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 Daughters of Kekrops 247

and there begat Tithonos the father of Phaethon1. Some such
sequence of mythical events must have been known to the painter
of the red-figured kylix from Corneto, now at Berlin {supra p. 186
%• 95)> f°r) whereas on the outside of the cup Herse witnesses the
birth of Erichthonios, on the inside Heos is carrying off Kephalos.
Be that as it may, we are concerned with the fortunes of Tithonos.
The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite is. vi (?) B.C.2) says that, when
Tithonos despite his Zeus-given immortality began to get gray-
headed, Eos refrained from union with him, but tended him in her
halls with food and ambrosia {i.e. honey) and, as downright old age
crept upon him till he could not stir, shut him up in a chamber
[thdlamos), where his voice flows on unceasingly3. The poet is hinting,
discreetly enough, at a tale that later writers tell with more directness.
When Tithonos grew so old that he rolled himself round in a wool-

Fig- 153-

basket or a basket-cradle {liknoii) and slept like a baby (fig. 153)4,
the goddess transformed him into a cicala {tettixf. Confusion

1 Apollod. 3. 14. 3. But the parentage of Tithonos is variously given. He is also
described as the son of Laomedon (//. 20. 237) by Strymo (schol. A.B.D. //. 11. 1, Tzetz.
ln Lyk. Al. 18) or Trymo (schol. V. //. 20. 237) or Rhoio (schol. and Tzetz. in Lyk.
P 18).

W. Schmid—O. Stahlin Geschichle der griechischen Literatur Miinchen 1929 i. [.
24°. See further T. W. Allen—E. E. Sikes The Homeric Hymns London 1904 p. 197 f.
3 H. Aphr. 218 ff".

E. Gerhard U'oer die Lichtgottheitcn auf Kunstdenkmdlern Berlin 1840 pp. 8, 16
P'- 4, 4 (id. Gesammcltc akademische Abhandlungen und kleine Schriften Berlin 18C6 i.
49> 347 pi. 8, 4) = my fig. 153, J. Schmidt in Roscher Lex. Myth. v. 1029 fig. 4 an Etruscan
relief in stamped gold foil, found at Vulci, then in the Campana collection, and later at
I'etrograd (?). It represents Eos pouring the contents of a jug (?) over Tithonos, who lies
°n -I concave couch or cradle.

6 Tzetz. in Lyk. Al. 18 aSavarov 5e top Tiduvbv iroL-qaaaa (VfXtWero iroirjaai kcu ayr/poi.
"tVpacravra di Toaovrov ws iv TaXdpip rai \Ikvw (Eudok. viol. 920 has lis iv ra\dp(p ko.1
WKflp, ijroi Kwvitf) avrbv irepiaTpc<p6p.ei>oi> tUtqr fip(<j>v\\iov naffevdeiv ei's rimya litrifiaXtv,
Eustath. in Od. p. 1528, 1 ff. Xijpoi (XTjpei? Xijpoi?) Si 6 /ivdos irepl TiBavov, Kal 6V1 Sid.
yypas (v roKapip fj KaprdXtp Tip d^Xou/x^i-ip iv tois tov ku/jukoO eKpen&odri, us a.v S-qXaSij p.7)
^"•'"oito tois iroXXois, ij ei's rirriya litTefSXr/ST].