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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#0708

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624 The Bull and the Sun in Syria

Empedokles downwards has been regarded as an earth-goddess1,
was said to delight in the lily2. Her head on silver coins of Elis
(c. 421—365 B.C.) wears a stephdne, which is decorated at first with
lilies3, later with a variety of floral patterns4. A story told of this
goddess in the Geoponika5 is here in point. Zeus, desiring to make
Herakles, his son by Alkmene, immortal, put the babe to the breast
of Hera as she lay asleep. When the babe was sated, the milk of
the goddess still flowing caused the Milky Way to cross the sky and,
dropping to earth, made the milk-white lily to spring up6.

The belief that the lily was somehow connected with Zeus
lingered on into post-classical times. Byzantine writers regarded

10. 269 ff.; but see Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 1185 n. 3 for variants), suggests that both
Bianna and Aphaia were borne off to become queen of an underground king.

1 For a critical review of the evidence see e.g. Farnell Cults of Gk. States i. 181 ff.,
Gruppe op. cit. p. 1125 n. 3, S. Eitrem in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. viii. 398 ff.

2 Clem. Al.paed. 2. 8. 72. 4 p. 201, 24 Stahlin KpLvto be rfdecrdat. T7)v"Hpav (paaLv.

3 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Peloponnesus p. 64f. pi. 12, 11, 12, 14, 16, Hunter Cat.
Coins ii. 135 no. 4, P. Gardner Types of Gk. Coins p. 137 f. pi. 8, 15, Bnnbury Sale
Catalogue 1896 i. 133 no. 1090 pi. 7, CHagau Sale Catalogue 1908 p. 48 no. 459 pi. 8,
Benson Sale Catalogue 1909 p. 79 no. 569 pi. 18, Head Hist, num.'2 p. 422 fig. 231,
G. F. Hill Historical Greek Corns London 1906 p. 52 ff. pi. 3, 28.

4 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Peloponnesus pp. 65^, 68 ff. pi. 12, 13, 15, pi. 13, 13,
pi. 14, 1—3, 13, P. Gardner Types of Gk. Coins p. 159 pi. 8, 39, Head Hist, num.2 p. 423.

The coins of Elis mentioned in notes 3 and 4 must be studied in connexion with the
simultaneous issues of Argos, on which the head of Hera was probably inspired by the
famous master-piece of Polykleitos (see Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Hera pp. 41 ff., 101 ff.
Miinztaf. 2, 6 ff. and 14 ff., id. Gr. Tlastik4 i. 509 ff., P. Gardner in the Num. Chron.
1879 xix. 238 ff., id. Types of Gk. Coins pp. 137 f., 159 pi. 8, 13—15, 39 f., Farnell Cults
of Gk. States i. 213 ff., 232 ff. coin-pl. a, 17 and 18, A. Lambropoulos in the Zeitschr.f.
Num. 1895 xix. 224 ff., Sir C. Waldstein in the Journ. Hell. Stud. 1901 xxi. 30—44 with
figs. 1—3 and pis. 2 f.). In the Class. Rev. 1903 xvii. 409 f. I conjectured that the plant
aarepcwv, which grew on the banks of the river Asterion near the Argive Heraion and
was offered to Hera, its leaves being twined into wreaths for her (Paus. 2. 17. 2), was a
species of lily. This, however, is very doubtful. A. Frickenhaus in Tiryns i. 121—125
argues well in support of the view that the aarepiuv was, like the darepiov of Krateuas,
' eine violette Nelke': he might have strengthened his case yet further, had he noticed
that hemiobols of Argos struck before 421 b.c. exhibit as their obverse type a star-shaped
flower (Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Peloponnesus p. 138 pi. 27, 8, Anson Num. Gr. ii. 71
no. 766 pi. 14, iii. 134 no. 1405).

5 Geopon. 11. 19. Cp. pseudo-Eratosth. catast. 44, Lyk. Al. 1327^ with Tzetz. ad
loc, Paus. 9. 25. 2, Diod. 4. 9. See also the painting by Jacopo Robusti il Tintoretto
(1 518—1594 a.d.) now in the National Gallery (no. 1313 : S. Reinach Rep. Peintures

11. 730, 2), and that by Peter Paul Rubens designed in 1637 for the Torre de la Parada
at Madrid (E. Dillon Rubens London 1909 pp. 178, 198 pi. 432) and now in the Prado.
On the folk-lore of the Milky Way see further Mdusine 1884-85 ii. 151 ff. 'La Voie
Lactee,' P. Sebillot Le Folkdore de France Paris 1904 i. 34 f.

6 The Corinthians called the lily a^fipoaia (Nik. linguae ap. Athen. 681 b, cp. Nik.
georg. frag. 2, 28 ap. Athen. 683 d) ; and this flower grew from the head of a statue of
Alexander the Great in Kos (Nik. ap. Athen. 684 e)—doubtless an allusion to his
apotheosis (Farnell Cults of Gk. States i. 128 n. b, Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 1123 n. 3,
Class. Rev. 1906 xx. 377).
 
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