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

Zeus, Dionysos, and the Goat 711

back to Crete and remind us that Dionysos himself was but a
rebirth of Zeus1. Ikarios' goat recalls the ancient custom of
dancing round a he-goat at Ikaria2; and the presence of the
Satyr suggests the aboriginal goat-dances of south Europe3.
Similarly the marriage4 and the enthronement3 of the young god
are reminiscent of half-forgotten sanctities. In short, the whole
frieze might serve as an epitome of the development that we
have been studying throughout the last seven sections.

We cannot here pursue Roman parallels. But a passing allu-
sion must be made to the cult of Vediovis, the youthful Iupiter*5.
Among the few things known for certain about this god is the
statement of Gellius7 that in his temple between the Arx and
the Capitolium the cult-statue held arrows and in consequence
was often dubbed Apollo; further, that the ritual involved the
sacrifice of a she-goat as if it were a human being8; and lastly,
that the effigy of this animal stood beside that of the god. All
this suggests comparison with Dionysos, e.g. with the Tenedian
Dionysos Anthroporrhaistes, to whom a calf dressed in buskins
was sacrificed, presumably in lieu of a human victim9. The
Dionysiac character of Vediovis seems to have struck the Romans
themselves, if we may argue from certain republican coins, which

1 Supra pp. 398 f., 647. 2 Supra pp. 678, 689 n. 1, 705. 3 Supra p. 703 ff.

4 Supra pp. 649 n. 7, 650, 686, 694 f. 5 Supra pp. 153, 398, 646 f., 650, 661.

6 Ov. fast. 3. 437 Iuppiter est iuvenis : iuvenalis aspice voltus, 445 ff. nunc vocor ad
nomen : vegrandia farra colonae | quae male creverunt, vescaque parva vocant; | vis ea
si verbi est, cur non ego Vediovis aedem | aedem non magni suspicer esse Iovis? Paul,
ex Fest. p. 379 Miiller, p. 519 Lindsay vescidi male curati et graciles homines, ve enim
syllabam rei parvae praeponebant, unde Vediovem parvum Iovem et vegrandem fabam
minutam dicebant.

7 Gell. 5. 12. 11 f. simulacrum igitur dei Vediovis, quod est in aede.de qua supra
(5. 12. 2) dixi, sagittas tenet, quae sunt videlicet partae ad nocenclum. quapropter eum
deum plerumque Apollinem esse dixerunt; immolaturque ritu humano capra, eiusque
animalis figmentum iuxta simulacrum stat. Cp. Ov. fast. 3. 438 ff. aspice deinde, manu
fulmina nulla tenet. | fulmina post ausos caelum adfectare Gigantes | sumpta Iovi. primo
tempore inermis erat (this is, I think, compatible with the supposition that the statue
really held a thunderbolt, which was mistaken for a mere bundle of arrows—harmless, of
course, without their bow)...stat quoque capra simul : Nymphae pavisse feruntur |
Cretides; infanti lac dedit ilia Iovi.

8 The expression ritu humano [supra n. 7) is thus understood by Frazer Golden
Bough2 ii. 168, ib? : Spirits of Corn and Wild i. 33—rightly, as I conceive.

9 Supra p. 659 f. Cp. also the case of Embaros, who, after promising to sacrifice his,
daughter to Artemis on condition that his family should become hereditary priests of the
goddess, concealed the maiden in the temple and sacrificed a she-goat dressed in her
garments instead (Pausanias the lexicographer ap. Eustath. in II. p. 331, 25 ff., Append,
prov. 2. 54, Souid. s.v. "Ejti/3a/)6s ei/xi : see further O. Hofer in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii.
3226 f., J. Escher-Burkli in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. v. 2482, and on the substitution
of goats for human victims Frazer Golden Bough3: The Dying God p. 166 n. 1, ib.'A :
Spirits of Corn and Wild i. 249).