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

Animals sacrificed to Zeus 717

the victims slain for him were, as a rule, either rams1 or more
often oxen2. We are not here concerned to detail the sacrificial
rites, but merely to ask why these beasts rather than others3 were
chosen for the sacrifice. It is^of course easy to reply that rams
and oxen were the costliest victims that a pastoral or cattle-
breeding people could offer. ' No doubt that was a consideration
which, at least in classical times, partly determined the choice4.
Nevertheless our prolonged investigation into the ram-cults and
bull-cults of antiquity has led us to conclude that the ultimate
reason why both ram and bull were associated with sky-gods in
general and with Zeus in particular lay in the fact that these
animals possessed to an exceptional degree Zeugungskraft or
fertilising force5. It would therefore probably be truer to say
that bulls and rams were sacrificed to Zeus because, according
to the belief of early days, the gift of so much virility increased
his power to fertilise and bless. If so, it would appear that the

1 Supra pp. 39, 348, 407 ff., 416 f., 420 ff., 422 ff., Aristoph. av. 568.

2 II. 2. 402 ff., 7. 314 ff., 8. 236 ff., 11. 772 ff., 15. 372 ff., 22. 170 ff., Od. 13. 24 ff.,
22. 334 ff., Hes. theog. 535 ff-, Dem. in Mid. 53, Cougny Anth. Pal. Append. 6. 214.
12 ff., alib. Cp. the Atos (3ovs at Miletos (infra ch. ii § 9 ('h) i), the oxen sacrificed to
Zeus Polieus and to Zeus Machaneus in Kos (ib.), the j3ov<p6vi.a at Athens (infra ch. ii
§ 9 (h) ii), and the epithet of Zeus Hekatombaios (supra p. 545 n. 2).

Both a bull and a ram figured in the rites of Zeus Sosipolis at Magnesia on the
Maiandros (O. Kern Inschriften von Magnesia a/n Maander Berlin 1900 p. 82 no. 98, id.
in the Jahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch. Inst. 1894 ix Arch. Anz. p. 78 ff., Dittenberger Syll.
inscr. Gr.2 no. 553, Nilsson Gr. Feste p. 23 ff.). Cp. also the taurobolium and criobolium
of Kybele and Attis (G. E. Marindin in Smith—Wayte—Marindin Did. Ant. ii. 762 f,
E. Cumont in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. iv. I7i8 f., H. Hepding Attis seine Mythen und
sein Kult Gieszen 1903 p. 199 ff.), who was identified with the Phrygian Zeus (supra
p. 399 n. 3). In view of my subsequent contention that Poseidon was originally a
specialised form of Zeus, it is to be noticed that his favourite victims were ' bulls and
rams' (Od. 1. 25, cp. //. 2. 550 of Erechtheus) or 'a ram and a bull and a boar that
mates with swine' (Od. 11. 131, 23. 278).

3 A goat was sacrificed to Zeus Askraios at Halikarnassos {infra ch. ii § 9 (h) i) and
probably at Pedasa (ib.). The same sacrifice is presumably implied by the cult-title of
Zeus Aigophdgos (et. mag. p. 27, 51 f. Aiyocpdyos ■ 6 Zeus, ws irapa NiKavSpcp ev QypLaKoh
(Meineke cj. Qrjfia'iKois)), as L. Stephani in the Compte-rendu St. Pe~t. 1869 p. 116
surmised, if not also by the myth of Amaltheia. A she-goat was slain for Vediovis
(supra p. 711). But the flamen Dialis might not touch nor even mention a she-goat
(Gell. 10. 15. 12). And in general cp. Arnob. adv. nat. 7. 21 si caper caedatur Iovi,
quern patri solemne est Libero Mercurioque mactari,...quid facinoris in hoc erit?...ego...
audire desidero...quid applicitum Iuppiter ad tauri habeat sanguinem, ut ei debeat
immolari, non debeat Mercurio, Libero? aut natura quae capri est, ut his rursus ad-
commoda, Iovialibus conveniens sacrificiis non sit?

A young pig was sacrificed to Zeus Bouleiis at Mykonos (supra p. 668), a porker to
Zeus Eubouleus at Delos (supra p. 669 n. 2).

On the sacrifice of horses to Iupiter Menzana see supra p. 180 n. 5.

4 See e.g. Alkiphr. ep. 3. 35 cited infra ch. ii § 9 (h).

5 Supra pp. 429 f, 634 f.