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)

994

Appendix E

The same motif is woven into tales of different texture from Zakynthos and
Kypros :

(4) The Blinding of the Kyklops in a Folk-tale from Zakynthos1.

Once upon a time there was a certain king's daughter. Three days after her
birth came the Fates, who declared that during the fifteenth year of her life she
must hide herself from the sun, on pain of becoming a lizard, falling into the
sea, and remaining there for five months. As the destined time drew near, the
maid saddened and her father tried to divert his thoughts by travelling. Before
he set out on his journey he asked his daughter what he could do for her. She
begged him to contract a marriage on her behalf with the Giant of the Moun-
tain2. The king then went abroad and reached at last the Giant's town, where
he heard say that the Giant meant to marry the fairest maiden in the world.
He also made friends with the barber that clipped the Giant's beard and enjoyed
the Giant's confidence. The Giant himself proved to be a one-eyed monster,
who wore seven veils over his face : he lived with many others of his kind in a
hollow mountain, where they dug for treasure and hewed out vast building-
stones for their houses. Prompted by the barber, the king claimed to be the
Giant's son, and, in proof of his assertion, let the giant strike him with a huge
pole : he evaded the blow by receiving it on a big leather bag3. He then
removed the Giant's veils, and was thanked for his pains. When he broached
the subject of his errand, the Giant took him into a chamber apart, showed him
many paintings of maidens, and asked whether his daughter resembled any of
them. The king replied that these were not worthy even to wash his daughter's
feet. The Giant next drew from his breast a miniature, and repeated his ques-
tion. The king again answered that his daughter's chamber-maid looked like
that. So the Giant agreed to wed the king's daughter, if she was as beautiful as
her father declared4. The king went home and reported his success. His
daughter made herself ready, and, in order to avoid the sun-light, came in a
litter with her nurse and her nurse's daughter. But, when they were on board
ship nearing the coast, the nurse dropped a costly kerchief and begged the
princess to have the door of the litter opened that she might recover it. Here-

1 Text unpublished. Translation (here summarised) in B. Schmidt Griechische
Marchen, Sagen unci Volkslieder Leipzig 1877 pp. 98—104 no. 13 (' Der Riese vom
Berge '), 230 f. = Hackman op. cit. p. 11 f. no. 3. The tale is a variant of a type first
described by R. Kdhler in L. Gonzenbach Sicilianische Marchen Leipzig 1870 ii. 225 ff.
as ' das M. von dem Bruder und seiner schonen Schwester ' and later studied in detail by
P. Arfert Das Motiv von der unterschobenen Brant in der internationalen Erzdhlungs-
iiteratur Rostock 1897 : see J. Bolte—G. Pohvka Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- u.
Hausmarchen der Bruder Grimm Leipzig 1913 i. 79 ff., 1918 iii. 85 ff.

2 rbv yiyavra tov fiovvov. In Zakynthos giants, with a long beard on their chin and a
single eye that sparkles like fire in their forehead, are said to live underground, where
they quarry huge stones for building towers and cause the earthquakes that are so frequent
in this island. They are the children of a devil and a L&mnissa (Lamia) or a witch ; and
their wives spin yarn with spindles of such monstrous size and weight that once, when the
giants made war on a certain king, their wives flung these spindles at the enemy and so
slew thousands (B. Schmidt Das Volksleben der Neugrtechen Leipzig 1871 i. 200 f.).

3 For a similar incident see 'The Scab-pate,' a folk-tale from Astypalaia (J. Pio
NEOEAAHNIKA ITAPAMT9IA Contes populaires grecs Copenhague 1879 p. 162 f., E. M.
Geldart Folk-Lore of Modern Greece London 1884 p. 157).

4 A similar situation occurs in a folk-tale from Epeiros (J. Pio op. cit. p. 17, E. M.
Geldart op. cit. p. 37 f. ' The Golden Wand').