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

The Origin of Tragedy

669

At Mykonos, then, in the first century B.C. the full Lenaean festival
included the worship of the following deities :

Lenaion 10—Demeter, Kore, Zeus Boulei'is.

Lenaion 11—Semele.

Lenaion 12—Dionysos Leneiis, Zeus Chthdnios^ Ge Chthonia.
J. von Prott1 points out that the deities of Lenaion 10 are the Ionian
triad Demeter, Kore, and Zeus Eubouleus'1, who correspond with
the Peloponnesian triad Demeter, Kore (Persephone), and Plouton
(Klymenos, Hades). He adds that at Athens the Lenaia was
preceded by a sacrifice to the same triad Demeter, Kore, and
Plouton3. It follows that the ritual of Lenaion 10 was a prelude
of the Lenaia, not the Lenaia itself. This occupied the last two
days, on which Semele, Dionysos Leneus, Zeus Cktkonios, and Ge
Chthonia are the deities recognised—a group of chthonian and
agricultural import. Yet here again we must distinguish the
Lenaia itself from its concomitants. Since Zeus ChtJwnios is named
after Dionysos Leneus, while Ge Chthonia duplicates the earth-
goddess Semele, we may conclude that Zeus and Ge were due
to a later amplification. The preliminary hymn for the crops was
balanced by a concluding sacrifice for the crops. Subtracting both
prelude and sequel, we have left as the original recipients of the
cult Semele and Dionysos Leneils. Provokingly little is told us
about their actual rites. The yearling eaten by the worshippers
recalls the omophagy of the Cretan cult4. And the black fleeces
were perhaps worn by them as by Pythagoras in the Idaean Cave5.
But beyond this we are reduced to conjecture6.

It is by no accident that the same Thraco-Phrygian pair, Semele
and Dionysos, figure in the Athenian Lenaia. The old scholiast
on Aristophanes states that

' at the Lenaean contests of Dionysos the daidoiichos holding a torch says

1 J. de Prott op. cit. p. i6f.

2 Inscr. Gr. ins. vii no. 76 (Arkesine in Amorgos, s. iv B.C.) Arj/jLrjrpi Kopyi j Ad

EujSonXet I Arj/jLodiKT) | "ZL/awvos dvedrjKev, 77 (Arkesine, s. iii B.C.) [.. p.7]......] 0.. | Arj/xrjrpc

Kal Kov\pT]L [/c]a[t Euj/SouXet, Collitz—Bechtel Gr. Dial.-Inschr. iii. 2. 590 f. no. 5441
(Paros, c. s. i B-.C.) = fnscr. Gr. ins. v. 1 no. 227 ^'EipaaiirirT] Qpaawvos "H<l>pr](i),
Arj/jLTjTpi Qe<Tfj.o<p6puH Kal KoJpTjt /cat Ad Eu/3ouXet /cat Bau/3ot, Inscr. Gr. Deli ii no. 287 A

69 (accounts of hieropoiot for 250 B.C.) 5s eyKtjp.wv els Ovcriau rrji Arj/jLTjrpi AP' /cat

ware rr\i Kop-rjL iepeiov AA"tfH~ ' «ai Ad Evj3ov\el lepeiou APK Bull. Corr. Hell. 1890

xiv. 505 n. 4 (accounts of Delian hieropoiot for 246 B.C., line 22) rrji Arjp.r]Tpi us eyKv'fxwv

A A' 8e\<f>aKiov Kadapbv A hi-hi-' aAXo 5eX0<x/cto/' tCol Ad tCol

3 Corp. inscr. Att. ii. 2. Add. no. 834 £ ii 46 (Eleusis, 329—328 B.C.) eirapxv A-qp.r\Tpi
/cat KopT? /cat UXot^rw^t P ■ e7rt<7Tarats 'E7rtX7?Vata et's At(W<rta dvcai AA.

4 Supra pp. 648, 650, 662 f., 66411. 1. 5 Supra p. 646.
6 Nilsson Gr. Feste p. 277 ff.