DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0078
The Tarentine cult of Zeus Kataibdtes 29
disappeared, but the babe survived. So, as is said in the case of
Didbletoi, people supposed that she had met with a divine fate and
called her Thyone. Her child, having been saved from the fire, was
most divine : Kadmos looked after him and gave him the family
name of the Egyptian DionysosV
(e) The Tarentine cult of Zeus Kataibdtes.
A remarkable example of the cult of Zeus Kataibdtes is that of
Tarentum'2. Klearchos, a pupil of Aristotle, states3 that the Taren-
tines, having overthrown Karbina, a city of the Iapyges, and exposed
the boys, girls, and young women of the place to the grossest out-
rages, were visited by the vengeance of heaven. All who had
offended at Karbina were struck by lightning. The Tarentines
therefore erected in front of their doors a number of pillars cor-
responding to the number of the men who failed to return from the
expedition into Iapygia4. These pillars were still to be seen before
each house in Tarentum ; and, when the season of their destruction
comes round, the Tarentines, instead of lamenting the dead or
pouring the customary libations, offered sacrifices on the pillars to
Zeus Kataibdtes. Here it is fairly obvious that death by lightning
is regarded not as a disaster, but as an honour : funeral lamenta-
tions and libations were out of place. But who—we ask further—
was the god that conferred this doubtful honour? The Tarentines
certainly called him Zeus Kataibdtes. Yet the form of his worship,
a pillar-cult, is not elsewhere attested for Zeus Kataibdtes. It
points rather in the direction of Crete. One would like to know
what the Iapyges themselves said about it. Most fortunately
Athenaios, to whom we owe the excerpt from Klearchos, goes
on to tell us more concerning the Iapyges5. Probably he is
1 Charax frag. 13 [Frag. hist. Gr. iii. 639 Miiller) ap. anon, de incredib. 16 p. 325
Westermann.
2 On the various cults of Zeus at Tarentum see R. Lorentz De rebus sacris et artibus
veterum Tarentinorum Elberfeldiae 1836 p. 91. Supra i. 35 ff., 520 n. 2, 521 n. 1, infra
§ 3 (a) iii (/3).
3 Klearch.9 {Frag. hist. Gr. ii. 306 f. Miiller) ap. Athen. 522 Dff.
4 Athen. 522 F koX /xe^pi koX vvv ev TapavTi eKdcrrr] rwv oIklG>v, ovs oi>x virebe^avro tuiv
ei's 'laTrvyiav iKire[MpdevTwv, Toaauras &xel (rrrjXas irpb tQiv dvptov e(p' ah naO' bv airuSKovTO
XpOVOV ovt OlKTL^OVTaL TOVS 0.1T0LX0pJvOVS OVT£ TCLS VO/j.l/j.OVS x^0vtal X0<^S) Ct\\a duOVffl Alt
KaTaLj36.t7). For cod. A oi)s oi>x vnede^avro J. Schweighaeuser, after Musurus, reads oaovs
uiredeiiavTo, and W. Dindorf oi)s v-jrebe^avro. This would mean that every man not killed
set up a pillar on which to do sacrifice to the god. But M. P. Nilsson in the Khein. Mus.
1908 lxiii. 315 justly defends the reading of cod. A on the ground that the bodies of men
struck by lightning would be lefi on the spot and not brought back home (sicpra p. 22 f.).
5 Athen. 522 F—523 B.
disappeared, but the babe survived. So, as is said in the case of
Didbletoi, people supposed that she had met with a divine fate and
called her Thyone. Her child, having been saved from the fire, was
most divine : Kadmos looked after him and gave him the family
name of the Egyptian DionysosV
(e) The Tarentine cult of Zeus Kataibdtes.
A remarkable example of the cult of Zeus Kataibdtes is that of
Tarentum'2. Klearchos, a pupil of Aristotle, states3 that the Taren-
tines, having overthrown Karbina, a city of the Iapyges, and exposed
the boys, girls, and young women of the place to the grossest out-
rages, were visited by the vengeance of heaven. All who had
offended at Karbina were struck by lightning. The Tarentines
therefore erected in front of their doors a number of pillars cor-
responding to the number of the men who failed to return from the
expedition into Iapygia4. These pillars were still to be seen before
each house in Tarentum ; and, when the season of their destruction
comes round, the Tarentines, instead of lamenting the dead or
pouring the customary libations, offered sacrifices on the pillars to
Zeus Kataibdtes. Here it is fairly obvious that death by lightning
is regarded not as a disaster, but as an honour : funeral lamenta-
tions and libations were out of place. But who—we ask further—
was the god that conferred this doubtful honour? The Tarentines
certainly called him Zeus Kataibdtes. Yet the form of his worship,
a pillar-cult, is not elsewhere attested for Zeus Kataibdtes. It
points rather in the direction of Crete. One would like to know
what the Iapyges themselves said about it. Most fortunately
Athenaios, to whom we owe the excerpt from Klearchos, goes
on to tell us more concerning the Iapyges5. Probably he is
1 Charax frag. 13 [Frag. hist. Gr. iii. 639 Miiller) ap. anon, de incredib. 16 p. 325
Westermann.
2 On the various cults of Zeus at Tarentum see R. Lorentz De rebus sacris et artibus
veterum Tarentinorum Elberfeldiae 1836 p. 91. Supra i. 35 ff., 520 n. 2, 521 n. 1, infra
§ 3 (a) iii (/3).
3 Klearch.9 {Frag. hist. Gr. ii. 306 f. Miiller) ap. Athen. 522 Dff.
4 Athen. 522 F koX /xe^pi koX vvv ev TapavTi eKdcrrr] rwv oIklG>v, ovs oi>x virebe^avro tuiv
ei's 'laTrvyiav iKire[MpdevTwv, Toaauras &xel (rrrjXas irpb tQiv dvptov e(p' ah naO' bv airuSKovTO
XpOVOV ovt OlKTL^OVTaL TOVS 0.1T0LX0pJvOVS OVT£ TCLS VO/j.l/j.OVS x^0vtal X0<^S) Ct\\a duOVffl Alt
KaTaLj36.t7). For cod. A oi)s oi>x vnede^avro J. Schweighaeuser, after Musurus, reads oaovs
uiredeiiavTo, and W. Dindorf oi)s v-jrebe^avro. This would mean that every man not killed
set up a pillar on which to do sacrifice to the god. But M. P. Nilsson in the Khein. Mus.
1908 lxiii. 315 justly defends the reading of cod. A on the ground that the bodies of men
struck by lightning would be lefi on the spot and not brought back home (sicpra p. 22 f.).
5 Athen. 522 F—523 B.