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)

Orphic Theogonies and Cosmogonic Eros i o2 i

(Asklepiades of Mende frag, i {Frag. hist. Gr. iii. 306 Miiller) ap. Athen. 83 c)
or apple-trees bearing golden fruit in Okeanos (Pherekydes of Leros frag. 33
(Frag. hist. Gr. i. 78 f. Miiller) ap. schol. Ap. Rhod. 4. 1396), or came with
branches of golden apples to the wedding and allowed Hera to plant them in
her garden by Mt Atlas, where they were protected by the Hesperides and the
snake (Pherekydes of Leros frag. 33 a (Frag. hist. Gr. i. 79 f. Miiller) ap. Hyg.
poet. astr. 2. 3, schol. Caes. Germ. Aratea p. 383, 1 ff. Eyssenhardt : id. ap.
pseudo-Eratosth. catast. 3 calls it the garden of the gods ; others, the gardens of
Zeus (Soph. Ion frag. 297 Nauck2, 320 Jebb, ap. Stob. flor. 103. 10 (ed. Gaisford
iii. 292) iv Aid? KrjTrois dpovtrdai (T. Bergk cj. dpveaSai) povov evdalpovos (leg.
evftalpovas) oX/Bovs) or the plain of Zeus (Aristoph. av. 1758 rredov Aios kcu Xe^os
yapr/\iov, cp. Eur. Hipp. 749 Zavbs peXddpeov napa Kolrms (J. G. J. Hermann cj.
7rap' eivais)), or the gardens of Father Okeanos (Aristoph. nub. 271), or the
meadow of Hera (Kallim. h. Artem. 164)). The poem concluded with the sixth
generation (Orph. frag. 14 Kern ap. Plat. Phileb. 66 c). O. Gruppe thinks that
it was probably composed towards the end of s. vii B.C. at Kroton, where Hera
Lakinia had a garden (Lyk. A I. 856 ff. opxarov with Tzetz. ad loc. 8rj\ov tup
nrjirov \eyeiv) and a temple of the Muses (Iambi, v. Pyth. 50 after Timaios ?)
may betoken Orphic influence.

[Here I dissent. It seems to me that clear indications point to an earlier
age and a very different locality. If the Atd? dwarf) really presupposes an Orphic
theogony, that theogony can hardly be later than s. x (see the sober estimates
of W. Christ Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur"0 Miinchen 1908 i. 59—62)—a
period which accords well with the epic metre and dialect of the extant fragments,
not to lay stress on the remote traditional dates of Orpheus himself (O. Gruppe
in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 1064—1073). Moreover, our attention is drawn east-
wards rather than westwards : the scene of the Aids- aTrarrj is laid on Mt Ide
in Phrygia (supra i. 154, ii. 950) ; the position assigned by the theogony to Nyx
recalls the archaic (s. vi) figure of Nyx by Rhoikos at Ephesos (Paus. 10. 38. 6 f.);
Okeanos and Tethys as forbears are compared by Aristotle with water as the
primal substance assumed by Thales of Miletos (Aristot. met. 1. 3. 983b 20ff.);
and the cosmic egg, not to mention other points of resemblance, occurs also in
the Phoenician theogony (Sanchouniathon as translated by Philon Bybl. frag. 2. 2
(Frag. hist. Gr. iii. 565 Miiller) ap. Euseb. praep. ev. 1. 10. 2 dveTrXdo-drj onolcos
coov ax^part x.r.A., cp. supra i. 583 n. 4, 785, and Mochos ap. Damask, quaest.
deprimisprincipiis 125 ter (i. 323, 6 ff. Ruelle) u>6v...to Se uw 6 ovpavos). I infer
that the Orphic poem took shape somewhere in Asia Minor as the result of early
Ionian speculation brought to bear on primitive Thraco-Phrygian beliefs. A trace
of such beliefs may be found in the Lesbian tale of Enorches. A certain Thyestes
consorting with his sister Daita or Oaito (v.I. Daiso, cp. the Lesbian Theodaisia
(Nilsson Gr. Feste pp. 280 n. "2, 472 n. 2)) produced from an egg a son called
Enorches, who founded a temple for Dionysos and called the god after himself
Dionysos 'Evdp^i/f (Eudok. viol. 345, schol. Lyk. Al. 212)—a title borne by
Dionysos in Samos also (Hesych.. s.v. 'Evopxr/s) and obviously derived from
opxets, 'testicles' (evopxr/s, evopxos, evopxis is elsewhere used e.g. of a ram (II. 23.
147, Synes. epist. 148) or he-goat (Theokr. 3. 4, Loukian. dial. deor. 4. 1) or bull
(Aristot. hist. an. 9.50. 632 a 20)). Now the names Thyestes and Daito recall at
once the banquet of Thyestes, son of Pelops the Phrygian (Bakchyl. 7. 5, Hdt.
7. 8 and II, Telestes frag. 5 Bergk4 ap. Athen. 625 E—626 A, schol. Pind. 01. 9.
15 a), and imply that in Lesbos as at Mykenai there lingered the memory of
ritual cannibalism. H. D. Miiller My thologie der griechischen Stamme Gottingen