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

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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14695#0816

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Talos at Athens

which is contrary to the known laws of phonetics, must be due to
folk-etymology of some sort. Now in northern India a snake is,
for superstitious reasons, habitually called a ' string' or a ' rope':
for example, if a snake bites you, you should not mention its
name, but remark 'A rope has touched me'!1 If, therefore,
Talos was in any sense a snake, he might be euphemistically
called kdlos, a ' rope.'

Latin authors narrate that, when Daidalos flung his nephew
to the ground, the youth was in mid air changed by Athena
into a partridge2. In fact, they commonly call him Perdix, or
' Partridge,' not Talos3. The name was applied to him by the
Greeks as early as the fifth century B.C.; for it occurs in a play
of Sophokles4. According to a version preserved by the Greek
lexicographers, Perdix was the mother of Talos or Kalos, who,
when he was killed, hanged herself and was honoured at Athens
with a sanctuary beside the Akropolis5. Since the grave of
Talos6 or Kalos was on the way from the theatre to the
Akropolis7, it is likely that the sanctuary and the grave were
close together8. The myth of Talos transformed by Athena into
a partridge was probably popular in Periclean Athens. For a
curious historical echo of it has been detected by L. Mercklin9.

Die Sage von Daidalos und Ikaros (Abh. zu dem Ber. der Thomas-schule) Leipzig 1902
p. 21 into KdAw aocpias irepi a-ywvL^bjj.evov and by O. Hofer in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii.
1947 into KaXoj aocpia Trepiyeuo/neuoi'. Cp. Lact. Plac. narr. fab. 8. 3 Perdix Calai filius
Atheniensis.

1 Frazer Golden Bough'1 i. 456f., ib? Taboo p. 401 f., cp. pp. 399 (Cherokee Indians),
400 (Arabs), 401 (Herero), 408 (Malays), 411 (Javanese).

2 Ov. met. 8. 251 ff., Lact. Plac. narr. fab. 8. 3.

;i So Hyg. fab. 39, 244, 274, Serv. in Verg. georg. 1. 143, Serv. in Verg. Aen. 6. 14,
Sidon. epist. 4. 3. 5, Isid. orig. r9- 19. 9, Schol. Galean. and Phil, in Ov. Ibis 498,
Lact. Plac. narr. fab. 8. 3, cp. Ov. met. 8. 237, 255. Fulgent, myth. 3. 2, Myth. Vat.
1. 232, 2. 130, 3. 7. 3 call him Perdica, Perdiccas, Perdicca, Perdix (?). The mother of
Talos is Perdix in Apollod. 3. 15. 9 (R. Wagner, after Heyne, brackets the name as a
gloss), Perdika in Apollod. epit. 3. 15. 9 and in Tzetz. chil. 1. 493. The mother of
Kalos is Perdix in Souid. s.v. UepSiKos iepbv, Phot. lex. s.v. Ilepdiicos lepov, Apostol. 14.
. 17 {supra p. 725 n. 6).

4 Soph. Camici frag. 300 Nauck2 a/. Athen. 388 F Scx^o/cX^s KapiLKols- opvidos rjXO'
iirLovvfios I irepdiKos ev KXeivois 'Adrjvaiwv irdyois, cp. Souid. and Phot. lex. and Apostol.
loc. cit. s.v. Uepdi.Kos iepdv.. ,2o0o/cX?7S 8e tv Ka/^t/cois (kwjmkois MSS.) tov vtto AaiddXov
avaipeOfrra Hepdiica dvai rouvofia. In the Sophoclean verse S. Mekler cj. KXeivoiai
Qrjaeid&v, A. Nauck KXeiuoiai Ke/cpo7rt§wi'.

5 Souid. and Phot. lex. s.v. HepdiKos lepov, cp. Apostol. 14. 17.

6 Loukian. pise. 42. The schol. ad loc. says : 6 fxev TctAws yjpeos TraXaibs ev rrj
'\Kpoir6Xei Te6anp.4vos. 7 Paus. 1. 21. 4.

8 See O. Hofer in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 1950, W. Judeich Topographie von Athen
Munchen 1905 p. 28 2.

!l L. Mercklin ' Die Talos-Sage und das sardonische Lachen' in the Memoires de
tacadSmie des sciences de St. Petersbourg, Jlemoires des savants Strangers 1854 vii. 74 f.
 
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