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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#0309

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246 The Daughters of Kekrops

originally an earth-goddess1 or mountain-mother2—-absorbed into
her all-prevailing cult the worship of both Aglauros and Pandrosos,
and was occasionally called Athena Aglauros2, and Athena Pan-
drosos1; but she never came to be equated with Herse. We may,
then, subscribe to Usener's opinion that Herse is later than
Pandrosos, Pandrosos than Aglauros, the three names being pr°~
gressively clearer expressions for a single religious idea5.

Aglauros6 and Pandrosos7, if not Herse also, were—we have
seen—intimately associated with a goddess dubbed Konrotrophos.
What better guardians could Athena have found for the infant
Erichthonios? Perhaps they fed him, shut up in the basket, on dew8-

Some support for this surmise might be found in the myth that
the Muses fed Komatas, shut up in a chest, on honey9, or in the
tale of Meliteus, son of Zeus by the nymph Othrei's, who through
fear of Hera was exposed in a wood, but was there fed and

fattened

by bees30. For honey, as W. H. Roscher11 has well shown, was held
by most Greeks and Romans to be a sort of dew, which fell from
the sky on trees and flowers and was thence collected by the bees.
Another case of confinement and dew-diet is that of Tithonos.

12

Herse, some said, became by Hermes the mother of Kephalos •
Kephalos, they added, was carried off by Eos, the 'Dawn,' to Syi"ia

quorum tu, Pandrose, dextrum, | Aglauros laevuni, medium possederat Herse. Sup>a
p. 240 Ovid's three thalami may be derived from the internal arrangement of the Erech-
theion, modified to suit Roman readers familiar with the Etruscan temple of Iup>ter
Capitolinus.

1 Supra p. 200 n. o. 2 Supra pp. 224, 236.

3 Harpokr. s.v. "AyXctupos (dypavKos codd.. A.C.M.Q. But the alphabetical order
requires &y\—)• ij dvyarrjp KeKpowos. <-<tti 5£ Kal eTriivvfiov 'A#7jcSs, Athenag. supp^ica^l<>
pro Christianis 1 p. 1 Schwartz (cited supra p. 240 n. 8). ^

4 Schol. Aristoph. Lys. 439 dvyarepes K^Kpo-rros llavSpoaos Kal 'AypatiXri (R. F. P. Brun
cj. "AypavXos). eK ttjs Uavdpoaov Kal rj 'Adrjva, Hdvdpocros KaXelraL.

5 H. Usener Gotternamen Bonn 1896 p. 139.

6 Supra p. 242. 7 Supra p. 244. ^

8 It is on record that Herse, Pandrosos, and Agraulos had a popular festival ca 7^
Deipnophorta, at which a dinner was served for them with much pomp in accordance vvi

a mystic tale (supra p. 240 n. 8); and it is known that certain Deipnophdroi occupied
seat in the theatre adjoining that of the Kourotrdphos worshipped in the sanctuary
Aglauros [supra p. 242 n. 10). But of the nurture supplied by the Kekropides to their
koilros nothing explicit is said.

9 Theokr. 7. 78 ff. with schol. ad loc.

1° Ant. Lib. 13 (after Nikandros enpoiov/xeva 2).

n W. H. Roscher Nektar und Ambrosia Leipzig 1883 pp. 9, 13 ff., cp. W. R°bert'
Tornow De opium mellisqut apudveteres signification* Berolini 1893 p. 75 ff.

12 Apollod. 3. 14- 3- Hermes' union with Herse is hardly older than the HelleW* '
age [supra p. 240 nn. 4 and 5). In Hyg. fab. 160 he becomes the father of Kephalos r
Kreousa, daughter of Erechtheus. Other pedigrees are noted by A. Rapp in R°sC1
Lex. Myth. ii. 1089 ff. and F. Schwenn in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. xi. 217 f-
 
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