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

The Mountain-cults of Zeus 923

Xp77<r#ets on rbv irarepa aivoKTevei ecpvye, /cat vvktl tt\o'lo: avvavra ev 'P65y, teal cjs Atjctcxs
vofJ-icras avaipeT tqv waripa. eial 8£ vvep clutov to, Araj3vpia oprj, &<p' w Zeus 'Ara^vpLos).

The mountain, as modern travellers report, is a mass of schistose limestone, well
wooded below and dotted with a few large evergreen oaks and pines above. The sanc-
tuary of Zeus is situated on a rounded crest about a hundred paces south-east of the
actual summit. Here at a point 4070 ft above the sea is a walled precinct 120 ft in
length, and within it a pile of ruins lying 3 to 4 ft deep. Bluish blocks quarried on the
mountain, the largest of them 5 ft long, prove the former existence of a Hellenic build-
ing on the site. But no columns have survived, and only a single architrave-block with a
simple moulding. The Greek temple was long since reconstructed as a monastery. But
this in turn fell into decay, and nowadays even the little chapel of Hagios loannes, which
stands in the middle of the ruins, has lost its roof. North-east of the precinct, somewhat
lower down, in a hollow are the remains of other ancient structures, including a large
vaulted cistern. L. Ross, followed by C. Torr, thought that here may have been a
temple of Athena; but the argument which he drew from Polyb. 9. 27. 7 (cited snpra
p. 910 n. 1) is insecure. See further W. J. Hamilton Researches in Asia Minor, Tonttis,
and Armenia London 1842 ii. 61 ff. (ascent from E?nbona Jan. 31, 1837), L. Ross
Reisen anf den griechischen Inseln des dgdischen Meeres Stuttgart—Tubingen 1845 iii.
105 ff. (ascent from Enibona Sept. 27, 1843), C. Torr Rhodes in Ancient Tunes Cam-
bridge 1885 pp. 1, 75, H. F. Tozer The Islands of the Aegean Oxford 1890 p. 220 f.

The local myth is told most fully by Apollocl. 3. 2. 1 f. Katreus, son of Minos, was
fated to be killed by one of his own sons. Althaimenes, son of Katreus, to avoid killing
his father, fled from Crete to Rhodes with his sister Apemosyne. He put in at a certain
place which he named Kretenia (Kpr)Tivlav cod. R., followed by R. Hercher and
R. Wagner. KparivLav codd. plerique. C. G. Heyne cj. KprjTTjviav, cp. Steph. Byz. loc.
cit.). On climbing Mt Atabyrion he got a view of Crete, and, in memory of his ancestral
deities, built there an altar of Zeus '' Arafivpios. Soon afterwards Hermes fell in love with
Apemosyne and, when he could not catch her (for she was fleet of foot), strewed freshly-
flayed hides in the road. On these she slipped, and thus was violated by her pursuer.
Althaimenes, hearing of her fall, believed the tale about Hermes to be a mere excuse
and killed his sister by leaping upon her. Later, Katreus, anxious to leave his kingdom
to Althaimenes, came to Rhodes and was mistaken for a pirate by the ox-herds, who
chased and pelted him. Katreus told them the truth, but could not gain a hearing
because the dogs were barking. So Althaimenes all unwittingly speared him. On learn-
ing what he had done he uttered a prayer, and in answer thereto was engulfed in a
chasm. Uiod. 5. 59, however, probably borrowing his account not from Zenon of
Rhodes (frag. 2 (Frag. hist. Gr. iii. 17 7 f. Miiller)) but from a later source dependent on
Polyzalos etc. (Gruppe Myth. Lit. 1921 p. 380), says that Althaimenes wandered in the
desert till he died of grief and was afterwards, in obedience to an oracle, honoured as a
hero by the Rhodians.

This myth deserves analysis. There is in it, to begin with, a substratum of historic, or
at least prehistoric, fact—the intimate relations between 'Minoan' Crete and Rhodes
(H. van Gelder Geschichte der alien Rhodier Haag 1900 p. 30 ff., D. Mackenzie in the
Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1905-1906 xii. 222, C. Blinkenberg in Hermes 1913 xlviii. 246^,
Gruppe Myth. Lit. 192 c p. 380) : Minos himself was believed to have dedicated a silver
cup to Athena HoXids and Zeus IloXtet/s at Lindos (C. Blinkenberg Die lindische Tempel-
chronik Bonn 1915 p- 8 ff. B, 18 ff. MiVws dpyvpeov worrjpiov, e</>' ov eireyeypa\irTo'
" MtVws Wdavai lToAtdSi ko.1 Ad noAieZ," ci's (pan j Eevayopas ev rdi A rSs xpoi/i/cas
avvra^ios, \ Topyoiv ev tcli A rav irepl 'P65ov, Topyo<rde'vr]s \ ev rati eVicrroXcu, 'Iep6(3ov\os ev
rat eTTLo-roXai). There is also an element of folk-tale, the story of Katreus fated to be slain
by his own son recalling the motif Odysseus and Telegonos (A. C. Pearson The Frag-
ments of Sophocles Cambridge 1917 ii. 105 ff. j or of La'ios and Oidipous (C. Robert
Oidipus Berlin 1915 i. 66 ff.). Lastly there are definite points of aetiology. Apemosyne,
a woman of the royal house, who flees at full speed, falls on the fresh hides, and is then