DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14697#0101
The Mountain-cults of Zeus 939
Mount Juktas1.
(20) A tablet of terra cofta bearing in rubricated characters of Roman date the crucial
inscription At 'I5at[w] | euxw \ 'Acrrrip ['A]\\e£av\dpov (E. Fabricius in the Ath. Mitth.
1885 x. 280f., F. Halbherr loc. cit. p. 766).
Thus for more than a millennium—from ' Minoan ' to Roman times—men paid their
vows to Zeus 'IScuos in the shadow of a great rock and turned again, well content, to the
duties that awaited them in the sunlight five thousand feet below.
The cave on Mt Ide called Arktfsion {supra p. 548 f.) has been identified tentatively
with the Kamares grotto (L. Biirchner in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. ix. 861). But its
traditional connexion with the Kouretes [supra p. 549 n. 1) points rather to identification
with the better known Idaean Cave, where in fact the Curetic tytnpanon was found (supra).
The name 'Apfceaiov has been interpreted (L. Biirchner loc. cit.) as the ' Bear's Hole ' (from
apKos, a doublet of dpfcros : see Prellwitz Etym. Worterb. d. Gr. Spr.'2 p. 53, Boisacq
Diet. e"tym. de la Langue Gr. p. 78 f.)—a view which might be supported by the existence
of a cavern usually described as that of the Bear (Arkhoudhes) in the promontory of
Akroliri, east of Kydonia (Canea) (Miss D. M. A. Bate in A. Trevor-Battye Camping in
Crete London 1913 p. 248)/ After all, bears had some claim to be regarded as the nurses
of the infant Zeus [supra i. 112 n. 5).
Mr Trevor-Battye op. cit. p. 108 ff. describes and illustrates his ascent of the mountain.
He says (p. 119 ff.) : ' The actual summit of Ida is a blunted cone with rounded sides.
Most of the summit was clear of snow, but on the southern and western sides lay some
large melting drifts. The loose stones that pave this cone are laid down flat by the
wind. The summit, 8,193 feet high, is now called Stavros... On the tip-top of Ida is a
" monastery " : every church in Crete is called a monastery. This particular one is a tiny
little building made very strong against the wind; it is built on the same principle as the
mountain-shepherds' huts—of slabs of stone laid one upon the other. At one point only
has any mortar been used, just at the springing 01 the chancel dome. There were tapers
inside for the devotees to burn before the ikons... I gathered...that a priest comes once
a year to hold a service in this church. The church is surrounded by a walled enclosure
that also includes a well of excellent ice-cold water... Beyond the enclosure a circle had
been cleared of stones, and here, said Ianni, once a year the people danced. Spratt tells
how, as he went up to Ida, he saw forty ibex, and that a group were actually browsing on
the summit ; but that was over fifty years ago. I scanned the rocks in every direction
in vain.'
1 Mt Juktas, an isolated ridge running from south to north towards Knossos and the
sea, attains a height of 2720 ft. Its modern Greek name Tiovxras or Ylovktcis derives from
an earlier AidiKras and means the 'Pursuer' (5iujktt?s). Such a name of course presupposes
a myth, and very fortunately the myth is preserved for us by Kallimachos, who describes
the 'pursuit' (Stco/o-w) of Britomartis by Minos (Kallim. h. Artem. 189 ff., supra i. 527
n. 1 : cp. Diod. 5. 76 8i.wKoixevrjv virb MtVw). The poet tells how Britomartis, to escape
the embraces of Minos, plunged from the top of Mt Dikte into the sea, but omits to state
what became of her disappointed lover. In all probability he was transformed into the
mountain still called the ' Pursuer.' For the outline of Juktas, as seen from the west, is
suggestive of a human face. A. Trevor-Battye Camping in Crete London 1913 p. 184 with
pi. (my pi. xliii is reproduced from a photograph very kindly given me by Mr C. R. Haines)
remarks: 'Rocks and mountains often bear a likeness to human lineaments; every
traveller can recall many such resemblances, but none that I have seen have the convincing
dignity of the face on Iuktas. The bearded face and the drapery or pillow on which the
head reposes occupy the whole of the mountain-top. Seen in the flatness of the mid-day
light it is an interesting outline and no more, but at turn of the sun the sculpturing begins.
The sun works in masses, as Michelangelo worked ; it carves out the planes of the face as
Donatello carved them, letting detail go. So the chiselling continues, a high light here,
a deepening shadow there, till with closed eyes the head has sunk down upon its pillow
just as the sun is low.' Sir A. J. Evans The Palace of Minos at Knossos London 1921 i.
Mount Juktas1.
(20) A tablet of terra cofta bearing in rubricated characters of Roman date the crucial
inscription At 'I5at[w] | euxw \ 'Acrrrip ['A]\\e£av\dpov (E. Fabricius in the Ath. Mitth.
1885 x. 280f., F. Halbherr loc. cit. p. 766).
Thus for more than a millennium—from ' Minoan ' to Roman times—men paid their
vows to Zeus 'IScuos in the shadow of a great rock and turned again, well content, to the
duties that awaited them in the sunlight five thousand feet below.
The cave on Mt Ide called Arktfsion {supra p. 548 f.) has been identified tentatively
with the Kamares grotto (L. Biirchner in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. ix. 861). But its
traditional connexion with the Kouretes [supra p. 549 n. 1) points rather to identification
with the better known Idaean Cave, where in fact the Curetic tytnpanon was found (supra).
The name 'Apfceaiov has been interpreted (L. Biirchner loc. cit.) as the ' Bear's Hole ' (from
apKos, a doublet of dpfcros : see Prellwitz Etym. Worterb. d. Gr. Spr.'2 p. 53, Boisacq
Diet. e"tym. de la Langue Gr. p. 78 f.)—a view which might be supported by the existence
of a cavern usually described as that of the Bear (Arkhoudhes) in the promontory of
Akroliri, east of Kydonia (Canea) (Miss D. M. A. Bate in A. Trevor-Battye Camping in
Crete London 1913 p. 248)/ After all, bears had some claim to be regarded as the nurses
of the infant Zeus [supra i. 112 n. 5).
Mr Trevor-Battye op. cit. p. 108 ff. describes and illustrates his ascent of the mountain.
He says (p. 119 ff.) : ' The actual summit of Ida is a blunted cone with rounded sides.
Most of the summit was clear of snow, but on the southern and western sides lay some
large melting drifts. The loose stones that pave this cone are laid down flat by the
wind. The summit, 8,193 feet high, is now called Stavros... On the tip-top of Ida is a
" monastery " : every church in Crete is called a monastery. This particular one is a tiny
little building made very strong against the wind; it is built on the same principle as the
mountain-shepherds' huts—of slabs of stone laid one upon the other. At one point only
has any mortar been used, just at the springing 01 the chancel dome. There were tapers
inside for the devotees to burn before the ikons... I gathered...that a priest comes once
a year to hold a service in this church. The church is surrounded by a walled enclosure
that also includes a well of excellent ice-cold water... Beyond the enclosure a circle had
been cleared of stones, and here, said Ianni, once a year the people danced. Spratt tells
how, as he went up to Ida, he saw forty ibex, and that a group were actually browsing on
the summit ; but that was over fifty years ago. I scanned the rocks in every direction
in vain.'
1 Mt Juktas, an isolated ridge running from south to north towards Knossos and the
sea, attains a height of 2720 ft. Its modern Greek name Tiovxras or Ylovktcis derives from
an earlier AidiKras and means the 'Pursuer' (5iujktt?s). Such a name of course presupposes
a myth, and very fortunately the myth is preserved for us by Kallimachos, who describes
the 'pursuit' (Stco/o-w) of Britomartis by Minos (Kallim. h. Artem. 189 ff., supra i. 527
n. 1 : cp. Diod. 5. 76 8i.wKoixevrjv virb MtVw). The poet tells how Britomartis, to escape
the embraces of Minos, plunged from the top of Mt Dikte into the sea, but omits to state
what became of her disappointed lover. In all probability he was transformed into the
mountain still called the ' Pursuer.' For the outline of Juktas, as seen from the west, is
suggestive of a human face. A. Trevor-Battye Camping in Crete London 1913 p. 184 with
pi. (my pi. xliii is reproduced from a photograph very kindly given me by Mr C. R. Haines)
remarks: 'Rocks and mountains often bear a likeness to human lineaments; every
traveller can recall many such resemblances, but none that I have seen have the convincing
dignity of the face on Iuktas. The bearded face and the drapery or pillow on which the
head reposes occupy the whole of the mountain-top. Seen in the flatness of the mid-day
light it is an interesting outline and no more, but at turn of the sun the sculpturing begins.
The sun works in masses, as Michelangelo worked ; it carves out the planes of the face as
Donatello carved them, letting detail go. So the chiselling continues, a high light here,
a deepening shadow there, till with closed eyes the head has sunk down upon its pillow
just as the sun is low.' Sir A. J. Evans The Palace of Minos at Knossos London 1921 i.