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)

98 The Clouds personified in Cult and Myth

doleur | De la Jambe lempereur | Tant furent esbahy ly mire | Ly plus saige ne sot que
dire | Quant vint au iour que dieux imit | Sy commen lescriture dit | Ly rois melades
acoucha [ Et de la cuisse deliura | Iceille gentil demoiseille | Qui tant fut cortoise et
belle I Ce fut sainte anne don ie dy | D la meire ihesu nasqui'). Liebrecht loc. cit. thinks
that this may conceivably be 'eine Reminiscenz der Dionysius[«V]-sage.' Hardly so.

(6) S. Baring-Gould Legends of Old Testament Characters London and New York
1871 p. -20 f. 'The inhabitants of Madagascar have a strange myth touching the origin of
woman. They say that the first man was created of the dust of the earth, and was placed
in a garden, where he was subject to none of the ills which now affect mortality; he was
also free from all bodily appetites, and though surrounded by delicious fruit and limpid
streams, yet felt no desire to taste of the fruit or to quaff the water. The Creator had,
moreover, strictly forbidden him either to eat or to drink. The great enemy, however,
came to him, and painted to him in glowing colours the sweetness of the apple, the
lusciousness of the date, and the succulence of the orange. In vain: the first man re-
membered the command laid upon him by his Maker. Then the fiend assumed the
appearance of an effulgent spirit, and pretended to be a messenger from Heaven com-
manding him to eat and drink. The man at once obeyed. Shortly after, a pimple
appeared on his leg; the spot enlarged to a tumour, which increased in size and caused
him considerable annoyance. At the end of six months it burst, and there emerged from
the limb a beautiful girl. The father of all living was sorely perplexed what to make of
his acquisition, when a messenger from heaven appeared, and told him to let her run
about the garden till she was of a marriageable age, and then to take her to himself as
his wife. He obeyed. He called her Bahouna, and she became the mother of all races
of men.' The relation of this and similar Malagasy tales to Biblical teaching is discussed
by J. A. MacCulloch in J. Hastings Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics Edinburgh 1912
v. 708b. F. Liebrecht Zur Volkskunde Heilbronn 1879 P- 490 n.** (=id. in Germania
i860 v. 479) cites a variant from J. W. Wolf Deutsche Miirchen und Sagen Leipzig
1845 p. 599 (on no- >98): 'Die Einwohner von Madagaskar erzahlen, Adam habe stark
gegessen und in Folge dessen einem natiirlichen Bedurfnisse genugen miissen, was sich
aber gleich im Paradiese durch den Geruch verrathen. Darob sei er vom Teufel verklagt
worden und Gott habe ihn aus dem Paradiese geworfen. Einige Zeit nachher ware
sein Bein aufgeschwollen und man habe ein jung Miidchen heraus geholt, welches er
geheirathet.'

(7) In Norse cosmogony Ymir, ancestor of all the giants, went to sleep, fell into
a sweat, and brought forth a female-child and a male-child from under his arm-pit, while
from the union of his two feet he produced a six-headed son (G. Vigfusson—F. York
Powell Corpus Poeticum Boreale Oxford 1883 i. 66= Vaf\rit§nis-mal 1. 31 ' Woden.
Seventhly, tell me, etc., How did this sturdy giant beget sons, since he knew not giantess?
— Wafthr. A maid-child and man-child grew together from under his arm-pit. Foot
begat with foot a six-headed son to that wise giant,' K. Simrock Die Edda7 Stuttgart
1878 p. 252 = Gylfaginning 5 ' Da antwortete Har: Wir halten ihn mit nichten ftir einen
Gott: er war bose wie alle von seinem Geschlecht, die wir Hrimthursen nennen. Es
wird erzahlt, als er schlief fing er an zu schwitzen: da wuchs ihm unter seinem linken
Arm Mann und Weib und sein einer Fuss zeugte einen Sohn mit dem andern. Und von
diesen kommt das Geschlecht der Hrimthursen; den alten Hrimthurs aber nennen wir
Ymir'). See further J. Grimm Teutonic Mythology trans. J. S. Stallybrass London 1883
ii. 559, K. Simrock Handbuch der Deutschen Mythologies Bonn 1878 pp. 17, 35,
E. H. Meyer Germatiische Mythologie Berlin 1891 p. 145, p. D. Chantepie de la Saussaye
The Religion of the Teutons Boston and London 1902 p. 342, P. Herrmann Nordische
Mythologie Leipzig 1903 p. 574-

(8) Persephone Xtipoyovla (Hesych. Xeipoyovta • 17 Uepa-ecpSft]) has been variously
explained. I. Vossius in the notes to J. Alberti's edition of Hesychios (Lugduni
Batavorum 1766) ii. 1546 n. 30 asks: 'An quod manuum labore nascantur fruges?'
M. Schmidt in Philologus 1858 xiii. 220 replies : ' Vielmehr Xupoyiveia, was aus '\%eipo-
yiveia entstanden sein konnte; doch hangt vielleicht 'Axeipu mit "&yy9jpm Eccere Ceres