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)

Apollon and Artemis

4^3

The copper sky he cannot scale ;

But all the joys we mortals hail
These hath he voyaged through to the utmost bound.

By ship nor foot shall e'er be found
The wondrous way to the Hyperborean throng.
Yet princely Perseus on a bygone day
Entered their homes and supped with them, men say,
Lighting their merry company among, -
What time they offered in that bright abode
Whole hecatombs of asses1 to the god.

Ay, for Apollon loves always

The feasting and the feasters' praise ;

And sure he laughs to see the sight

Of brute beasts ramping bolt upright.

1 Cp. Clem. Al. protr. 2. 29. 4 p. 21, 26 ff. Stahlin ^Kvdai 8e rovs ovovs kpevovres fj.ii
iraviaduv, cLs 'A7roXX65cop6s <pr;cn [frag. 13 [Frag. hist. Gr. i. 431 Mtiller)) vat Ka.Wip.axos
(/rag. 187 Schneider), ' <t>oi/3os 'Iwep'fiopeoLo-Lv '6vwv tTrireWerai (Tanaquil Faher cj. eiriTepTr-
ercu O. Schneider cj. iTriTeXderai) Ipois/ 6 avrbs 5e aWaxov (frag. 118 Schneider)
' Tepirovaiv \nrapai Qdifiov 6voa<pay^at, (quoted also by schol. Find. Pyth. io. 49) = Arnob.
adv. nat. 4. 25 quis ab Scythis asinos immolari ? non principaliter cum ceteris Apollodorus ?
Iuv. 6. 468 f. illo lacte fovetur | propter quod secum comites educit asellas, | exul Hyper-
boreum si dimittaturad axem. Ant. Lib. 20, writing in s. ii a.d. or later (infra Append. M
vied.), cites from the Ornithogonia of 'Boios' (G. Knaack in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc.
iii. 633 f.) and from the epic Apollon by Simmias of Rhodes (W. Christ Geschichte der
griechischen Litteratur'0 Miinchen 1911 ii. 1. 92 f., Lubker Reallex.* p. 952) the story of
Kleinis, which may be summarised as follows :—Near Babylon lived a man called Kleinis,
a wealthy owner of oxen, asses, and sheep. Favoured by Apollon and Artemis, he often
went with them to the temple of Apollon among the Hyperboreoi, where he saw the
asses being sacrificed to the god. On reaching Babylon again he too was minded to offer
a similar hecatomb at Apollon's altar. But Apollon came and threatened to kill him,
unless he desisted and returned to his usual sacrifice of goats, sheep, and oxen, saying
that the asses pleased him only if offered by the Hyperboreoi. So Kleinis drove the asses
from the altar, and told all this to the children whom Harpe had borne him—Lykios,
Ortygios, Harpasos, and Artemiche. Lhereupon Lykios and Harpasos bade him to
sacrifice the asses and enjoy the feast; Ortygios and Artemiche, to hearken to Apollon.
He followed the advice of the latter. But Harpasos and Lykios let the asses go, and
drove them to the altar. At this the god sent madness upon the beasts, which devoured
the young men and their servants, and Kleinis into the bargain. As they perished they
called upon the gods. Poseidon in pity turned Harpe and Harpasos into the birds that
bear their names. Leto and Artemis resolved to save Kleinis, Artemiche, and Ortygios,
as being innocent persons. Apollon therefore, to pleasure Leto and Artemis, transformed
Kleinis into a vfiaieros (a large, dark eagle of the sort that slays fawns), Lykios into a
Kopa£ (a raven, white at first, but black later when it announced that Koronis daughter of
Phlegyas had married Alkyoneus), Artemiche into a iricpiy^ (a lark?), and Ortygios into
an alyidaWos (a titmouse).

In the Amphictionic law of 380 b.c. (Corp. inscr. Gr. i no. 1688, \\{. = Corp. inscr.
Att. ii. 1 no. 545, 1 4 f. = Michel Recueil d'Inscr. gr. no. 702, 14 (■=]■ Baunack in Collitz—
Bechtel Gr. Dial.-Inschr. ii. 643 ff. no. 250:, 14 f. =Roberts—Gardner Gk. Epigr. ii.
191 ff. no. 70, 14 f. =J. v. Prott and L. Ziehen Leges Graecorum sacrae ii no. 75, 14 f. koX
to. lep-qia adpoa crvvayourui' rbs ovos rov doKip.laffdei'Tccv a-rrooovres, 6 8k etrl rav ei<]\a.Tbfx(3a.v
o[p\kov opMaas elirep tol iepo/mvapioves doKifxa^erLc) the words tos ovos—as H. L. Ahrens
De dialecto Dorica Gottingae 1843 p. 484 ff. pointed out—have nothing to do with asses
(ovovs), but with the prices (wvovs) of the victims approved for sacrifice.