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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#0767

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Attic Festivals of Dionysos 681

been content to speak, as the Greeks spoke, of Dionysos with no
new-fangled appellative, and had he cited the Lenaia rather than
the dithyramb as providing the germ or ritual outline of tragedy,
I should have found myself in complete accordance with his view.

This expression of partial dissent from the opinion of so high
an authority as Prof. Murray makes it necessary for me to add a
word as to the relation that I conceive to have subsisted between
the dithyramb and the Lenaean rite. The dithyrambic contest
was essentially the opening ceremony of the City Dionysia1, which
began on Elaphebolion 9 and in the fifth century was over by
Elaphebolion 142. Now the Lenaia began on Gamelion 123. The
interval between the City Dionysia and the Lenaia was therefore
just ten lunar months. My suggestion is that Dionysos was con-
ceived at the City Dionysia and born at the Lenaia. The former
festival was the Lady Day, the latter was the Christmas, of the
Attic year. I take it that the dithyramb was properly the song
commemorating the union of Zeus4 with Semele and the begetting

1 J. Girard in Daremberg—Saglio Diet. Ant. ii. 243, O. Kern in Pauly—Wissowa
Real-Enc. v. 1024 and O. Crusius ib. v. 1207.

2 Mommsen Feste d. Stadt Athen p. 430 ff.

3 Id. ib. p. 375.

4 AiOvpa^os has a suffix found in other words denoting dance and song—tafxfios,
6 pianos, cp. Wvfifios. Boisacq Diet. itym. de la Langue Gr. p. 363 f. regards tap-ftos as
probably a Thraco-Phrygian word. I would support his contention by pointing out that
Iambe was a Thracian (Nik. alex. 132 QpTjtacr^s...'Jd/x^rjs with scholl. ad loe. Qpacraa 8e
to yevos and tt)s QpaKiKrjs 'Id/m/Hqs, cp. Proklos in R. Westphal Metrici scriptores Graeei
Lipsiae 1866 i. 242) and that didvpa/ifios, dpia^os, Wvufios are all Dionysiac terms, the
first two being cult-titles of Dionysos himself (Athen. 30 B, 465 A, Diod. 4. 5, et. mag.
p. 274, 45 ff., schol. Ap. Rhod. 4. 1131, alib.), the last the name of a dance used in his
service (Poll. 4. 104).

The first element in the compound is At- for Att- as in Aic<pi\os> At'0t\os, Att7roAteta
>At7roAteta, Att7r6Aeta > At7r6Aeta, Att7r6\ta> AnroXia, Attcam^otci > Attrwr?7/3ta.

The second element in the compound and the crux for its interpreters is the syllable
-dvp-, which cannot be satisfactorily connected with dupa. I have suggested (in Miss
Harrison's Themis Cambridge 1912 p. 204) that -dvp- is a northern form of -dop- (on
o becoming v see O. Hoffmann Die Makedonen, Hire Sprache und ihr Volkstwn Gdttingen
1906 p. 242, K. Brugmann Griechische Grammcttik* Miinchen 1913 p. 36), and have
compai-ed Hesych. Aenrdrvpos • debs irapa 2ruia0atots—a name which not only illustrates
both the phonetic changes postulated by my explanation of 5i0vpapij3os, but also provides
a parallel for the meaning that I would attach to it. If on the confines of Makedonia,
Epeiros, and Thessaly AetTrarvpos denoted ' Zeus the Father,' it is allowable to suppose
that in the same region *Aeldvpos denoted ' Zeus the Begetter' (dopos, dopr], dbpvvixai,
OpuxTKw, etc.). Thus didvpa/mfios could mean what in substance I believe it to have been
'the song of Zeus the Begetter.' In favour of this etymology is the fact that Apollon,
who often has the same cult-titles as Zeus, was worshipped in Boiotia (?) as Qopaios
(Lyk. Al. 352 with Tzetz. ad loe. Qopalov rbv airepp-oybvov /cat yepvTjTLKov) and in
Lakonike as Qopdrrjs (Hesych. Qopdrrfs' 'AttoWuv irapa AaKiocriv). Again, Aisch. supfil.
301 does not hesitate to describe Zeus as consorting with Io Trpeirovra fiovdbpq raijpcp
8e/xas. And in the Dictaean hymn six times over comes the impressive cry of the Chorus
 
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