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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14697#0109
The Mountain-cults of Zeus 947
Monn. gr. ran. ii. 3. 989 ff. pi. 256, 4—8) makes it fairly certain that beneath the god is
spread a lion (?)-skin, the head of which is touched by his left hand. That we have here
to do with a youthful Zeus appears from Hesych. s.v. YeXxdvos (for FeXxdvos)' 6 Zeus
wapd Kpriaiv (so J. V. Perger for Kpiaioi cod. Musurus cj. 'A/cpicrtto). We must, I think,
conclude that, as at Gortyna Zeus took Europe to wife on a willow-tree [supra i. 526 ff.),
so in the neighbouring town of Phaistos he had the same or a similar willow-bride.
And here I cannot avoid adding a word on the meaning of the appellative FeXxdvos,
which has been often discussed and always misunderstood. Leaving out of account
impossible conjectures (for which see O. Jessen in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. vii. 969 f.),
we have before us two more or less improbable alternatives. (1) Some scholars assume
the existence of a Cretan word /eX/cos, a 'cock,' evidenced by the Phaestian coin-type of
FeXxdvos holding a cock and by the occurrence of Tc'Xkos (? FA/cos misread) as the name
of a cock on a late Corinthian vase (Roulez Vases de Leide p. 39 n. 4 pi. 10, Reinach
Rep. Vases ii. 271, Class. Rev. 1903 xvii. 413). But the vase-inscription is now read as
'yeKKos?' (A. E. J. Holwerda Catalogus van het Rijksmuseum van Oudheden te Leiden.
Afdeeling Griekenland en Italic 1 Deel: Vaatwerk. Leiden 1905 i. 62). And to bring
in the Hesychian glosses 7]iKav6sm 6 dXeKrpvJjv (A. J. Reinach in VAnthropologic jq 10
xxi. 76) and cripKos' dXetcrpvwv. /ecu dXeKroptdes ceX/ces with 2eX%pot' Ilepcrai (T. Panofka
in the Abh. d. berl. Akad. 1840 Phil.-hist. Classe p. 348) is only to darken counsel.
(2) Others assume that FeXxdvos is related to Volcaniis—an assumption made first by
G. Secchi ' Giove CEAXANOS e l'oracolo suo nell' antro Ideo' in the Dissertazioni
della Pontifica Accademia Romana di Archeologia Roma 1842 x. 331 ff., later by A. Fick
in the Beitrdge zur kunde der indogermanischen sprachen 1879 iii. 166 f. ('Vielmehr ist
FeXxavos von FeKk glanzen abzuleiten, das in der Form fXeic auch in dem Gottesnamen
'HfXeKTbip 'Tirepiuv der Sonnengott bei Homer wie in den mythischen Namen 'HXeVrpa
und 'H.XeKTpvwi> erscheint. Gleichen Stammes ist auch a/3Xa.£ ( — d-fXa^)' Xap-irpLos.
KuVpiot bei Hesych, welches ftir Digamma beweist.' He defends x f°r K as a Cretan
peculiarity, cp. PL Helbig De dialecto Cretica Plaviae 1873 p. 13), id. Vergleichendes
Worterbuch der Indogermanischen SprachenA Gbttingen 1890 i. 133 (' FeXxdvos = Vul-
canus'), and last by Walde Lat. etym. Worterb? p. 853 f. ('Doch sind die angeftihrten
Stutzen ftir ein *uelq- karg und etwas unsicher, dagegen der Anklang von FeXxdvos (mit
seinem auffalligen x) und Volcanus so weitgehend, dass beide wohl als identisch und als
Lehnworte aus dem Orient zu betrachten sind'). The equation, however, does not satis-
factorily explain the % of FeXxdvos.
Mr B. F. C. Atkinson and I, after a joint consideration of all the data, have rejected
both these alternatives and reached the conclusion (Feb. 9, 1923) that FeXxdvos means
simply 'god of the Willow-tree,' being in fact akin to the English word willow (Middle
English wilow, wilwe, Anglo-Saxon welig, Dutch wilg, Low German wilge). My con-
tention that Zeus at Phaistos, as at Gortyna, was the consort of a willow-goddess is thus
strikingly confirmed. Instead of his usual eagle he has a cock, because that bird as the
crest of the Phaestian Idomeneus had a long-standing mythical connexion with the town.
Pausanias in describing certain statues by Onatas, which the Achaeans dedicated to Zeus
at Olympia, says: ' The one with the scutcheon of the cock on the shield is Idomeneus,
the descendant of Minos. They say that Idomeneus was descended from the Sun, who
was the sire of Pasiphae, and that the cock is sacred to the Sun and heralds his rising'
(Paus. 5. 25. 9 trans. Sir J. G. Frazer). See further G. H. Chase 'The Shield Devices
of the Greeks' in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 1902 xiii. 74, 101 f. (nos. lxxvii
and lxxviii = eleven vases with cock as shield-sign, one with cock and rosette) and
E. Baethgen De vi ac signification galli in religionibus et artibus Graecorum et Romano-
rum Gottingae 1887 p. n f. ('Sol—Apollo').
The cult of Zeus FeXxdvos has left traces of itself in other places beside Phaistos :
(1) Hagia Triada (F. Halbherr in the Rendiconti d. Lincei 1905 xiv. 381 notes the discovery
at Hagia Priada of numerous tiles incised with the name of the god Fevxdvos, a dialect
form of FeXxdvos). (2) Gortyna (J. de Prott Leges Graecorum sacrae Lipsiae 1896 Fasti
sacri p. 42 f. no. 20, 1 = F. Blass in Collitz—Bechtel Gr. Dial.-Inschr. iii. 2. 248 no. 4963,
60—2
Monn. gr. ran. ii. 3. 989 ff. pi. 256, 4—8) makes it fairly certain that beneath the god is
spread a lion (?)-skin, the head of which is touched by his left hand. That we have here
to do with a youthful Zeus appears from Hesych. s.v. YeXxdvos (for FeXxdvos)' 6 Zeus
wapd Kpriaiv (so J. V. Perger for Kpiaioi cod. Musurus cj. 'A/cpicrtto). We must, I think,
conclude that, as at Gortyna Zeus took Europe to wife on a willow-tree [supra i. 526 ff.),
so in the neighbouring town of Phaistos he had the same or a similar willow-bride.
And here I cannot avoid adding a word on the meaning of the appellative FeXxdvos,
which has been often discussed and always misunderstood. Leaving out of account
impossible conjectures (for which see O. Jessen in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. vii. 969 f.),
we have before us two more or less improbable alternatives. (1) Some scholars assume
the existence of a Cretan word /eX/cos, a 'cock,' evidenced by the Phaestian coin-type of
FeXxdvos holding a cock and by the occurrence of Tc'Xkos (? FA/cos misread) as the name
of a cock on a late Corinthian vase (Roulez Vases de Leide p. 39 n. 4 pi. 10, Reinach
Rep. Vases ii. 271, Class. Rev. 1903 xvii. 413). But the vase-inscription is now read as
'yeKKos?' (A. E. J. Holwerda Catalogus van het Rijksmuseum van Oudheden te Leiden.
Afdeeling Griekenland en Italic 1 Deel: Vaatwerk. Leiden 1905 i. 62). And to bring
in the Hesychian glosses 7]iKav6sm 6 dXeKrpvJjv (A. J. Reinach in VAnthropologic jq 10
xxi. 76) and cripKos' dXetcrpvwv. /ecu dXeKroptdes ceX/ces with 2eX%pot' Ilepcrai (T. Panofka
in the Abh. d. berl. Akad. 1840 Phil.-hist. Classe p. 348) is only to darken counsel.
(2) Others assume that FeXxdvos is related to Volcaniis—an assumption made first by
G. Secchi ' Giove CEAXANOS e l'oracolo suo nell' antro Ideo' in the Dissertazioni
della Pontifica Accademia Romana di Archeologia Roma 1842 x. 331 ff., later by A. Fick
in the Beitrdge zur kunde der indogermanischen sprachen 1879 iii. 166 f. ('Vielmehr ist
FeXxavos von FeKk glanzen abzuleiten, das in der Form fXeic auch in dem Gottesnamen
'HfXeKTbip 'Tirepiuv der Sonnengott bei Homer wie in den mythischen Namen 'HXeVrpa
und 'H.XeKTpvwi> erscheint. Gleichen Stammes ist auch a/3Xa.£ ( — d-fXa^)' Xap-irpLos.
KuVpiot bei Hesych, welches ftir Digamma beweist.' He defends x f°r K as a Cretan
peculiarity, cp. PL Helbig De dialecto Cretica Plaviae 1873 p. 13), id. Vergleichendes
Worterbuch der Indogermanischen SprachenA Gbttingen 1890 i. 133 (' FeXxdvos = Vul-
canus'), and last by Walde Lat. etym. Worterb? p. 853 f. ('Doch sind die angeftihrten
Stutzen ftir ein *uelq- karg und etwas unsicher, dagegen der Anklang von FeXxdvos (mit
seinem auffalligen x) und Volcanus so weitgehend, dass beide wohl als identisch und als
Lehnworte aus dem Orient zu betrachten sind'). The equation, however, does not satis-
factorily explain the % of FeXxdvos.
Mr B. F. C. Atkinson and I, after a joint consideration of all the data, have rejected
both these alternatives and reached the conclusion (Feb. 9, 1923) that FeXxdvos means
simply 'god of the Willow-tree,' being in fact akin to the English word willow (Middle
English wilow, wilwe, Anglo-Saxon welig, Dutch wilg, Low German wilge). My con-
tention that Zeus at Phaistos, as at Gortyna, was the consort of a willow-goddess is thus
strikingly confirmed. Instead of his usual eagle he has a cock, because that bird as the
crest of the Phaestian Idomeneus had a long-standing mythical connexion with the town.
Pausanias in describing certain statues by Onatas, which the Achaeans dedicated to Zeus
at Olympia, says: ' The one with the scutcheon of the cock on the shield is Idomeneus,
the descendant of Minos. They say that Idomeneus was descended from the Sun, who
was the sire of Pasiphae, and that the cock is sacred to the Sun and heralds his rising'
(Paus. 5. 25. 9 trans. Sir J. G. Frazer). See further G. H. Chase 'The Shield Devices
of the Greeks' in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 1902 xiii. 74, 101 f. (nos. lxxvii
and lxxviii = eleven vases with cock as shield-sign, one with cock and rosette) and
E. Baethgen De vi ac signification galli in religionibus et artibus Graecorum et Romano-
rum Gottingae 1887 p. n f. ('Sol—Apollo').
The cult of Zeus FeXxdvos has left traces of itself in other places beside Phaistos :
(1) Hagia Triada (F. Halbherr in the Rendiconti d. Lincei 1905 xiv. 381 notes the discovery
at Hagia Priada of numerous tiles incised with the name of the god Fevxdvos, a dialect
form of FeXxdvos). (2) Gortyna (J. de Prott Leges Graecorum sacrae Lipsiae 1896 Fasti
sacri p. 42 f. no. 20, 1 = F. Blass in Collitz—Bechtel Gr. Dial.-Inschr. iii. 2. 248 no. 4963,
60—2