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

650 The Significance of the Bull

of thunder, the banquet of raw flesh, and the roaming with torches
over the mountain-side. It seems probable that the purpose of
all these ritual actions was to identify the worshippers as far as
possible with Zagreus, and so to bring them into the most intimate
relation to the goddess. If Zagreus sat on the throne of Zeus
grasping the thunderbolt, the mystics could at least produce mock
thunder1 by beating drums made from the hide of the sacred bull2:
on the shield from the Idaean Cave we see them doing it. If he
was slain in the form of a bull, they could devour a bull's flesh
raw and thereby assimilate the very life-blood of the god. If he
consorted by night with his mother, the mountain-goddess, they
too full-charged with his sanctity might go in quest of her their
mother3 and fructify her by their torches4. Thenceforward as

essential element, of the performance, viz. that the initiate by identifying himself with
the god re-born became the male consort of the goddess. The great mother-goddess,
let us say, was responsible for the fertility of all living things. To keep up her powers,
she must needs be impregnated by an unending succession of youthful lovers. Hence
the young men of the community, in whom Miss Harrison has rightly recognised the
true Kouretes {supra p. 23 n. 6), on entering upon manhood pose as the divine consorts
of the mother-goddess. The mystics of Zeus Idaios in Crete thus fall into line with
the mystics of Zeus Sabdzios in Phrygia [supra p. 395 f.). And this may be ultimately the
meaning of the phrase daXd/xevfj-a Kovprjrwv used by Euripides {infra n. 2), of the formula
virb tov iravTov vweSvv in the mysteries of Deo (Clem. Al. protr. 2. 15. 3 p. 13, 13 Stahlin
= Euseb. praep. ev. 2. 3. 18 cited stipra p. 392 n. 5, cp. schol. Plat. Gorg. 497 c) and of the
verse AeairoLvas de V7rb koXttou £8vv x^ovlas pacnXelas on an Orphic gold tablet found near
Naples {Inscr. Gr. Sic. It. no. 641 i, 7, G. Murray in Miss Harrison's Proleg. Gk. Bel.2
p. 667 ff.).

1 Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 820 n. 5, cp. ib. p. 819 n. 4, conjectured that the
Kouretes clashing their weapons were the mythical counterpart of earthly priests imi-
tating a storm by way of rain-magic. Miss Harrison Themis p. 61 f. thinks that the
mimic thunder was produced by means of a po/xfios or 'bull-roarer,' which we know to
have been among the toys of Zagreus {Orph. frag. 196 Abel = Clem. Al. protr. 2. 17. 2
p. 14, 12 Stahlin with schol. ad loc. p. 302, 28 ff. Stahlin, Arnob. adv. nat. 5. 19). Btit
the ' bull-roarer' is to my ear-—and I have heard Mr Cornford swing it in the darkness
with great effect—suggestive of a rising storm-wind rather than of rumbling thunder;
cp. Frazer Golden Bough3: The Magic Art i. 324 'In some islands of Torres Straits
the wizard made wind by whirling a bull-roarer.' A passage quoted by Miss Harrison
herself from Aisch. Edoni frag. 57, 8 ff. Nauck2 (rites of Kotys or Kotyto) ravpocpdoyyoc
5' virojxvKG)VTai | irodev 4% acpavovs (pofiepol [U[xol, \ tvttclvov 5' eliabv uad' viroyaiov | (3poj>T7js
(p^perai (SapvTap(3r]s strongly supports the view advanced in the text—that the sound of
thunder was made by beating drums of bull's hide.

2 Cp. the preceding note and Eur. Bacch. 120 ff. cJ OaKd/xevpia Kovprj\rwv £adeol re
Kprjras \ Acoyev^ropes ZvavhoL, \ evda rpiKopvdes avrpoLS \ fivpaorovov KVKhwfxa | rode /xoi
Koptifiavres rjvpov • | /c.r.X., Eustath. in II. p. 771, 54 ff., Hesych. and Zonar. lex. s.v.

fivpGCLTOVOS.

3 On the Kouretes as sons of Rhea see O. Immisch in Roscher lex. Myth. ii. 1597 f.,
where variants are cited.

4 Frazer Golden Bough11 iii. 240 ff., 313 f., Golden Bough'6: Spirits of Corn and Wild
i. 57 n. 2, shows that torches were carried about the fields with the intention of fertilising
them, and Golden Bozigh2,: The Magic Art ii. 195 ff., 230 ff. collects examples of the