Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1940)

Nephelokokkygia 45

more ancient than the gods, and Zeus ought to relinquish his sceptre
to the Woodpecker1. Again, the Birds are the rightful rulers of
mankind. The Cock with his upright tiara was once king of Persia,
and still summons men to their labours2. The Kite lorded it over

merely paraphrase or transcribe Aristophanes. Galen de simplicium medicamentorum
temperamentis et facultatibus 11.37 (xii. 360 f. Kiihn) likewise cites Aristophanes and
rightly cp. the eTirvfipidiai KopvSaWlSes of Theokr. 7. 23 (see O. Crusius on Babr. 72. 20
KopvSaWbs oiiv rd0o(s jrai'fwe). Ail. de nat. an. id. 5 (copied by the paroemiographers
Apostol. 7. 74, Arsen. viol. p. 539 Walz s.v. Ittotos'IvSoO (TTopyrj) thinks that the Greeks
got their story of the Lark from one told by the Brachmanes about the Hoopoe, a bird
which the Indians deem the right pet for royalty. The story is as follows. A certain Indian
king had a son, whose [two ?] elder brothers grew up lawless and violent. They scorned
their brother as too young and scoffed at their father and mother as too old. So the
parents took their youngest boy and fled. Their journey was too much for them and they
died. But the boy, far from despising them, split his own head with a sword and buried
them in it. The Sun, who sees all, amazed at this remarkable instance of filial piety,
turned the boy into a beautiful and long-lived bird. On his head is a crest, which keeps
his exploit in memory.... An Ogygian length of time has elapsed since the Indian Hoopoe
was a boy and treated his parents thus. A. Hausrath in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. vi.
'727. i73°f- makes it probable that the simple Greek tale is not actually derived from
the more rhetorical Indian tale. Nevertheless the two are so similar that they cannot be
regarded as wholly unrelated. There is of course a superficial resemblance between the
crested lark (e.g. R. Lydekker The Royal Natural History London 1894—95 »'• 42° {-
with fig. on p. 418) and the hoopoe (id. id. 1895 iv. 57 ff. with col. pi.), and it is reason-
able to suppose that Greeks and Indians, distant cousins by race, elaborated analogous
stories to account for parallel features. But D'Arcy W. Thompson A Glossary of Greek
Birds Oxford 1895 p. 97 is in danger of going too far when he says: 'The Kopvdds and
(tto\/) (both crested birds) are frequently confused : the very word Alauda is possibly an
Eastern word for the Hoopoe, Arab, al hudhud.' This etymology, first found in, or rather
implied by, the Pandectarius Arabicus Matthaei Sylvatici (an Arab commentator on the
Pandectae of Matthaeus Sylvaticus, physician of Salerno, published at Naples in 1474)
quoted by S. Bochart Hierozoicon rec. E. F. C. Rosenmuller Lipsiae 1796 iii. rift is
nowadays commonly rejected in favour of a Celtic origin (Plin. nat. hist. 11. 121 Galhco
vocabulo, Suet. Iul. 24 vocabulo...Gallico, Marcell. de medicamentis 28. 50 p. 299, 1
Helmreich Gallice): see L. Diefenbach Origines Europaeae Frankfurt am Main 1861
pp. 219—222, C. W. Gliick in the Jahrb. f. class. Philol. 1866 xii. 166 (., A. Holder
A/t-celtischer Sprachschatz Leipzig 1896 i. 75 f., Walde Lot. etym. Worterb.'1 p. 23.

1 Supra ii. 697 n. o. May we infer that the woodpecker, like the wren (first in
Aristoph. av. 569 /3affi\ei/s for* ipx^ot opvis, cp. its later names /Sa<riX/ff/cos (Aisop. ap.
Blout. praec. gerend. reipubl. 12, alib.), ripawos (Aristot. hist. an. 8. 3. 592 b 23),
rcgaliolus (Suet. Iul. 81 regaliolum with v.l. regaviolum, on which see De Vit Lat. Lex.
*>V. 'regaliolus'), regulus (carm. de philomel. 43 in Poet. Lat. mm. v. 366 Baehrens),
'kinglet' (C. Swainson The Folk Lore and Provincial Names of British Birds London
1886 p. 25)) and sundry other birds (Plin. nat. hist. 10. 203 dissident...aquila et
trochilus, si credimus, quoniam rex appellatur avium, cp. 8. 90 parva avis, quae trochilos
ibi vocatur, rex avium in Italia, with the remarks of D'Arcy W. Thompson A Glossary
of Greek Birds Oxford 1895 p. 171 f.), was popularly held to be a king? Keleos the Green
W oodpecker (supra i. 226) was one of the 'kings'at Eleusis (supra i. 211).

2 F. Baethgen De vi ac signification galli in religionibus et artibus Graecorum et
Romanorum Gottingae 1887 pp. 6, 8, 11 (somewhat slight). The best account of the cock
'ii Persian religion is still that of K. Schwenck Die Mythologie der Perser Frankfurt am
Main 1850 pp. 304—307. See also F. Orth in Pauly—Wissowa Peal-Enc. viii. 2521 ff.