprjXd TLrvpos KaXovvrai).

3 Mr G. F. Hill A Handbook of Greek and Roman Coins London 1899 p. 181 puts
the matter thus: 'In addition to the use of the genitive and the adjective, there is a rare
use of the nominative case. Most of the names in the nominative found on pre-imperial
coins seem to be descriptive of types; but such an inscription as AOE O AEMOZ
('Kdrjvalwv 6 8yjp.os) is an undoubted instance of the use of the nominative in place of the
ordinary genitive.' He does not cite any example strictly parallel to Tiavpoi.

4 Prellwitz Etym. Worterb. d. Gr. Spr.2 p. 462 f., cp. I . Meyer Handb. d. gr. Etym.
ii. 746 f.

According to F. Solmsen in the Indogermanische Forschungen 1912 xxx. 31 ff.,
l^d-rvpoL and Tt'-rupot are genuine • Greek words from the root tv, 'to swell,' seen in
tvXos, rvp,{3os, rvpbs, ravpos, etc. The first element in lidrvpos reappears in addyj, adj3vTTos,
adpafios, etc. and may be an old word for phallos. TLrvpos shows intensive reduplication
(cp. TVtkos) with poetic lengthening.

5 ties. frag. 129 Flach ap. Strab. 471. See also Prokl. in Hes. o.d. 89.

6 Strab. 466. 7 Supra p. 529 n. 4.

8 Mr W. Wroth, with whom I once had the advantage of discussing these coins,
approved of my suggestion. For -the form of the festival-name cp. the Kicto-oto/xol at
Phlious (Nilsson Gr. Feste p. 39 f.) or such expressions as rpayipSois kclivois (Dem. de cor.