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

762 The Dioskouroi as Stars

question is headed by the Dioskouroi: then follow Zeus, Apollon,
Artemis, Poseidon, Lysandros crowned by Poseidon, the seer Agias,
Hermon the helmsman of Lysandros; behind these is ranked a
series of twenty eight captains from various states, who helped
Lysandros to win the day. The artists of the statues are duly
recorded, the Dioskouroi being the work of Antiphanes the Argive.
Plutarch, who knew Delphoi well, mentions along with these statues
the ' golden stars of the Dioskouroi, which disappeared before the
battle of LeuktraV He further states that, according to some
persons, when Lysandros' ship was sailing out of the harbour to
attack the Athenians, the Dioskouroi were seen shining as stars on
the steering paddles; and that, according to others, the meteor
that fell at Aigos Potamos was a sign of this slaughter2. H. Pomtow
concludes that at Delphoi the 'golden stars of the Dioskouroi' were
in all probability attached to the heads of the twin-deities3. Cicero
says that shortly before the fight at Leuktra (371 B.C.) these stars
'fell down and were not found4'—an omen, doubtless, of the over-
throw of Sparta at the hands of Thebes. Now, in view of the
express connexion between the stars dedicated by Lysandros and
the appearance of the Dioskouroi on the admiral's vessel, it can
hardly be questioned that the stars erected on a mast by the
/Eginetans were likewise symbolic of help received from the
Dioskouroi at the battle of Salamis5.

kais. bayr. Akad. d. Wiss. Phil.-hist. Classe 1901 pp. 397—400, ib. 1904 pp. 365—368,
A. Trendelenburg Die Anfangsstrecke der heiligen Strasse in Delphi Berlin 1908,
F. Poulsen 'La niche aux offrandes de Marathon' in the Bulletin de VAcademie royale
des Sciences et des Lettres de Danemark 1908 pp. 389—425, G. Karo in the Bull. Corr.
Hell. 1909 xxxiii. 219—239, ib. 1910 xxxiv. 201—207, and above all E. Bourguet in the
Fouilles de Delphes iii. 1. 24—41, id. Les mines de Delphes Paris 1914 pp. 41—46.

1 Plout. v. Lys. 18.

2 Plout. v. Lys. 12. So Cic. de div. r. 75. On the meteor see the marm. Par. ep.
57 P- I7 Jac°by, Aristot. meteor. 1. 7. 344 b 31 ff., Diog. Laert. 2. 10, Philostr. v. Apoll.
1. 2, Tzetz. chil. 2. 892 ff., Plin. nat. hist. 1. 149, Amm. Marc. 22. 16. 22.

3 H. Pomtow in the Ath. Mitth. 1906 xxxi. 563. A bronze statuette of one of the
Dioskouroi, found at Paramythia and now in the British Museum, has a hole in its cap,
probably for the insertion of a star {Brit. Mus. Cat. Bronzes p. 37 no. 277 pi. 6, 3). But
see infra p. 764 n. 6.

4 Cic. de div. 1. 75. It is noteworthy that the great inscription recording the accounts
of the vaoiroLoL at Delphoi mentions among other items of expenditure under the archon-
ship of Peithagoras (342 B.C.) the sum paid to a certain Kephalon 'for the model of the
wooden star' (Dittenberger Syll. inscr. Gr? no. 140, 111 f. = Michel Recueil d'lnscr. gr.
no. 591, in f. = Collitz—Bechtel Gr. Dial.-Inschr. ii. 652 ff. no. 2502, 111 f. to[0
Z]v\[i\vov dcrrepos rod Trapadei\yfj.aTos ararTjpes reropes, 5[joa]%[^]d). But this may have
been, as E. Bourguet and W. Dittenberger ad loc. suppose, a piece of architectural
decoration: cp. supra p. 751 f.

5 My friend Dr W. H. D. Rouse in his Greek Votive Offerings Cambridge 1902
p. 135 n. 1 complains that this hypothesis does not account for the fact that there were