Universitätsbibliothek HeidelbergUniversitätsbibliothek Heidelberg
Metadaten

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

DOI Seite / Zitierlink: 
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14695#0815

DWork-Logo
Überblick
loading ...
Faksimile
0.5
1 cm
facsimile
Vollansicht
OCR-Volltext
Talos at Athens 725

passing that a contrivance for describing a circle or a machine
consisting in a rotatory disk was naturally attributed to one who,
as the Sun1, was himself at once circular and discoidal. Indeed,
if we may trust an obscure passage in Servius, Talos was actually
called by some Circinus or ' Compass2.' Less obvious is his
recorded discovery of the saw. Latin authors state that he
copied the back-bone of a fish3. But the Greeks declared that
he got the idea from the jaw of a snake4. Be that as it may,
the Athenian Talos stood in some relation to the snake. For
Daidalos, his mother's brother, jealous of a younger rival, pushed
him over the edge of the Akropolis, and later, when asked whom
he was burying, replied 'A snake5.' Possibly, too, though this is
the merest conjecture, his relation to the snake is responsible for
the fact that he was often called Kd/os, not Talos*. The change,

1 Supra p. 719.

2 Interp. Serv. in Verg. Aen. 6. 14 ah illo et usum serrae de osse interiore piscis et
circinum propter nomen suum <inventum>. nam aliquibus Circinus putatus est appel-
latus, vel ut quidam organum inventum tradunt. We have already compared Talos son
of Daidalos' sister with Daidalion the 'hawk' {supra p. 342 f.). I would suggest that
Talos too according to one version of his story was transformed into a hawk (tdpicos,
•cp. modern Greek KipKivefr ' kestrel') and that this was the reason why certain persons
attributed to him the invention of the compasses {circinus). As to the saw, ancient
Babylonian art likewise shows the sun-god with saw in hand (I. Low in Or. Lit. 1912
xv. 305 f., Am. Journ. Arch. 1913 xvii. 534).

:! Ov. met. 8. 244 ff., Wyg. fab. 274, Serv. in Verg. Aen. 6. [4, Isid. orig. 19. 19. 9.

4 Apollod. 3. 15. 9, Diod. 4. 76, Tzetz. chil. 1. 494 ff.

5 Diod. 4. 76 e<pr]<T€v ocpLv KaTax^vvveiv. The words involve a joke : naTaxuvvvw is
* I bury beneath a mound of earth,' but Karax^vevw is ' I pour molten metal into a
mould,' a phrase appropriate to the cireperdue process described above; hence Daidalos'
remark would suggest, not only ' I am burying a snake,' but also ' I am hollow-casting a
snake,' ' I am applying to Talos the treatment that is peculiarly his own.' Diod. id.
says tov rraida idoXocpovqcre, cp. Hellanik. frag. 82 {Frag. hist. Gr. i. 56 Mtiller) ap.
schol. Eur. Or. 1648 dheXcpibovv tov HdXwv diroKTeivavTOS boXbevTi OavaTcp. Apollod.
3. 15. 9 drrb Trjs aKpoirbXews (3aXwv tov tt)s dbeXcprjs [IlepSt/cos] vlbv TctXw (so Tzetz. chil.
1. 492 f., Ov. met. 8. 250 f., Serv. in Verg. georg. 1. 143) is more precise. Hyg. fab. 39
summo tecto deiecit is not incompatible with the usual account. Schol. Gaiean. Ov. Ibis
498 (R. Ellis P. Ovidii Nasonis Ibis Oxford 1881 p. 86) pr&ecipitavit in marl is a more
substantial variant, cp. the death of Aigeus (K. Wernicke in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc.
i. 954 and D. G. Roberts in the Journ. Hell. Stud. 1912 xxxii. 105 ff.).

The supposed representation of Daidalos and the dead Talos in a Pompeian wall-
painting (Helbig Wandgem. Camp. p. 359 f. no. 1480, E. Gerhard in the Arch. Zeit. 1850
viii. 177 ff. pi. 17, 1) is explained away by C. Robert in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. iv. 2006-

*> Schol. Soph. O. C. 1320 tov TaXaou ov eViot <5tcl tov k KaXabv irpoaayopevovai
Kaddirep XpLcrTapxos 6 Teye&Trjs /cat <$>lXokX7]s icrTopovcri, avyypa<pewv be 'E/cctrcuos 6
~SUX7]<tlos (Aristarch. frag. 5 Nauck2, Philokl. frag. 3 Nauck2, Plekat. frag. 36ia {Frag,
hist. Gr. iv. 627 Muller)). The form KdXws is used by Paus. 1. 21. 4, 1. 26. 4, Souid.
s.v. llepdixos iepbv, Phot. lex. s.v. Utpdacos iepbv (MS. KaXos), Apostol. 14. 17 (MSS.
KctXXws), perhaps also by Hellanik. frag. 82 {Frag. hist. Gr. iii. 375 Mtiller) ap. schol.
Eur. Or. 1648, where the reading of codd. A. M. /xeTd 5e ttjv AacddXov Siktjv KaXoo-o<pias
(T: KdXXos aocpias) Trepia.yop.evov ddeXcpibovv diroKTeivavTos was corrected by R. Holland
 
Annotationen