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)

486

Apollon and Artemis

Dryops, son of the river Spercheios and the Dana'id Polydora1, reigned on
Mount Oite and had an only daughter Dryope, who tended her father's flocks.
The Hamadryads loved her exceedingly, and taught her how to hymn the gods
and to dance. Apollon, who saw her dancing, was enamoured of her and, to
attain his ends, became first a tortoise, which she fondled and put into her bosom,
and then a snake. The second change scared away the Nymphs, who left Dryope
and her lover alone. Shortly afterwards Dryope was wedded to Andraimon, son
of Oxylos ; but the result of her union with Apollon was the birth of Amphissos.
He grew to man's estate, built the town of Oite, and established a sanctuary of
Apollon in Dryopis. When Dryope visited this sanctuary, the Hamadryads
carried her off and hid her in the forest. In her place they caused a black-poplar
to spring from the ground and a fountain to gush forth beside it. Dryope now
became a Nymph. Amphissos founded a sanctuary of the Nymphs in her honour
and a contest in running, which is still kept up. From this contest women are
excluded, the reason given being that, when Dryope was carried off by the
Nymphs, two maidens revealed the fact to the natives of the land and thus
incurred the anger of the Nymphs, who transformed them into fir-trees.

It would seem, then, that in the neighbourhood of Mount Oite
Apollon was recognised as the consort of a black-poplar. The con-
nexion of this tree with the god was, however, forgotten2, when
Apollon on his way through Thessaly3 acquired the bay as his
attribute. Thenceforward Dryope gave place to Daphne. The fact
is that the particular species of tree assigned to a god depends
entirely, or almost entirely, upon the character of the local flora.
At Delphoi, for example, the bay-tree was of comparatively recent
introduction, and Ovid4 a propos of the earliest Pythian games states
that ' whosoever had won with hand or feet or wheel received the
honour of oaken foliage (aesai/eae...frondis)5: the bay as yet was
not, and Phoebus crowned his brows, fair with their flowing tresses,

1 Another version made Dryops the son of Apollon and of Dia, a daughter of Lykaon
(schol. Ap. Rhod. i. 1218, et. mag. p. 288, 34 f., Tzetz. in Lyk. Al. 480).

2 Ov. met. 9. 329 ft", contaminates the story of Dryope with that of Lotis, and trans-
forms the former, like the latter, into a lotus-tree.

3 A. Mommsen Delphika Leipzig 1878 p. 96, K. Wernicke in Pauly—Wissowa Real-
Enc. ii. 110.

4 Ov. met. 1. 445 ff. I have discussed the passage in Folk-Lore 1904 xv. 413.

0 For Apollon in connexion with the oak see Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 1235 n. 1,
who cites Apollon 'Acrxpaios (supra p. 255, cp. Class. Rev. 1903 xvii. 416) and Apollon
Apv/j-aios (schol. Lyk. Al. 522) or Apvp.as at Miletos (Tzetz. in Lyk. Al. 522 ; but He-
kataios of Miletos (?cp. frag. 356 {Frag. hist. Gr. i. 28 Mtiller)) ap. Strab. 321 regarded
Apvpias as a barbaric name), Dryops son of Apollon (supra p. 486 n. 1) and Dryope mate
of Apollon [supra p. 485 f.), etc. A fine tetradrachm of Katane, struck c. 413—404 B.C.,
shows a full-faced head of Apollon crowned with oak-leaves and flanked by bow and lyre
(Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Sicily p. 47 fig., Hunter Cat. Coins i. 172 no. 12, G. F. Hill
Coins of Ancient Sicily London 1903 p. 132 f. pi. 9, 4, Head Hist, num.2 p. 133). A
copper of Neapolis in Campania has a profile head of Apollon wearing an oak-wreath
(Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Italy p. 109 no. 148 fig-). Further evidence in Folk-Lore 1904
xv. 417 f.