DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14697#0266
1104
Appendix M
to Zeus Meilichios may now be covered by the church of Saint Sabas1. If so2
is it a mere coincidence that this Greek martyr, whose festival falls on the first
of May, was said to have been hung by his hands upon a fig-tree3?
There is, it would seem, much to be said in favour of both these views—that
which regards Zeus Meilichios as a god ' Kindly' towards the fugitive man-slayer
and that which takes him to have been originally a ' god of Figs.' Nevertheless
I find myself unable to adopt either opinion ; for both alike are based on the
circumstances of one particular cult-centre without regard to the other localities
in which Zeus Meilichios is known to have been worshipped. Our survey must
be wider before we can safely venture on an interpretation of the disputed
appellative.
(3) Zeus Meilichios on the Attic coast.
Between the harbours of Zea and Mounichia the Attic coastline shows various
groups of rock-cut niches4. At one point5, four hundred metres in a north-
westerly direction from the island of Slalida, the foothill displays a grotto
and beside it a recess, originally lined with red stucco and still framed by pi-
lasters and an architrave with palmettes above it. The decoration appears to date
from the fourth century B.C. Some ninety metres further towards the west other
niches of different shapes and sizes are to be seen carved in an old quarry-face0.
To judge from votive reliefs found in the vicinity, the whole site was once sacred
to Zeus Meilichios and to a kindred deity Zeus Philios7. Agathe Tyche, regarded
Roscher Lex. Myth. iv. 1617 connects this myth with the belief that the fig-tree was
lightning-proof (Plout. symp. 4. 2. 1, 5. 9, Lyd. de mens. 3. 52 p. 49, 22 Bekker = z7;. 4. 96
p. 111, 3 f. Bekker = p. 181, 18 f. Wiinsch, 4. 4 p. 69, 1 Wiinsch, ale ostent. 45 p. 98, 15 ff.
Wachsmuth, Theophanes Nonnos epitome de curatione morborum 259, Geopon. ir. 2. 7,
cp. Plin. nat. hist. 15. 77: see Rohde Psyche* ii. 406 f., Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 785
n. 6, F. Olck in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. vi. 2145, and especially T. H. Martin La
foitdre Pe'lectricite' et le magne'tisme chez les anciens Paris 1866 p. 194 f.).
1 Frazer Pausanias ii. 493.
2 F. Lenormant Monographic de la Voie Sacre'e Eleusinienne Paris 1864 p. 312 accepts
the view of F. C. H. Kruse Hellas Leipzig 1826 ii. 1. 173 that the site of the altar is
marked by the little church of St Blasios (Sir W. Gell The Ltinerary of Greece London 1819
P- 31)-
3 Acta Sanctorum edd. Bolland. Maii i. 46 (De Sancto Saba, martyre apud Greecos.)
Antigua MSS. Meiuea, qua Divione apud Petrum Franciscum Societatis Lesu asservari
reperimus anno MDCLXii, referunt /usee Kalendis Maji S. Sabam, in fico digitis suis
appensum, & sic gloriosa vita functum, &■= addunt hoc distichon.
"Hveytce xapirbv irpu'Cfxev^s trvKTjs \jege "HvejKe Kapirbv irpui/j.r]s <tvkt}s k~Kddos
KXddos tov xfipoSeff/xoiS eKKpe/j.a./j.evoi' T6f xeipoSeff/jiois eKKpe/j.ap.ei'ou (sic) 2d/3av.]
Attulit fructum preematurse ficus
Ramus, suspensum e digitis vinctis Saban.
M. and W. Drake Saints and their Emblems London 1916 p. 113 confuse this St Sabas
with St Sabas the Gothic martyr (April 12), who suffered under Athanaricus in 372 a.d.
(G. T. Stokes in Smith—Wace Diet. Chr. Biogr. iv. 566).
4 A. Milchhofer in E. Curtius—J. A. Kaupert Karten von Attika Berlin 1881 Erlaut-
ernder Text Heft i p. 60 f., C. Wachsmuth Die Stadt Athen im Alterthnm Leipzig 1890
ii. 1. 146 ff., A. Furtwangler in the Sitzungsber. d. kais. bayr. Akad. d. Wiss. Phil.-hist.
Classe 1897 p. 406 ff., W. Judeich Topographie von Athen Munchen 1905 p. 383.
5 E. Curtius and J. A. Kaupert Atlas von Athen Berlin 1878 p. 35 pi. 12, r.
6 E. Curtius and J. A. Kaupert op. cit. p. 35 pi. 12, 2.
7 Lnfra Append. N med.
Appendix M
to Zeus Meilichios may now be covered by the church of Saint Sabas1. If so2
is it a mere coincidence that this Greek martyr, whose festival falls on the first
of May, was said to have been hung by his hands upon a fig-tree3?
There is, it would seem, much to be said in favour of both these views—that
which regards Zeus Meilichios as a god ' Kindly' towards the fugitive man-slayer
and that which takes him to have been originally a ' god of Figs.' Nevertheless
I find myself unable to adopt either opinion ; for both alike are based on the
circumstances of one particular cult-centre without regard to the other localities
in which Zeus Meilichios is known to have been worshipped. Our survey must
be wider before we can safely venture on an interpretation of the disputed
appellative.
(3) Zeus Meilichios on the Attic coast.
Between the harbours of Zea and Mounichia the Attic coastline shows various
groups of rock-cut niches4. At one point5, four hundred metres in a north-
westerly direction from the island of Slalida, the foothill displays a grotto
and beside it a recess, originally lined with red stucco and still framed by pi-
lasters and an architrave with palmettes above it. The decoration appears to date
from the fourth century B.C. Some ninety metres further towards the west other
niches of different shapes and sizes are to be seen carved in an old quarry-face0.
To judge from votive reliefs found in the vicinity, the whole site was once sacred
to Zeus Meilichios and to a kindred deity Zeus Philios7. Agathe Tyche, regarded
Roscher Lex. Myth. iv. 1617 connects this myth with the belief that the fig-tree was
lightning-proof (Plout. symp. 4. 2. 1, 5. 9, Lyd. de mens. 3. 52 p. 49, 22 Bekker = z7;. 4. 96
p. 111, 3 f. Bekker = p. 181, 18 f. Wiinsch, 4. 4 p. 69, 1 Wiinsch, ale ostent. 45 p. 98, 15 ff.
Wachsmuth, Theophanes Nonnos epitome de curatione morborum 259, Geopon. ir. 2. 7,
cp. Plin. nat. hist. 15. 77: see Rohde Psyche* ii. 406 f., Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 785
n. 6, F. Olck in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. vi. 2145, and especially T. H. Martin La
foitdre Pe'lectricite' et le magne'tisme chez les anciens Paris 1866 p. 194 f.).
1 Frazer Pausanias ii. 493.
2 F. Lenormant Monographic de la Voie Sacre'e Eleusinienne Paris 1864 p. 312 accepts
the view of F. C. H. Kruse Hellas Leipzig 1826 ii. 1. 173 that the site of the altar is
marked by the little church of St Blasios (Sir W. Gell The Ltinerary of Greece London 1819
P- 31)-
3 Acta Sanctorum edd. Bolland. Maii i. 46 (De Sancto Saba, martyre apud Greecos.)
Antigua MSS. Meiuea, qua Divione apud Petrum Franciscum Societatis Lesu asservari
reperimus anno MDCLXii, referunt /usee Kalendis Maji S. Sabam, in fico digitis suis
appensum, & sic gloriosa vita functum, &■= addunt hoc distichon.
"Hveytce xapirbv irpu'Cfxev^s trvKTjs \jege "HvejKe Kapirbv irpui/j.r]s <tvkt}s k~Kddos
KXddos tov xfipoSeff/xoiS eKKpe/j.a./j.evoi' T6f xeipoSeff/jiois eKKpe/j.ap.ei'ou (sic) 2d/3av.]
Attulit fructum preematurse ficus
Ramus, suspensum e digitis vinctis Saban.
M. and W. Drake Saints and their Emblems London 1916 p. 113 confuse this St Sabas
with St Sabas the Gothic martyr (April 12), who suffered under Athanaricus in 372 a.d.
(G. T. Stokes in Smith—Wace Diet. Chr. Biogr. iv. 566).
4 A. Milchhofer in E. Curtius—J. A. Kaupert Karten von Attika Berlin 1881 Erlaut-
ernder Text Heft i p. 60 f., C. Wachsmuth Die Stadt Athen im Alterthnm Leipzig 1890
ii. 1. 146 ff., A. Furtwangler in the Sitzungsber. d. kais. bayr. Akad. d. Wiss. Phil.-hist.
Classe 1897 p. 406 ff., W. Judeich Topographie von Athen Munchen 1905 p. 383.
5 E. Curtius and J. A. Kaupert Atlas von Athen Berlin 1878 p. 35 pi. 12, r.
6 E. Curtius and J. A. Kaupert op. cit. p. 35 pi. 12, 2.
7 Lnfra Append. N med.