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)

The Clouds personified in Cult and Myth 73

substitutes aura, the cool breeze beloved by the hunter. And
Hyginus1 makes confusion more confounded by importing Aurora
from the myth of Heos. Schwenn, however, has not perceived that
the story as a whole involves a modified mixture of two folk-tale
motifs. J. G. von Hahn2 long since pointed out that Prokris, who
first succumbs to the trinkets of a stranger and later lives with him
as his wife, illustrates one variety of weibliche Kduflichkeit. This has
been crossed with the ' Melus'me'-for7/iu/a3 of a mortal man, who is
unfaithful to a more-than-mortal woman and is therefore deserted
by her and punished for his offence. Such stories ultimately go back
to a very primitive type of tale which, according to Sir James Frazer4,
has its roots in a totemic taboo. Be that as it may, it certainly
seems probable that in the original version Nephele the cloud-
goddess bestowed her favours upon Kephalos and was jealous of
his relations to the mortal wife Prokris. Her death was his punish-
ment—a scene graphically portrayed on a red-figured kratdr with
columnar handles now in the British Museum (pi. xii)5.

Essentially similar is the myth of Athamas6. He too deserted
the goddess Nephele for a mortal wife, and was punished by a
drought for his desertion. Again the tale has come down to us with

1 ~H.yg.fab. 189.

2 J. G. von Hahn Griechische und albanesische Mdrchen Leipzig 1864 i. 47 gives as
his sixth formula: 'Eine Jungfrau giebt fiir Kostbarkeiten in dreimaliger Steigerung ihre
Reize Preis und verliert dabei ihr Magdthum a) durch Ueberlistung, /3) bewusster
Weise, und muss sich mit dem Kaufer vermahlen.'

8 J. G. von Hahn op. cit. i. 45 second formula: 'Der Mann fehlt, und die nicht zum
Menschengeschlecht gehorende Frau verlasst ihn entweder: a) fiir immer, ohne dass er
ihr zu folgen versucht. b) oder er sucht sie in ihrer fernen Heimath auf und verbindet
sich mit ihr,' C. S. Burne The Handbook of Folklore London 1914 p. 344 no. 2, P. Saintyves
Les contcs de Perraull et les reals parall'cles: leurs origines Paris 1923 pp. 420—427.

4 Frazer Golden Bough'': The Dying God pp. 129—131.

5 Brit. Mus. Cat. Vases iii. 294 no. E 477, Inghirami Vas. fitt. iii. 18 fif. pi. 205,
J. Millingen Ancietil Unedited Monuments Series i London 1822 p. 35 ff. pi. 14, Harrison
Myth. Mon. Anc. Ath. p. lxixf. fig. 14, A. Rapp in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 1103 fig. 3,
G. Weicker Der Seelenvogel Leipzig 1902 p. 167 fig. 86, J. D. Beazley Attische Vasen-
maler des rotfigurigtn Slits Tubingen 1925 p. 416 no. 7 (attributed to the painter of the
Naples Hephaistos-/t;-a//r (Heydemann Vasensamml. Ncapel p. 285 f. no. 2412)). My
pi. xii is from a photograph by the Official Photographer. In the centre Prokris collapses
on the mountain-side. She wears a short chitdn, and attempts to pluck the unerring javelin
from her bare breast. As her eyes close in death, a soul-bird escapes from her into the
air. From the right advances her father Erechtheus, wearing himdtion and wreath, one
hand holding a long sceptre, the other outstretched in dismay. On the left stands
Kephalos with chlamys and pitasos. He raises his left hand to his forehead with a gesture
of despair, and rests his right on a club, while he holds his hound Lailaps by a leash. No
other representation of the scene is known.

0 Supra i. 414 fif.