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)

1140

Appendix M

The ritual of the Diasia is imperfectly known. Thoukydides' statement that
many, in lieu of 'victims,' offered 'sacrifices peculiar to the country' is annotated
by the scholiast, who remarks (1) that 'victims' means sheep {probata), and
(2) that the 'sacrifices peculiar to the country' were cakes moulded into the
forms of animals1. Both observations are credible. On the one hand, we have
seen that the 'fleece of Zeus' was stripped from a victim sacrificed to Zeus
MeiUchios or to Zeus Ktesios'1. On the other hand, we hear3 of a cult of Artemis
at Syracuse, in which rustic singers were decked with a loaf that had wild beasts
moulded upon it4, a wallet full of mingled grain, and wine in a goat-skin for distri-
bution to all and sundry. They wore garlands, had stag-horns on their foreheads,
and carried a crook in their hands. Thus equipped they vied with each other in
song : the victor received the loaf of the vanquished and stopped in Syracuse ; the
vanquished went about the neighbouring villages collecting food for themselves.
Their songs were full of mirth and merriment, and ended with the stanza:

Here's wealth for you !

Here's health for you !
We bring you what the goddess sends,
A boon and blessing to her friends I

It would seem that at Athens the god, and at Syracuse the votary, accepted the
cake or loaf moulded with animal forms as a surrogate for the animals them-
selves in accordance with a well-known principle of ancient ritual5.

1 Supra p. 1138 n. 2.

2 Supra i. 422 ff. O. Band Die Attischen Diasien Berlin [883 p. 4 (following E. F.
Poppo on Thouk. 1. J26) a propos of the scholion iepeia- irpbfiaTa says curtly ' Immo
Xoipovs.'

3 Schol. Theokr. pi'oleg. B evpeais twv ^ovkoXlkGiv b p. 3, 2 ft". Wendel (cp. anecd.
Estense 3. 1 p. 7, 11 ff. Wendel, Prob. in Verg. eel. p. 347 f. Lion, Diomed. ars gramm.
3 p. 486, 27 ft". Keil: Probus and Diomedes connect the custom with the cult of Diana
Lyaea cideiv 8e <pao~iv avrovs aprov i^7]pT7]p.evovs dr\pibiv ev eavT(p TrXeovas tvttovs exovra Kai
wr/pav irav airepijAas avdirXeoov Kai olvov ev aiyeiw daKtp, o"kov8t\v vepovTas tols {nravTuiai,
GTe<pavbv re irepLKelodaL Kai Kepara iX6.(pwv irpoKeiudai Kai p-era %etpa? exeLV Xayw(36Xov. tov
8e viKrjcravra Xap(3dveiv tov tov vevi.K-qp.evov dpTov kclksIvov pev iirl Trjs tcov 'ZvpaKovaiwv
pevtiv irbXtus, tovs 8e veviKrpxevovs eis ras TrepioiKiSas ^wpeii' dyeipovTas eavTols Tas Tpo<pas-
aSeiv (so H. Schaefer for dtdovai codd.) 8e aWa Tivd Traioias Kai ye\toTos exop.eva Kai
ev<prjp.ovvTas eTrtXeyeiv • ' det^ai Tav dyaddv Tvxav, \ Sefat r&v vyieLav, j av (pepop.es irapa Tas
(so F. G. Schneidewin for ryjs Eb. A.T. tov K.) 6eov, ( av eKaXecraaTO [ekXeXdcrKero K.
A. H. Ahrens cj. a 'KeX-rjaaro C. Wendel cj. £KX6.o~KeTo or eXaKriaaTo) T7)va {carm. pop. 42
Bergk4, 45 Miller—Crusius).

4 ? cp. Athen. 646 E eXatpos wXaKovs 6 to7s 'EXa</)7?/3oXt'ois dvaTrXaacropevos Sid o-tultos
Kai /xeXtros Kai arjcrdixov.

5 Serv. in X'erg. Aen. 2. 116 et sciendum in sacris simulata pro veris accipi. unde,
cum de animalibus quae difficile inveniuntur est sacrificandum, de pane vel cera fiunt et
pro veris accipiuntur. Lobeck Aglaophamns ii. 1079 ft', and Frazer Golden Bough'*1:
Spirits of Corn and Wild ii. 95 11. 2 have made full collections of the literary evidence.
Countless archaeological finds illustrate the same principle: see W. H. D. Rouse Greek
Votive Offermgs Cambridge 1902 p. 295 ff. To take a single case, the pig for sacrifice
might be replaced by a dog dressed in a pig-skin (so on a red-figured kylix at Vienna
(Masner Samml. ant. Vasen u. Terracotten Wien p. 40 b no. 321 fig. 24, F. Studniczka
'Ein Opferbetrug des Hermes' in theJahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch. Inst. 1891 vi. 258 ff.
fig., J. E. Harrison—D. S. MacColl Greek Vase Paintings London 1894 p. 25 pi. 33,
1)), or by a terra-cotta pig (so with those from the precinct of^Demeter and Kore at Tegea
{Brit. Mus. Cat. Terracottas pp. xxxviii f., 78 no. B 46, A. Milchhofer in the Ath.