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)

Attis in relation to the Dioskouroi 307

to the flock of a divine ' Shepherd1,' and it needed no great stretch
of imagination for him to declare :

et ipse Pileatus Christianus est.

' He of the Phrygian Cap is a Christian too2.'

(77) Attis in relation to the Dioskouroi.

The name Pileatus"0 recalls the pilot or 'caps' of the Dioskouroi4

v(ir) c(larissimus), causarum non ignobijlis Africani tribunalis orajtor et in consistorio j
principum, item magiste r libellor(um) et cognition(um) | sacrarum, magister epistu lar(um),
magister memoriae, | vicarius praefector(um) per | Hispanias vice s(acra) c(ognoscens),
pa ter patrum dei Solis invijcti Mitbrae, hierofanta | Hecatar(um), dei Liberi archi|bucolus,
taurobolio | criobolioq(ue) in aeterjnum renatus aram sacravit dd(ominis) nn(ostris)
ValenlteV et Valentiniano | iun(iore) Augg(ustis)conss(ulibus) idib(us) Augustis( = Aug. 13,

376 A.D.).

1 Attis was woifx-qv (schol. Nik. a/ex. 8, Loukian. amor. 42), pastor (Tertull. apol. 15,
ad nat. 1. 10, Paulin. Nol. poem. tilt. 79 ff. (lxi. 699 A Migne), Aegritudo Perdicae 29 f. (in
Poet. Lat. min. v. 113 Baehrens)), atVoXos (Hippol. ref. haeres. 5. 9 p. 168 Duncker—
Schneidewin), j3ovKo\os (Theokr. -20. 40), bubulcus (Arnob. adv. nat. 4. 35).

Cp. the formula p.adr)Tr)s TroL/j.evos wyvov, which occurs in the epitaph of Alexandras son
of Antonios (216 A.D.) found by Sir W. M. Ramsay at the Phrygian Hierapolis and in its
original the epitaph written <for himself by Aberkios bishop of Hierapolis (end of s. ii),
included in his biography by Simeon Metaphrastes (cxv. 1211 ff. Migne), found in a
fragmentary condition by Sir W. M. Ramsay at Hierapolis, presented by the Sultan to
Pope Leo xiii, and now preserved in the Lateran Museum at Rome. On both inscriptions
see Sir W. M. Ramsay in the Jottrn. Hell. Stud. 1882 iii. 339 ff-, 1883 iv. 424 ff. no. 36
(cp. Bull. Con: Hell. 1882 vi. 518 f.), J. B. Lightfoot The Apostolic Fathers* Part 11
London 1889 i. 493 ff., G. Ficker ' Der heidnische Charakter der Abercius Inschrift' in
the Sitztuigsber. d. Akad. d. IViss. Berlin 1894 p. 87 ff., A. Harnack in Texte und Unter-
suchungen 1895 xii. 4, L. Duchesne in the Melanges d'Arche'ologie et d'Hisloire 1895
xv. 155 ff., A. Dieterich Die Grabschrift des Aberkios Leipzig 1896, S. Reinach in the
Revue critique d'Hisloire et de Litterature 1896 xlii. 447 ff., W. Drexler in Roscher
Lex. Myth. ii. 2880—2882, H. Hepding Attis seine Mythen und sein Kult Gieszen 1903
pp. 83—85, W. R. Paton 'Note on the Inscription of Abercius' in the Rev. Arch. 1906
ii. 93 ff., W. Llidtke—T. Nissen Die Grabschrift des Aberkios, ihre Uberlieferung und ihr
Text Lipsiae 1910, T. Nissen S. Abercii vita Lipsiae 1912, C. M. Kaufmann Handbuch
der christlichen Archdologie Paderborn 1913 pp. 717—725. As A. Dieterich Kleine
Schriften Leipzig and Berlin 1911 p. 538 observes, ' bei Aberkios hat man streiten
konnen, ob er Attisdiener ocler Christ war.' The former view is held by Ficker, Harnack,
Dieterich, Hepding; the latter, by Duchesne, Paton, and Kaufmann.

2 Aug. in Io. ev. tract. 7. 1. 6 (xxxv. 1440 Migne) quia iam non possunt seducere
Christianos, ut dent venenum, addunt mellis aliquid, ut per id quod dulce est, lateat quod
amarum est, et bibatur ad perniciem ; usque adeo ut ego noverim aliquo tempore illius
Pileati sacerdotem solere dicere : ' et ipse Pileatus Christianus est.' The history of the
Ophites (F. Legge Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity Cambridge 1915 ii. 25 ff.)
shows how easy it was for Phrygian Christianity to be gravely contaminated with Phrygian
paganism (cp. T. Eisele ' Die phrygischen Kulte und ihre Bedeutung fiir die griechisch-
romische Welt' in the Neue Jahrb. f. klass. A Iter turn 1909 xxiii. 620 ff.). Synesios in a
hymn that betrays Ophitic influence addresses God as at once Father and Son of Himself
(h. 3. 145 ff. warepuv iravTOiv [ irdrep, avTOTrdrojp, j 7rpo7rdrcop, airdruip, | vie aeavTOv) ;
and Synesios shortly afterwards became a bishop of the orthodox church.

3 A small head of white marble in my possession (figs. 197, 198 : height 5! ins.) gives
a good idea of the formosus adulescens (Lact. div. inst. 1. 17, epit. 8. 6) wearing hispileum.

4 Supra i. 250 fig. 180, 763 n. 4, 765 ff. fig. 554 ff.

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