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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

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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14698#0086

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46 Nephelokokkygia

Hellas: Hellenes grovel yet at the sight of him1. The Cuckoo was
sovereign of Egypt and Phoinike, and his cry sent the circumcised
to reap their plains: young stalwarts still follow their example2.
Tragedy-kings bear a bird-tipped sceptre3. Zeus himself has an
eagle on his head, Athena an owl, Apollon a hawk4. No wonder
men swear 'by the Goose5.'

1 The kite was in general a bird of ill omen (L. Hoj>f Thierorakel tmd Orakelthiere in
alter und neuer Zeit Stuttgart 1888 p. 94 f. ('Weihen')), whose advent shortly before the
vernal equinox (Gemin. calendarium: Pisces p. 228, 1 f. Manitius iv Se rij if (March 9)
Ei)56|w x^lP-aiveL • real Iktivos (palverai, 6 f. ev be tt} Kp (March 14) ~&vktti[xovl Iktivos tpalveTat'
opvidiat ttv£ovgl piexpis iffT^eptas, 10 f. ev be ry X (March 22) KaWliriru) tu>v 'Ix8>jojv 6 vbrios
eiririWiav \rryei • Iktivos cpa.ivtTa.i- (3op£as trvei with the observations of D'Arcy W. Thompson
A Glossary of Greek Birds Oxford 1895 p. 68 f. Cp. Aristoph. av. 713 f.) might well be
greeted by the superstitious with grovelling prostration (schol. Aristoph. av. 501 icpoKV-
\ivbeio8af &pos apxop-ivov (epxop-evov cod. R.) Iktivos tpaiveTai els ttjx 'EXXdoa. i<f> <£
TjSop-evoi KvklvdovTai (us eirl ybvv. Traijas oSv us /3atriXe? ip-qai t6 icv\ivSeio-$ai). iSwv -yap
(SaaiXeois t6 yovvireTeiaBai virb ivdpuirwv. dXXus. (to6s avdpthirovs SrfKovoTt. to Sid /KTa/3oXV
Sk Kaipov yivbp.evov els /3a<riXi/c?)c eirerpeipe nfi-r}v.) ol yap iktlvoi to TraXaibv lap eo-qnaivov.
01 Ttiv-qTts ovv airaXKayhTes too x«M"I't,s eKvKivSovvTo /cat wpoo-eKuvovv ovtovs. Souid. s.v.
iktivos merely copied this scholion, prefixing the words Kal rapoip.la- irpoKvKivbelaBai.
IktIvois. No such saying, however, appears in the paroemiographers). There is no doubt
that Aristophanes has here preserved for us a genuine scrap of ancient folk-custom.
W. Mannhardt Wald- undFeldkulte'2 Berlin 1904 i. 483 adduces an interesting parallel:
'Beim ersten Kukuksruf walzt sich der Meininger, hessische, westfalische Bauer ein
paarmal auf der Erde, urn das Jahr hindurch frei von Riickenschmerzen zu bleiben5. (5 Zs.
f. D. A. in, 362, 13. xii, 400. Zs. f. D. Myth, iv, 447. Kuhn, Westfal. Sag. 11, 74, 221.)
Gradeso warf sich im alten Griechenland riicklings (Simos) nieder und walzte sich auf dem
Boden, wer zum erstenmale im Friihling eines Weihen (iktivos) ansichtig ward0.
(6Aristophan. av. 498If. c. schol.)' See further Seemann in the Handmorterbuch des
deutschen Aberglaubens Berlin—Leipzig 1933 v. 713, 721 n. 170.

2 We have no reason to think that Egyptians and Phoenicians were specially devoted
to the Cuckoo. But it is likely enough that they regarded his cry in the spring-time as a
signal for returning to work in the fields (cp. J. Hardy 'Popular History of the Cuckoo'
in The Folk-Lore Record 1879 ii. 56 ff.). Aristophanes uses words with a double meaning :
kokkv suggests at once 'cuckoo' and 'cuckold' (W. Mannhardt 'Der Kukuk' in the
Zeitschrift fiir deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde 1855 iii. 246 ff. 'Vor allem stand der
kukuk den functionen der zeugung vor.' Etc.); \pu\ol means both circumcisi and verpi;
■webiov is not only 'plain' but also pudendum (schol. Aristoph. av. 507 dXAws. rb aidolov,
cp. \eip.iiv, kt)ttos, /tortus, and the like).

3 E.g. supra i. 251 pi. xxii (Kreon).

4 The type is so unusual that the scholiast ad loc. is reduced to saying Siov elweiv eirl
too aKTpKTpoo elirev eirl tt)s KecpdKrjs! His alternative explanation eireibr] elwOeaav to. dtjiiepu-
p.iva eKaoTw deip opvea eirl KetpaXijs IbpueoOai is simply untrue. Hieratic effigies of the sort
are all pre-Hellenic, e.g. the faience goddesses surmounted by snake and lioness (? leopard)
from the temple-repository of ' Middle Minoan iii' date at Knossos (Sir A. J. Evans in the
Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1902—1903 ix. 74 ff. figs. 54—57, id. The Palace of Minos London
1921 i. 500 ff. with col. Frontispiece and figs. 359—362, H. T. Bossert Altkreta2 Berlin
1923 pp. 22, 72 ff. figs. 103—106) or the terra-cotta goddess with a dove on her head from
the small shrine of 'Late Minoan iii' date on the same site (stipra ii. 536 fig. 406c). We
need not suppose that such archaic forms had survived into classical Greece. If a bird on
the head was modified into a bird on the helmet, that would lend point enough to
Aristophanes' lines. And of this usage we have some few traces. There was a chrysele-
 
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