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

Goat instead of Bull

The connexion of Dionysos with the goat has recently been
questioned by Prof. Ridgeway1. But he ignores the express
statement of Hesychios that in Lakonike Dionysos was worshipped
as Eriphos, the 'Kid2,' and the definite mention by Apollodoros of
a cult of Dionysos Eriphios, the ' Kid-god,' at Metapontum3. It is
the existence of these cults that gives significance to certain myths
recorded by Apollodoros and by Ovid. Apollodoros relates that
Zeus gave the new-born Dionysos to Hermes, who carried the babe
to Ino and Athamas, that they might rear it as a girl. Hera in anger
sent madness upon them. Athamas hunted his elder son Learchos
like a stag and slew him. Ino cast the younger son Melikertes
into a caldron that was on the fire, and then taking the dead
boy sprang into the sea. She is now worshipped by sea-farers
as Leukothea, and he as Palaimon. Finally, Zeus transformed
Dionysos into a kid (eriphos) and so saved him from the wrath of
Hera4. Prof. Ridgeway makes light of the tale as coming from a
late writer. But it is never safe to pooh-pooh the evidence of
Apollodoros. And this tale in particular, though not written down
till the second century B.C., obviously contains ritual elements of
extreme antiquity. We have already noted that in the service of
Dionysos a man was literally disguised as a stag, slain and eaten5.
We have also remarked that in the cult of Dionysos' nurse6, this

1 W. Ridgeway The Origin of Tragedy Cambridge 1910 p. 79 ff.

2 Hesych. s.v. ^ipa<pabrT]S' 6 Aiovvaos, irapa rb eppa<pdca iv rf /^VPV T°v Aios. /ecu
"E/h0os, irapa AaKajaiv, id. s.v. "Ept0os ('Ejot'c/uos cj. Faber) • 6 Alovvgos.

3 Steph. Byz. s.v. 'A/cpwpeia, anpov opovs. kv $ ol oiKovvres 'AKpwpeiraL. ovtoj 8e
irapa HjLkvoov'lols ert^aaro <6 Aibvvaos>. etcaXetTo 5£ irapa fiev 'ZiLkvuvlols ''A/cpwpeiV^s,
irapa 5e MerairouTivoLS 'Ept'0tos. 'AiroXXodwpos cpricnv. The insertion of 6 Alovvuos is
rendered practically certain by Paus. 2. 7. 5 : J. G. Frazer ad loc. points out that the
temple of Dionysos at Sikyon stood on the plateau, which was the akropolis of the old,
and the site of the new, city. Not improbably kids were killed in the cult of the
Sicyonian Dionysos; for a copper coin of the town, struck by Iulia Domna, shows a
raving Bacchant with a knife in her right hand and a kid (?) in her left (Brit. Mus. Cat.
Coins Peloponnesus p. 55 pi. 9, 19, Imhoof-Blumer and P. Gardner Num. Comm.
Paus. i. 29 pi. H, 6 and 7).

4 Apollod. 3. 4. 3, schol. Pind. Isthm. argum. 1 and 3, Tzetz. in Lyk. Al. 229. Cp.
throughout Nonn. Dion. 10. 45 ff., where however (as in schol. Pind. Isthm. argum. 4)
Athamas drops Melikertes into the caldron of boiling water and Ino pulls him out
half-boiled.

5 Supra p. 67 n. 3.

6 At Brasiai in the territory of the Eleutherolakones Ino nursed Dionysos in a cave
(Paus. 3. 24. 4, cp. Douris frag. 3 (Frag. hist. Gr. ii. 470 Muller) ap. Tzetz. in Lyk. Al.
104). In a pentameter of Kallimachos (?) cited by the el. mag. p. 372, 4 f. the nurse .of
Dionysos is '~Epi(pr} (cp. Nonn. Dion. 21. 81 and Arkad. de accent, p. 115, 18 Barker):
on the authorship of the line see O. Schneider Callimachea Lipsiae 1873 ii. 722. Lastly,
Nonn. Dion. 10. 1 ff. makes Athamas in his madness bind and flog a she-goat, which he
takes to be Ino.