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

The Origin of Tragedy

673

A. Mommsen thinks that this note alludes to the Rural Dionysia1.
Dr Farnell is more disposed to interpret it of the Lenaia2. And
that is certainly right; for, not only was Clement throughout
describing the Lenaean celebrations, but the scholiast is actually
annotating the verb lena'isontas and in his very next sentence
mentions the Lenaia by name. Yet after all it matters little
whether the scholiast is speaking of the Rural Dionysia or of the
Lenaia; for. we have already observed that the latter was only the
Athenian variety of the former3. What does matter is that here,
and here only, we learn the contents of the Lenaean chant. It
dealt, as we might have surmised, with the rending of Dionysos.
And the whole context in Clement leads us to conclude that this
was the proper theme of Lenaean tragedy.

We are now in a position to review the facts and to estimate
probabilities. In Crete4 the ritual of Dionysos, the re-born Zeus,
included a yearly drama, at which the worshippers performed all
that the boy had done or suffered at his death. The Titans'
cannibal feast was represented by a bovine omophagy ; and those
who took part in this sacrament thereby renewed their own vitality.
For ipso facto they became one with their god, and he with them.
The true mystic was entheos in a twofold sense: he was in the god,
and the god was in him5. On the one hand, the celebrant was
not only a worshipper of Bacchos but also the Bacchos whom he
worshipped6. On the other hand, Dionysos was at once the god
of the mysteries and the 'Mystic' (Mystes)7, the bull eaten and
the 'Bull-eater' {Taurophdgosy. I submit that in early days the
Lenaia essentially resembled the Cretan rite, the only notable
difference being that here the god was embodied in a goat, not
a bull.

1 Mommsen Feste d. Stadt Athen pp. 356, 379 n. 1.

2 Farnell Cults of Gk. States v. 176. 3 Supra p. 666.

4 Supra p. 662 f.

5 "EvOeos—if we may judge from the analogy of other adjectives compounded with
ev—could bear either interpretation: cp. ZvaOXos, evaXos, ivd/uXXos, evdpi.0fj.os, k.t.X., as
against e'vai/nos, eva.Tp.os, gvoikos, e'vopxos, k.t.X.

6 Supra p. 648 ff.

7 Paus. 8. 54. 5 a sanctuary of Dionysos Mvot^s in the oak-clad district of Korytheis
near Tegea. Cp. J. G. Frazer ad loc. and C. Robert in the Jahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch.
Inst. 1888 iii. 90, 104.

8 Aristoph. ran. 357 /xr]5e Kparivov tov Tavpocpdyov yXcoTTTjs fiaKxcV eTeXeadr), schol.
ad loc. eiprjrai 5e irapa to 2o0o/cAeous 6K Tvpovs 11 Aiovvaov tov Tavpocpdyov " [frag. 607
Nauck2]...(oi 5e ^tl irepiepyoTepov oXov top Xoyov airodidoaai. jxr}Te KpaTLvov /3a/c\;ei'
eTeXeadrj, a ecrrt tov fj.oaxo(pdyov Aioviaov), Souid. s.v. Tavpo(pdyov, Phot. lex. s.v.
TOLvpocpdyov, et. mag. p. 747, 49 ff., Hesych. s.v. T<xvpo<pdyos.

See further Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 731 n. 3 and Frazer Golden Bough3: Spirits of
Corn and Wild ii. 22 f.

C.

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