Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 2,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (thunder and lightning): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1925)

The Mother-goddess and her pdredros 29$

As lost Adonis ; Egypt's eyes

Have her Osiris seen ;
Hellenic sages recognise

The heavenly horn of Men ;

In thee the Samothracians chant

Adamna's1 sanctity ;
Haemonians find their Corybant ;

'Papas' the Phrygians cry,

Now dead, now deity ycleped,

Fruitless and all forlorn,
A goatherd, or a green ear reaped2,

A piper almond-born3.

1 Hesych. dSa/xvelv' to <pi\elv. /cat Qptiyes tov cplXov 'Abdp-va Xeyovaiv. I suspect
connexion with the nursery-names "A5a, "A5as, etc. (P. Kretschmer Einleitiuig in die
Geschichte der Griechischen Sprache Gottingen 1896 p. 337 f.). If so, "ASa/xva meant
'Fatherly One' (suffix -p.v- as in ddeXip,voi, airdXaiuvos, vu>vvfxvos, etc.)—a doublet of
"Attls (supra p. 293). A. Fick Die ehevialige Spracheinheit der Indogeri/iatien Europas
Gottingen 1873 P- H^, misled by P. de Lagarde and F. M tiller, says 'eranisches Lehnwort.'

2 Hippolytos has already compared the crowning rite at Eleusis, the exhibition to the
mystics of a corn-ear reaped in silence (re/, haeres. 5. 8 p. 162 Duncker—Schneidewin
Xeyovcri. de avrbv, (prjcri, Qpuyes /cat " xXoepof <jTdxw redepiafxevov," /cat /xera tovs <t>pvyas
'Adrjvaioi ixvovvtss 'EXeuatVta /cat eirideiKvvvTes rots iiroirTebovai to /xeya /cat Oavp.aaTov /cat
TeXeLoraTOv eiroirTiKov £/cet /j.v<TTr)piov ev aiwirri Tedepiap.e'vov o~Tdxvv). This corn-ear probably
represented Kore, Demeter and her daughter being the Corn-mother and the Corn-maiden
of the Eleusinian harvest-field (supra i. 397 n. 4 pi. xxviii). It is even possible that the
identification of Kore with the young corn may help to clear up the obscurity which still
surrounds the name HepaeQbvr]. L. Bloch in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 1286 ff. and Gruppe
Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 1181 n. 6 collect the extant forms. Gruppe emphasises the following
points : (a) The first half of the compound, to judge from such vase-inscriptions as
llep(p)6<paT(T)a (P. Kretschmer Die Griechischen Vaseninschriften Glitersloh 1894 pp. 122,
178), was probably not verbal. If an adverb *irepae be assumed, Uepcre-cpao-aa, llep(p)6-
(paT(r)a, etc. might be related to it as TrjXe-naxos, TtjXo-zcXt}?, etc. to TyjXe. (/>) The
second half of the compound cannot be directly derived from (pahw. But Wepae-cpacrcra
may be formed like T??Ae-0acrcra for T^Xe-^ctea-ija ; in which case \lepae-tpbvrj might be a
hypocoristic name. The crux, then, is to devise a suitable meaning for *ire'po-e. And the
matter is complicated by the Laconian forms ll-qpecpoveia (Hesych. s.v.), . j ERI0ON A I

(Inscr. Gr. Sic. It. no. 631 Lokroi Epizephyrioi). With all diffidence I suggest the root
of aweipw, cnrepfia, which appears with loss of initial a in 7rpu>£, irepKvbs, etc. and with
determinative s as pars- for *spere-s- in Old Indian prsau, prsat, etc. (see Walde Lat.
etym. Worterb.2 p. 728 f.). On this showing Uepue- would be cognate with our word
spring and IIepcrec/>a<Tcra, llepcrecpoi't], could mean 'She that appears in Spring.' Cp. Orph.
Pliers. 29. 1 2 f. elapivfj.., | iepbv €K<paivovo~a de'p.as (3Xa<TTois xX°ol<dpTroL';.
Be that as it may, it is clear that in Phrygia Attis was sometimes identified with the
young corn (Frazer Golden Bough*: Adonis Attis Osiris3 i. 279). Possibly the Phrygian
Zeus stood in a similar relation to the old corn, for he bore the title rroXvo-Taxvs (Hesych.
Ba7atos'.. .77 Zeus $>puyios. p.iyas. ttoXvs, ra%i;s, where W. Drexler in Roscher Lex. Myth.
ii. 2552 convincingly (O. Hofer ib. iii. 1560) restored p-iyas iroXvcrTaxvs). The Phrygian
Lityerses, the Bithynian Bormos, etc. were analogous figures : see the highly important
chapter on 'Lityerses' by Sir James Frazer (Go/den Bough*: Spirits of Corn and Wild
i. 214 ff.). Attis was variously interpreted by late writers : he is the ripe corn cut by the
reaper (Firm. Mat. 3), or more often the short-lived flowers of spring contrasted with
Adonis as the maturer crops (Porph. ap. Euseb. praep. ev. 3. 11. 12, 3. 13. 14, and ap.