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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#0752

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Goat instead of Bull

by Skopas1. The variation, which implies that the worshippers
lived among neat-herds and goat-herds respectively, is of import-
ance, because it enables us to gain some insight into that vexed
question, the origin of Greek tragedy.

The two Athenian festivals prominently connected with tragedy
were the Lenaia in Gamelion (January to February) and the City
Dionysia in Elaphebolion (March to April). The one, being held
in winter when the sea was dangerous for voyagers, was a domestic
celebration, confined to the Athenians themselves. The other,
being held in spring when visitors from all parts of Greece came
crowding into Athens, was a much more splendid affair2. It is,
however, to the Lenaia rather than to the City Dionysia that wre
must look for the first beginnings of tragedy. For the former
was throughout of a more primitive character than the latter.
Dr Farnell3 justly lays stress on the fact that, whereas the City
Dionysia was under the control of the Archon, the Lenaia was
managed by the Basilei'ts. He also points out that the winter-month
corresponding with Gamelion in the calendar of all the other Ionic
states was Lenaion, and infers that the Lenaia was already a
conspicuous festival in the period preceding the Ionic migration.
Finally he observes that the Lenaia was virtually the Rural
Dionysia of Athens4; for the Lenaia is not known to have been
held in the demes or country-districts and en revanche the Rural
Dionysia was not held under that name at Athens.

The exact site of the Lenaion is still uncertain, and will be
settled only by future excavation5. But this we know, that the

mittemus immania {inania codd.) quibus nomen Omophagiis Graecum est, in quibus
furore mentito et sequestrata pectoris sanitate circumplicatis vos anguibus, atque ut vos
plenos dei numine ac maiestate doceatis, caprorum reclamantium viscera cruentatis oribus
dissipatis. See further F. Lenormant in the Gaz. Arch. 1879 v. 35 ff., F. A. Voigt in
Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 1037 ff., A. Rapp ib. ii. 2250 f., A. Legrand in Daremberg—
Saglio Diet. Ant. iii. 1485, Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 731 n. 3, Farnell Cults of Gk.
States v. 165 ff., 303.

1 Overbeck Schriftquellen p. 223 ff. no. 1162, G. Treu in the Melanges Perrot Paris
1902 pp. 317—324 with pi. 5 and figs. 1—6.

2 A. E. Haigh The Attic Theatre* Oxford 1898 p. 38.

3 Farnell Cults of Gk. States v.

4 This is the fact which {pace Prof. U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff in Hermes 1886
xxi. 615 n. 1) underlies the statements of Steph. Byz. s.v. Arjvaios dyicv Aiovvaov ev aypois
airb rrjs Xrjvov- 'ATroXXodwpos €v Tp'iTip XpoviK&v {Apollod.f'ag. 58 {Frag. hist. Gr. i. 437
Muller)), schol. Aristoph. Ach. 202 a£w <t&> /car' aypotis- ra Arjvaia \eyop.eva. 'ivdev
tcl Arjvaia /cat 6 eiriK-qvaios aywv reXeirai Aiovvo~ip. Arjvaiov yap eo~riv iv aypois iepbv
rod Aiovvaov, k.t.X., 503 to 8e bevrepov ev aypois, 6 iwl Arjvaicp \eyojuevos, k.t.X.: see
A. Frickenhaus in the Jahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch. Inst. 1912 xxvii. 82 f.

5 On this complicated problem read by all means the lucid accounts of W. Judeich
Topographie von A then Miinchen 1905 p. 263 n. 10 (who inclines to place the Lenaion
 
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