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

654 The Significance of the Bull

Agathokles uses of the sacrifice on Mount Dikte practically the
same expression as Pausanias uses of the human sacrifice on Mount
Lykaion1.

On Mount Lykaion the human victim was not only killed, but
in part eaten at a common feast2. Are we to suppose that in
Crete the same ghastly rule obtained ? And, if it did, what was its
purpose? Direct evidence is wanting. But, since the cult of Zeus
Idaios as early as the fifth century B.C. exhibited Orphic traits3, we
may venture to press the analogy of Orphism in Thrace4. A
red-figured hydria from Kameiros, now in the British Museum
(pi. xxxvi)5, shows Zagreus devoured by the Titans in the presence
of Dionysos. The vase is of Athenian fabric and dates probably
from the early part of the fourth century B.C. The grotesque style
(found also in the slightly earlier vases from the Theban Kabeirion6)
suggests that the artist has drawn his subject from Dionysiac drama.
Sir Cecil Smith describes the scene as follows7:

' We see a group of three principal figures. The central one is a bearded man
who faces the spectator, dressed in a short chiton girt at the waist ; over
this is a long cloak decorated with horizontal patterns, including a double band
of ivy or vine leaves, and fastened by two flaps knotted on the chest ; on his
head is a cap which hangs down the back and has a separate flap on each
shoulder. With his right hand he raises to his mouth—obviously with the
intention of eating—the limb of a dead boy which he has torn from the body
that he holds on his left arm. The dead child is quite naked, and its long hair
hangs down from the head which falls loosely backward ; the lifeless character
of the figure is well brought out, in spite of the general sketchiness of the
drawing.

reKvovfjievov drj\r]v avr<2 vireo~x.ev Ss, /cat tuj o~<peTepu) ypvapuS irepioLXvevca top nvvfydfAov
rod ftpecpeos aveira'Co~Tov, ijyovu ayvtoaTov, rots Tapiovcriv irLdei. k.t.X.

1 Cp. Paus. 8. 38. 7 (supra p. 70 ff.) 67rt toijtov tov (3cop.ov to? Au/cat'y Ad 66ovo~lj> iv
diropprjTq} with Agathokles loc. cit. [supra p. 653 n. 3) iiri ttjs ALk.tt)<s, iv fj /cat aTrbpprjTOS
yiveTcu Ovata.

2 Supra p. 70 ff. 3 Supra p. 647 f.

4 The same significance should perhaps be attached to the Cypriote cult of Zeus
Eilapinaste's, the ' Feaster,' and Splanchnotlmios, the ' Entrail-cutter' (Hegesandros of
Delphoi frag. 30 (Frag. hist. Gr. iv. 419 Miiller) ap. Athen. 174 A k&v Kvirpop 8e (p-qai
TLfxcicrdaL 'H-yrjaavdpos 6 Ae\<pbs Aia Wihainvao~t'f)v re /cat ljir\a'yxvOT°lJLOVi Eustath. in Od.
p. 1413, 24 /cat ev Ktirrpcp, Ata EtAaTrtpacrrTy /cat S7rXa7%^or6/aoj'). A. Bouche-Leclercq
Histoire de la divination dans Vantitpiite Paris 1879 l' 17° explained the title S7rXa7Xfo-
t6/xos of the diviner's art; but W. R. Halliday Greek Divination London 1913 p. 188 n. 1
rightly points out that Athenaios says nothing here about divination.

5 Brit. Mus. Cat. Vases iii. 188 no. E 246, Sir Cecil Smith in the [ourn. Hell. Stud.
1890 xi. 343—351 with two figs.

6 H. Winnefeld in the Ath. Mitth. 1888 xiii. 81, 412 ff., H. B. Walters in the /ourn.
Hell. Stud. 1892-3 xiii. 77 ff., id. History of Ancient Pottery London 1905 i. 52 f., 391 f.,
ii. 159 f., Class. Rev. 1895 ix. 372 ff., 1907 xxi. 169 f., cp. L. Couve in the Bull. Corr.
Hell. 1898 xxii. 289 ff.

7 Sir Cecil Smith loc. cit. p. 344.