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)

Artemis and the Oak

relationship as Virbius to Diana Nemorensis1. Unfortunately, little
or nothing is known about the early kings of Troizen2. It is,
however, noteworthy that the later Troezenian hero Hippolytos to
some extent repeated the career of Saron. He too was a hunter, was
intimate with Artemis, had the entree of her dbatou3, and died a
violent death on the margin of the sea. He is not indeed linked by

The existence of the alternative title "Zapwvia at first sight tells against my interpreta-
tion of "Lapiovls; for "Zapwvis and 2<xpwW<x may both be derivatives of Zdpwv, a place-name
(Steph. Byz. s.v. Zdpuv ■ tottos Tpoiffivos) or river-name (Eustath. in Dionys. per. 420 fj airb
Hdpwvos -woto.ij.ov Tpoifrjvos, whence L. Holstein cj. TTorafj.bi for tottos in Steph. Byz. loc.
(■//.). But these names themselves in all probability connoted oaks, cp. Paus. 8. 23. 8 eiri
Spv/ibv dtpi^rj 1.6pwva (C. Bursian Geographic von Griechenland Leipzig 1868—1872 ii. 263
n. 2 'Soptov ist wahrscheinlich arkadische Form ftir Zdpwv,' L. Grasberger Studien zn den
grieckischen Ortsnamen Wiirzburg 1888 p. 259), so that on this showing "Zapwvis, Zapwvia
would be ' She of the Oak-land,' ' She of the Oak-river.'

There is yet another possibility. Starting from Hesych. s.v. aapwves' rd tljv SrjpaTwv
\ivd W. Pape—G. E. Benseler Worterbuch der grieckischen Eigennameri* Braunschweig
1875 ii. 1349 render Zdpwv ' Netzold, Netze'—a view adopted by Preller—Robert Gr.
Myth. i. 613, Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 192 (but see ib. p. 1281 n. 4), Nilsson Gr. Feste
p. 227, O. Hofer in Roscher Lex. Myth. iv. 388 (but see ib. p. 389). Artemis Sapwius,
2SapwWa would then be a kind of \Iktwvo.. But it is far from certain that AiKTuwa was
originally connected with 81ktvop (supra i. 541 n. 6); and the Hesychian gloss may rest
on a confusion (cp. Hesych. s.v. adpboves' ev KwriyeTiKip p-eprj rtcd Slktuwv SyjXovvrai. The
reference is to Ken. cyneg. 6. 9. Hence L. Dindorf restored aapSbfei to Hesych. and
oapbbvwv to Xen. In Poll. 5. 31 G. Jungermann notes the manuscript reading aapduves
for capbbves. A. Fickin the Gott. gel. Anz. 1894 p. 245 relates aapbuv to aia-qpa; but
see Boisacq Diet. e'tyin. de la Langue Gr. p. 853).

1 Saron, like Virbius (supra p. 393 f.), came to be deemed an aquatic divinity (Aristeid.
or. 46. 208 (ii. 274 Dindorf) ov5' tva rbv irdvTa xpbvov tt)v QdXaTTav olkQktiv, wairep rov
TXclvkov <pao~i top 'AvdrjSbviov, rj rbv Hdpuva rbv iirdivvp-ov tov ireXdyovs with schol. Aristeid.
p. 639, 1 ff. Dindorf Kara kolvov to SaL/xovd <priai yiveadai. vavTuaJjTarov. k.t.\., Apostol. 15.
34 "Zdpwvos vavTiKtliTepos' ovtos 6 Ldpuv bai/bLCOf r\v vavTLKwraros. k.t.X.), being worshipped
on the western side of the Bosporos in the bay called Bathykolpos, the modern Boyukdere
(Dionys. Byz. per Bosporum navigatio frag. 71 versionis Gillianae (p. 26 Wescher) ' Fluvius
in sinum exit, cui idem quod sinui nomen est. Hie exsistit Saronis herois Megarici ara,
et jactus piscium,' etc.), and presumably also at Megara (F. Pfister Die mythische Konigs-
liste von Megara und ihr Verhaltnis zum Ktdt und zur topographischeit Bezeichnung
Heidelberg 1907 p. 41 =id. Der Reliqnienkult im Altertum Giessen 1909 i. 41). On him
see further the excellent article of O. Hofer in Roscher Lex. Myth. iv. 387—389.

2 The locus classicus is Paus. 2. 30. 5—8, where we are told that the succession was
(1) 'Opos, (2) "AXdriiros, son of Poseidon by Ati'li daughter of Tflpos, (3) Zdpwv, (4) after an
interval of forgotten names 'Twep^s a.nd"Av8as, sons of Poseidon by Alkyone daughter of
Atlas, (5) 'Aertos, son of "Avdas, in whose reign Troizen and Pittheus, the s^ns of Pelops,
entered the country. F. Pfister Der Reliqnienkult im Altertum Giessen 1909 i. 50 ft.
('Die mythische Kbnigsliste von Troizen') contends that the names Horos {sic), Lets,
Althepos, Anthas, Hyperes all refer to the fertility of the Troezenian land. Here it is ad
rem to observe that Anthas is comparable with Anthos of Arkadia, whose descendants
hung their clothes on an oak-tree before swimming across a pool to become were-wolves
(supra i. 71 ff.), and that the Arcadian Anthos was perhaps, like Anthos the son of
Autonoos and Hippodameia, destroyed by horses—a fate which would connect him with
Hippolytos (supra i. 75).

3 Eur. Hipp. 70 ff.