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

Marriage of the Sun and Moon in Crete 541

Hath a white mark round as the rounded moon :
Follow her guidance on thy trodden track.
Yea, and a token plain will I declare
Such as thou canst not miss. When first the horn
Of the ranging cow is lowered and her knee
Sinks on the grassy plain, then do thou straightway
Offer her with pure hand and heart to Earth
The dark-leaved and, thine offering complete,
Upon the hill-top build a broad-wayed town,
Sending the War-god's guardian fierce to Hades.
And famous among men shall be thy name,
Blest Kadmos, who hast won a deathless bride.

This cow, which was believed to have given its name to Boiotia1
and to the Boeotian mountain Thourion2, is connected by Prof, von
Baudissin with the Phoenician moon-goddess on account of its
moon-like marks3. The connexion is probable enough, and, if (as
I have suggested) the cow was Europe, my original contention that
Europe became a moon-goddess owing to Phoenician influence is
established.

Dr Frazer's other example of sun-and-moon marriage was that
of Minos with Britomartis or Diktynna4. But again
I must insist that neither Diktynna nor Britomartis
was originally lunar. Diktynna was a Cretan form
of the mountain-mother5, whose name probably
hangs together with that of Mount Dikte or
Dikton6. Coins of the province struck by Trajan

, Fig. 412-

represent her seated on her rocks between a couple

of Kouretes as nurse of the infant Zeus (fig. 412)7. Here, as

1 Supra p. 539, schol. Eur. Phoen. 638.

2 Flout, v. SulL 17 Qup yap 01 Qoiviices ttjv fiovv nakovcn. This is much nearer the
mark than the statement of schol. Eur. Phoen. 638 (^Kodofx-qcre ras Q-qfias' 6rj(3a yap
"ZvpLGTi XeyeraL 7? j3ous, cp. et. mag. p. 450, 41 f. A 'cow' is in Syriac torethd, Aramaic
tor, Hebrew sor, which point to an original Semitic form tauru : the word appears to
have been borrowed by the Semites from the Indo-European area, rather than vice versa
(Walde Lat. etym. Worterb. p. 616 f. : but see H. Moller Vergleichendes indogermanisch-
semitisches Worterbuch Gottingen 1911 p. 255 f.).

3 W. W. Baudissin Studien zur semilischen Religionsgeschichte Leipzig 1876 i. 273.

4 Supra p. 524.

5 Eur. /. T. 126 Alktvw'' ovpeia. Cult on Mt Tityros or Diktynnaion (Strab. 479
cited supra p. 534 n. 2, cp. Hdt. 3. 59, Ptol. 3. 15. 5 with C. Midler ad loc, Dionys.
per. 118 ff., Anth. Plan. 258. 1 ff., Philostr. v. Apoll. 8. 30 p. 342 Kayser, Plin. nat. hist.
4. 59, Mela 2. IT3, Solin. 11. 6, Mart. Cap. 659, Anon. Ravennas 5. 21 p. 398, 3
Pinder—Parthey).

6 See K. Wernicke in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. ii. 1371, O. Jessen ib. v. 587.
H. Usener Gotternamen Bonn 1896 p. 41 f. observes that AUrvvva is the feminine form
of Alktus, as Alktt] of *A'uctos. In Serv. in Verg. Aen. 3. 171 the eponymous nymph of
Mt Dikte is named Dicte; but the interp. Serv. ib. tells of her the tale that is elsewhere
told of Britomartis.

7 J. N. Svoronos Numismatique de la Crete ancienne Macon 1890 i pi. 33, 23 (my