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

686 Goat instead of Bull

' I am holy, pure, and clean from all impurities, especially from intercourse
with man; and I perform in Dionysos' honour the Theognia and the Iobakcheia
according to ancestral custom and at the times appointed1.'

The Theognia were presumably rites connected with the birth of
the god, very possibly the ceremonial of his conception2. The
Iobakcheia may have been some service associated with the Theognia
in Anthesterion, since at Astypalaia this month was called Iobak-
chios3, or else an equivalent of the Theognia in Elaphebolion, since
the Athenian Iobakchoi are known to have been active at the time
of the City Dionysia4. Here, however, a difficulty arises. Modern
scholars commonly assure us that on Anthesterion 12 the wife of
the Basileus was married to Dionysos5. If so, my notion that the
god was conceived on this day falls to the ground. But inspection
shows that, although the ritual marriage is a well-attested fact, no
ancient author early or late connects it with the Anthesteria at
all. When it took place, we do not know. Perhaps it synchronised
with the Lenaia6. In any case we are left with the curious problem
that the Anthesteria was a Dionysiac festival at which Dionysos
himself played no obvious part. The problem is solved, if I am

1 Dem. c. Neaer. 78 * Kyivrevw /cat d/xl Kadapa /cat dyv-q diro re tQv aWwv t&v ov
Kadapevovrwv /cat a7r' avdpbs crvvovcrias, /cat ra Qeoypia (so codd. S. F. Q. deoivta vulg.)
/cat ra 'Io/3d/c%eta yepaLpw (Dobree cj. yepapui) Tip Aipvvcrcp Kara ra irdrpLa /cat if rots
KadrjKovcn xpovoLS.

2 F. Blass (ed. 1891) prints the inferior reading deoivia, which has rightly been rejected
by A. Mommsen Heortologie Leipzig 1864 p. 359 n. 2 and by E. Petersen in the Rhein.
Mus. 1913 lxviii. 248. The Qeoivia was a name given to the demotic Dionysia as a
festival of Dionysos Qeoivos (Harpokr. s.z>. Qeoiviov). "If that reading were sound, we
should have an additional reason for linking the Anthesteria with the Rural Dionysia.

3 H. van Herwerden Lexicon Graecum suppletorium et dialecticum*1 Lugduni Bata-
vorum 1910 i. 707.

4 S. Wide in die Ath. Mitth. 1894 xix. 248 ff., especially p. 280.

5 E.g. F. A. Voigt in Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 1073, L. C. Purser in Smith—Wayte—
Marindin Diet. Ant. i. 639, J. Girard in Daremberg-—Saglio Diet. Ant. ii. 238, F. Hiller
von Gaertringen in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. i. 2373 f., Mommsen Feste d. Stadt Athen
p. 392 ff., Farnell Cults of Gk. States v. 217 f., A. Frickenhaus in the Jahrb. d. kais.
deutsch. arch. Lnst. 1912 xxvii. 69, G. Murray Four Stages of Greek Religion New York
1912 p. 31 f.

6 A. Frickenhaus loc. cit. p. 80 ff. has adduced strong reasons for thinking that the
epheboi elcrrjyayov.. .top Aiovvcrop airb rrjs e<rx^Pas ets T0 d^rpov «era 0wr6s [Corp. inscr.

- Att. ii. 1 no. 471, 12 f., cp. id. nos. 469, 14 f., 470, n f.) at the festival of the Lenaia.
It is possible that this torch-light procession stood in some relation to the marriage of
Dionysos.

Mr D. S. Robertson, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, kindly draws my
attention to the fact that Frazer Golden Bough3: The Magic Art ii. 137 has called
in question the date usually assigned to the marriage, and has even {ib. n. r) been
tempted to conjecture that it took- place in Gamelion. If so, it may well have happened
at the Lenaia. In any case Mommsen's attempt {Heortologie p. 357 ff., Feste d. Stadt
Athen p. 392 ff.) to connect it with Anthesterion 12 remains conjectural and un-
convincing.