DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0079
30 The Tarentine cult of Zeus Kataibdtes
again borrowing his information from Klearchos, who was one of
his prime sources.
'This race of the Iapyges,' he continues, 'is derived from Crete. Cretans
came to look for Glaukos and settled down here. Their descendants, forgetting
the orderly life of the Cretans, reached such a pitch of luxury, and subsequently
of insolence, that they were the first to paint their faces, to get front locks and
side locks of false hair, to wear flowered robes, and to deem work and labour a
disgrace. Ordinary citizens made their houses more magnificent than the
temples ; while the principal men of the Iapyges, treating the deity with insult,
destroyed the statues of the gods out of the temples and bade them give place
to their betters. Wherefore they were struck by fire and bronze from the sky,
and the fame of it was spread abroad; for bolts from heaven forged of bronze
were long to be seen1. And to this very day all their descendants live shaven
to the skin and wearing the garb of mourners, in want of all the luxuries that
were theirs before.'
Now Iapyx the eponym of the Iapyges was commonly said to
have been the son of Daidalos2; and there is a consistent tradition
to the effect that, when Minos was killed at Kamikos in Sikania,
the Cretans after an ineffectual attempt to take the town were
driven by stress of weather to land in Iapygia, where they built
Hyria and became the Iapyges Messapioi3. In view of this tra-
ditional connexion between the Iapyges and the Cretans of the
Minoan age, it is interesting to find Athenaios giving a description
of the Iapyges which with curious exactitude suits the ' Minoans.'
Their painted faces4, their artificial front locks5 and side locks6,
their flowered robes7, the magnificence of their houses as contrasted
with their shrines8, are all points of resemblance. Last but not
least, the ' bolts from heaven forged of bronze' must surely be
1 The text is dioirep e£ ovpavov j3aX\6fj.evoi wpl Kal %aX/cy ravTi)v diedoaav tt)v <prpxr\v
ip.(pavf/ yap yv p-exP1 Toppu Kexa.~\Kevp,£va tu>v 4% ovpavov j3e\Qv (so codd. A.B.P. : (3o\wv
codd. V.L.).
2 Strab. 279, Plin. nat. hist. 3. 102, Solin. 2. 7, Mart. Cap. 642, cp. Cornificius
Longus (on whom see G. Wissowa in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. iv. 1630 f.) ap. interp.
Serv. in Verg. Aen. 3. 332.
3 Hdt. 7. 170, Strab. 279, 282, cp. Diod. 4. 79. Brundisium also, according to one
account, was founded by these Cretans, or by Theseus' company from Knossos (Strab.
282, Myth. Vat. 2. 125, schol. Bern. Lucan. 2. 609): the town took its name from a
Messapian word for ' stag's-head ' (Strab. 282, Steph. Byz. s.v. Bpevrrjcnov, Hesych. s.v.
(3pev5ov = Favorin. lex. p. 388, 16, et. Gud. p. ri5, 3 ff., et. mag. p. 212, 23 ff., schol.
Bern. Lucan. 2. 609 ' brunda' with H. Usener ad loc). See further R. M. Burrows The
Discoveries in Crete London 1907 p. 12 f.
4 Sir A. J. Evans in the Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1900—1901 vii. 56 fig. 17.
6 Sir A. J. Evans loc. cit., A. Mosso The Palaces of Crete and their Builders London
1907 p. 318 fig. 156, cp. R. M. Burrows op. cit. p. 94. Supra i. 23 n. 6.
6 Cp. Perrot—Chipiez Hist, de VArt viii. 430 f. fig. 208.
7 Sir A. J. Evans in the Aim. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1902—1903 ix. 81 ff. fig. 58.
8 Sir A. J. Evans in the Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1901 —1902 viii. 95, cp. id. 28,
R. M. Burrows op. cit. p. 27.
again borrowing his information from Klearchos, who was one of
his prime sources.
'This race of the Iapyges,' he continues, 'is derived from Crete. Cretans
came to look for Glaukos and settled down here. Their descendants, forgetting
the orderly life of the Cretans, reached such a pitch of luxury, and subsequently
of insolence, that they were the first to paint their faces, to get front locks and
side locks of false hair, to wear flowered robes, and to deem work and labour a
disgrace. Ordinary citizens made their houses more magnificent than the
temples ; while the principal men of the Iapyges, treating the deity with insult,
destroyed the statues of the gods out of the temples and bade them give place
to their betters. Wherefore they were struck by fire and bronze from the sky,
and the fame of it was spread abroad; for bolts from heaven forged of bronze
were long to be seen1. And to this very day all their descendants live shaven
to the skin and wearing the garb of mourners, in want of all the luxuries that
were theirs before.'
Now Iapyx the eponym of the Iapyges was commonly said to
have been the son of Daidalos2; and there is a consistent tradition
to the effect that, when Minos was killed at Kamikos in Sikania,
the Cretans after an ineffectual attempt to take the town were
driven by stress of weather to land in Iapygia, where they built
Hyria and became the Iapyges Messapioi3. In view of this tra-
ditional connexion between the Iapyges and the Cretans of the
Minoan age, it is interesting to find Athenaios giving a description
of the Iapyges which with curious exactitude suits the ' Minoans.'
Their painted faces4, their artificial front locks5 and side locks6,
their flowered robes7, the magnificence of their houses as contrasted
with their shrines8, are all points of resemblance. Last but not
least, the ' bolts from heaven forged of bronze' must surely be
1 The text is dioirep e£ ovpavov j3aX\6fj.evoi wpl Kal %aX/cy ravTi)v diedoaav tt)v <prpxr\v
ip.(pavf/ yap yv p-exP1 Toppu Kexa.~\Kevp,£va tu>v 4% ovpavov j3e\Qv (so codd. A.B.P. : (3o\wv
codd. V.L.).
2 Strab. 279, Plin. nat. hist. 3. 102, Solin. 2. 7, Mart. Cap. 642, cp. Cornificius
Longus (on whom see G. Wissowa in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. iv. 1630 f.) ap. interp.
Serv. in Verg. Aen. 3. 332.
3 Hdt. 7. 170, Strab. 279, 282, cp. Diod. 4. 79. Brundisium also, according to one
account, was founded by these Cretans, or by Theseus' company from Knossos (Strab.
282, Myth. Vat. 2. 125, schol. Bern. Lucan. 2. 609): the town took its name from a
Messapian word for ' stag's-head ' (Strab. 282, Steph. Byz. s.v. Bpevrrjcnov, Hesych. s.v.
(3pev5ov = Favorin. lex. p. 388, 16, et. Gud. p. ri5, 3 ff., et. mag. p. 212, 23 ff., schol.
Bern. Lucan. 2. 609 ' brunda' with H. Usener ad loc). See further R. M. Burrows The
Discoveries in Crete London 1907 p. 12 f.
4 Sir A. J. Evans in the Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1900—1901 vii. 56 fig. 17.
6 Sir A. J. Evans loc. cit., A. Mosso The Palaces of Crete and their Builders London
1907 p. 318 fig. 156, cp. R. M. Burrows op. cit. p. 94. Supra i. 23 n. 6.
6 Cp. Perrot—Chipiez Hist, de VArt viii. 430 f. fig. 208.
7 Sir A. J. Evans in the Aim. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1902—1903 ix. 81 ff. fig. 58.
8 Sir A. J. Evans in the Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1901 —1902 viii. 95, cp. id. 28,
R. M. Burrows op. cit. p. 27.