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

684 Goat instead of Bull

Anthesteria, a birth at the Rural Dionysia. Thoukydides speaks
of the Anthesteria as ' the older Dionysia1,' presumably in com-
parison with 'the Dionysia2,' i.e. the City Dionysia, in the following
month. The ritual of the Anthesteria with its Pithoigia, its Clides,
and its Chytroi is fairly well known. It culminated on Anthes-
terion 123, the one day in the year on which 'the oldest and holiest
sanctuary of Dionysos in the Marshes' was thrown open4. For
what purpose this temple was opened, while all others were re-
ligiously kept shut5, we are not told. But we have at least materials
for forming a reasonable guess. Beside the altar in the sanctuary
stood a marble stele, on which was inscribed a law relating to the
status and chastity of the Basz'linna6, i.e. the wife of the Basileiis
who had presided over the drinking-competition of the Clioes7.
Now it was the duty of the Bastlinna to administer an oath of
ritual purity to fourteen sacred women chosen by the Basileiis and
named Gerairaz8, who took it standing at the above-mentioned
altar and laying their hands upon certain baskets before they
ventured to touch ' the holy things9.' In view of the ascertained
character of Dionysos Eleuthereils™ I should conjecture with some
confidence that these baskets contained phalloz covered with seed
or the like, and that the temple was opened once a year for the
performance of a phallic rite11. This conjecture is in general agree-
ment with the wording of the oath taken by the Gerairaz:

I Thouk. 2. 15. 2 Thouk. 5. 23, cp. 5. 20.

3 This is the day mentioned by Thouk. 2. 15 as a Dionysiac festival common to the
Athenians and their Ionian descendants.

4 Dem. c. Neaer. 76. The temple in question was probably identical with the small
pre-Persic building beside the theatre; for this is expressly described by Paus. 1. 20. 3
as ' the oldest sanctuary of Dionysos,' and its situation immediately south of the Akro-
polis accords well with the account given by Thouk. 2. 15 of the temple in the Marshes.
It seems to have contained the ancient wooden image of the god, brought to Athens from
Eleutherai (Paus. 1. 38. 8) by Pegasos (Paus. 1. 2. 5).

5 So Mommsen Feste d. Stadt Athen p. 391 and Farnell Cults of Gk. States v. 216 f.
relying on Phanodemos frag. 13 {Frag. hist. Gr. i. 368 Midler) ap. Athen. 437 B—D.

6 Dem. c. Areaer. 75 f. 7 Aristoph. Ach. 1224^ with schol. ad loc.

8 The evidence is collected by P. Stengel in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. vii. 1232 f.

9 Dem. c. Neaer. 73 and 78 f. A. Frickenhaus Lenaenvasen (IVinckelmannsfest-
Progr. Berlin lxxii) Berlin 1912 p. 25 n. 17 understands airrtcrdai r&v iep&v of .the cista
mystica (cp. id. in the Ath. Mitth. 1908 xxxiii. 29 f. and 173). E. Petersen in the Rhein.
Mus. 1913 lxviii. 241 argues that the reference is, not to ' Kultgegenstande,' but to
' Kulthandlungen.' 10 Supra p. 682.

II A red-figured pelike in the British Museum (fig. 510), belonging to a late stage of
the fine period (c. 440—400 B.C.), is thus described in the Brit. Mus. Cat. Vases iii. 387
no. E 819: i{a) A girl, with long sleeved chiton, himation knotted around her waist, and
hair looped up with fillet, leans forward to r., holding in her 1. a rectangular box; with
her r. she sprinkles with seed (?) four objects in the form of phalli set upright in the
ground, around which are leaves (?) springing up. Above her on 1. hangs a sash, on r. a
looped fillet.... {b) An ephebos in himation and fillet moving to r. with arm extended, as if