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

Zeus and Bovine Omophagy 663

Euhemerism apart, we note three points in Firmicus' account
of the Cretan ritual1. It was dramatic; it was sacramental; and
it was, to his thinking at least, self-contradictory. It was dramatic ;
for every year one might see the Cretans ' performing in order
due all that the boy had done or suffered at his death.' It was
sacramental; for they tore the live bull with their teeth in memory
of the Titans feasting upon his flesh. And it was self-contradictory ;
for the boy, though dead and buried, was yet living and a god to
boot. The closing sentence of Firmicus recalls the panegyric of
Zeus attributed to Minos :

' A grave have fashioned for thee, O holy and high One, the lying Kretans, who
are all the time liars, evil beasts, idle bellies ; but thou diest not, for to eternity
thou livest, and standest ; for in thee we live and move, and have our being2.'

1 Firm. Mat. 6. 5 Cretenses, ut furentis tyranni saevitiam mitigarent, festos funeris
dies statuunt et annuum sacrum trieterica consecratione componunt, omnia per ordinem
facientes quae puer moriens aut fecit aut passus est. vivum laniant dentibus taurum,
crudeles epulas annuis commemorationibus excitantes, et per secreta silvarum clamoribus
dissonis eiulantes fingunt animi furentis insaniam, ut illud facinus non per fraud em factum
sed per insaniam crederetur: praefertur cista, in qua cor soror latenter absconderat,
tibiarum cantu et cymbalorum tinnitu crepundia quibus puer deceptus fuerat mentiuntur.
sic in honorem tyranni a serviente plebe deus factus est qui habere non potuit sepulturam.

2 Supra p. 157 n. 3. In the Expositor 1912 pp. 348—353 Dr J. Rendel Harris pub-
lishes a fuller version of the Theodorean matter, which he had previously cited from the
Gannat Busame. The new extract is found in the commentary of Isho'dad, the Nestorian
church-father, upon the Acts of the Apostles and is rendered: '" The Interpreter {i.e.
Theodore of Mopsuestia] says that the Athenians were once upon a time at war with
their enemies, and the Athenians retreated from them in defeat; then a certain Daimon
appeared and said unto them, I have never been honoured by you as I ought; and be-
cause I am angry with you, therefore you have a defeat from your enemies. Then the
Athenians were afraid, and raised up to him the well-known altar; and because they
dreaded lest this very thing should have happened to them, that they had secretly neg-
lected one who was unknown to them, they erected this altar and also wrote upon it,
Of the Unknown and Hidden God: wishing, in fact, to say this, that though there is a
God in whom we do not believe, we raise this altar to His honour that He may be recon-
ciled to us, although He is not honoured as a known deity: therefore Paul did well to
take a reason from this and to say before them, This hidden God, to whom ye have raised
an altar without knowing Him, I have come to declare unto you. There is no God whom
ye know not, except the true God, who hath appointed the times by His command, and
hath put bounds, etc." {He hath determined the times, that is to say, the variations of
summer and winter, spring and autumn.]

11 In Him we live and move and have our being: and, as certain also of your own sages have
said, We are his offspring.'''' Paul takes both of these quotations from certain heathen poets.

Now about this passage, " In Hun we live and move and have our being'''': the
Cretans said about Zeus, as if it were true, that he was a prince, and was lacerated by a
wild boar, and was buried; and behold ! his grave is known amongst us ; so Minos, the
son of Zeus, made a panegyric over his father, and in it he said:

The Cretans have fashioned a tomb for thee, O Holy and Pligh !
Liars, evil beasts, idle bellies;

For thou diest not; for ever thou livest and standest;
For in thee we live and move and have our being.