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)

Appendix E

With this decision I find myself in substantial agreement. I have already
urged, not only that the Kyklops' eye stood for the sun in heaven1, but also that
the Kyklops himself was in the far past a sky-god like Zeus2. Moreover I have
ventured to compare Odysseus, who plunged a heated bar into the Kyklops' eye,
with Prometheus, who thrust a torch into the solar wheel3. The comparison
might be further strengthened. It now appears that an integral part of the
Kyklops-tale was the giant's gift to the hero of a magical ring4. This recalls the
curious legend that Zeus presented Prometheus with a ring fashioned out of his
chains5. In Germanic belief, too, the one-eyed Wodan possessed a gold ring
from which every ninth night dripped eight other rings of equal weight6. It is
difficult to avoid the conclusion that the golden rings thrown or dropped by the
sky-god were at first but a naive expression for the daily movement of the
solar disk. Nevertheless I concur with Hackman's opinion that the mytho-
logical significance of these one-eyed beings had passed into oblivion long
before Homer told his immortal tale. A fortiori it would be fatuous to seek
any such hidden meaning in the modern Miirchen. I append a few samples
from Greece and Italy.

Versions from the Greek area are all more or less defective. At most they
preserve episode i (a) together with its sequel ii (a) or ii (/3). That is the case
with a folk-tale from Athens and with another from Kappadokia :

(i) The Kyklops in a Folk-tale from Athens7.

Once upon a time there was a king, whose daughter was so lovely that, if—

' She bade the sun, he would stand still,
The morning star, he 'Id twinkle.'

All the princes were eager to marry her. But she refused each one who
proffered his love : only the handsomest of them, who had been blessed by his
mother, touched her heart at all. In the end she agreed to wed him who should
bring her the golden wand of the Famous Drakos8. The Famous9 Drakos was
the strongest and fiercest of all the Drakoi ; he had one eye in his forehead,
which remained open even when he was asleep, so that none could approach
him without being eaten by him. His golden wand, if leant against a door,
made it at once fly open. The princes on hearing the terms of betrothal shook
with terror. But the handsome prince resolved to obtain the golden wand, or

1 Supra i. 313, 323, 462. 2 Supra i. 320.

3 Supra i. 325 ff. 4 Supra p. 989 n. 1.

6 Supra i. 329 n. o. 6 Supra p. 62 n. 1.

7 Text in the AeXrlov rrjs 'ltjTOpiKris /ecu 'HldvoXoyLKTjs 'Eraiptas ttjs 'EXXdSos Athens 1883
i. 147 ff. Translation (here condensed) in L. M. J. Garnett—J. S. Stuart-Glennie Greek
Folk Poesy London 1896 ii. 80—87, 444 f. Cp. a very similar tale from Attike in G.
D rosinis Land und Leute in Nord-Euboa trans. A. Boltz Leipzig 1884 p. 170 ff. ('Lie
Polyphem-Sage in modern hellenischer Gestalt aus den " Athenischen Marchen" von
Frl. Maria Kampuroglu') = Hackman op. cit. p. 9 f. no. i=Sir J. G. Frazer loc. cit.
p. 439 f. no. 24.

8 On the Ap&Kos or Ap&KovTas of the modern Greek see B. Schmidt Das Volksleben der
Neugriechen Leipzig 1871 i. 190—195, N. G. Polites MeXerr] eirl rod filov tuv Neurtpwv
'EXXijj'uw Athens 1871 i. 154—172 (' Ap&Kovres'), id. HapaSSveis Athens 1904 i. 219—
228 (' Ap&Koi'), ii. 990—1002, J. C. Lawson Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek
Religion Cambridge 1910 pp. 280—283, W. R. Halliday in R. M. Dawkins Modern
Greek in Asia Minor Cambridge 1916 pp. 219, 225 ff.

9 With his fixed epithet ' Famous ' cp. the Homeric Ho\v<p7]fj.os.