Universitätsbibliothek HeidelbergUniversitätsbibliothek Heidelberg
Metadaten

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

DOI Seite / Zitierlink: 
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14695#0741

DWork-Logo
Überblick
loading ...
Faksimile
0.5
1 cm
facsimile
Vollansicht
OCR-Volltext
Zeus and Human Omophagy 655

On the left advances a figure who is also bearded, and who expresses his
surprise at the sight of the central scene by the gesture of his left hand ; his
long wavy hair, wreathed with vine or ivy, and the thyrsos in his right hand
mark him at once as Dionysos. He wears a succinct talaric chiton decorated
with vertical stripes.

On the right a bearded personage, attired in the same way as the central
figure, runs away to the right, looking back, and extending" his left arm as if in
surprise. In his right hand he carries a long- staff. Part of this figure has been
broken away in the only damage which the vase has undergone, but fortunately
no important part seems to be wanting.

The dress which distinguishes the two right-hand figures is that which in
Greek art is invariably used to characterise the inhabitants of Thrace1.'

But how comes it that the Titans are represented as natives of
Thrace ? These are not the great divine figures of the Greek
Titanomachy, but ordinary human beings—Thracian chieftains or
the like. The fact is that the word Titan, as F. Solmsen in one of
his latest papers points out2, meant 'King' and nothing more. It

1 K. Dilthey in the Ann. d. Inst. 1867 xxxix. 179 n. 1 cited Hdt. 7. 75 Qprji'Kes 5e
eiri fxev rrjcri Ke<pa\rjo~i dXwrreKeas exovres earparevovTO, irepi 8e to o-cv/ulo, Kid&vas, eiri 8e
fetpds Trepi.j3e^\7]fX€v0l 7rot/dXas, Xen. an. 7. 4. 4 /cat Tore brfkov iye'vero ov eVe/ca ot 0/xt/ces
rets clXw7re/cas eiri rats /ce0aXats (popovat /cat ro?s wcrt, /cat xLT&vas ov j^bvov irepi tols arepvocs
dXXa /cat 7repi tols fxrjpois, /cat fetpds fxexPL tlov irob&v eiri t&v 'Lirirwv e'xoucrt/', dXX' ov
xXa/uLvdas.

2 F. Solmsen in the Indogermanische Forschungen 1912 xxx. 35 n. 1 med.\ 'Tit&p
ion. Tt7-->7J/...schliesst sich zusammen mit dem Namen des attischen Demos Ttra/ct'Sat, ftir
den Lange der ersten Silbe durch die Schreibung Tetra/ct'Sat I G. in 1121 iii 9 (neben
TtrTa/ct5??s 2039. 2040) erwiesen wird und den wir trotz des Widerspruchs der antiken
Etymologen von dem des attischen Autochthonen Ttra/cos Hdt. 9, 73 ableiten diirfen
(Topffer Att. Gen. 289 ff.). Eine Nebenform des letzteren, tit<x£, besser tlto.%, erklart
Hesych. durch ^vtc/jlos t) dwaar-qs- ot 5e [3acn\eijs; zu ihr steht ILtwv, wie ein 459/8
gefallener Athener 'Epexdrjidos I G. I 433 iii 53 heisst, in demselben Verhaltnis wie
2tXXwi/ zu 2t\Xa£ o. S. 8 Anm. 3. Mit der Glossierung von TtYa£ vergleicht sich aufs
nachste die von tltj\vo.l- (3acn\i5es, das von dem Lexikographen aus des Aischylos
"J^KTopos Aijrpa (Fgm. 272 Nek.2) angefuhrt wird. Aus all dem zusammengenommen
ergiebt sich ftir Tird? als die richtige Deutung die schon von Preller (Myth.4 1, 44 f.
Anm. 3) befiirwortete: es ist samt den anderen Nomina Weiterbildung von rtros (77-0X1;-
titos Epigramm bei Hdt. 5, 92) ' geehrt, gescheut,' dem Partizip zu rtw rt'cw ^rlaa
rerlfxeuos tT/xt] (zu ai. caydti ' scheut, ehrt' cdyus ' Ehrfurcht bezeugend' W. Schulze
Quaest. ep. 355). Der Name hat grade so allgemeinen, farblosen Sinn wie zahlreiche
andere Gotterbezeichnungen der ' mykenischen' Zeit (Beitr. z. griech. Wortf. 1. Teil
S. 81 f.).'

I was formerly {Class. Rev. 1903 xvii. 177) inclined to accept the conjecture of
M. Mayer Die Giganten und Titanen Berlin 1887 p. 81 ff. that Ttrdi' is a reduplicated
form of *Tdi>, 'Zeus' (Cretan Tara, Tavds, etc.). But the reduplication Tt- is insufficiently
supported by the alleged parallels (Ztcrvcpos, kikvs, 7rt0aucr/cw).

A. Dieterich in the Rhein. Mus. 1893 xlviii. 280 and Miss Harrison Proleg. Gk. Rel?
p. 493 f., Themis p. 15 have independently suggested that Orphic worshippers, about to
tear the sacred bull, daubed themselves with white clay (rtrdVos) and were therefore
known as *Ttrdi'ot, ' White-clay-men,' the name Tlrdves, ' Titans,' being due to mere
confusion on the part of Onomakritos (Paus. 8. 37. 5). It is indeed probable enough
that Orphic worshippers smeared themselves with gypsum. But—apart from the fact
 
Annotationen