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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#0362

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298 Rain-magic in ancient Greece

compared with Christian baptism1. Other views, however, might be
defended. G. Glotz has shown that to be plunged in the sea was
a not infrequent form of popular ordeal2. Mrs A. Strong and
Miss N. Jolliffe have much to say on 'Apotheosis by Water3.' But
in any case the resemblance of the ancient to the modern custom
of a communal dip makes it probable that the opening rite at
Eleusis, which came 'at the end of the long drought of summer and
before the first rains of autumn4,' served the purpose of a powerful
rain-charm.

Again, on the closing day of the mysteries, Boedromion 23 °,
two top-shaped bowls of terra cotta known as the plemochoai or
'flood-pourers' were first filled and then turned upside down, one
towards the east, the other towards the west, with the addition of a
mystic formula6. Since Kritias or Euripides in his Perithous
described these plemochoai as emptied into a cleft in the ground, it
may fairly be suspected that at Eleusis as at Athens8 an attempt
was made to fertilise Mother Earth by means of an obvious rain-
charm. What the mystic formula was, we do not know. Possibly it
consisted in the enigmatic saying konx, ompax, the meaning of which
is still to seek9.

1 E.g. Tertull. de bapt. 5 certe ludis Apollinaribus et Eleusiniis (so Fulvius Ursrnus
for Pelusiis) tinguuntur idque se in regenerationem et impunitatem periuriorum suorun"1
agere praesumunt, Clem. Al. strom. 5. 11 p. 373, 23 f. Stahlin oix aireiKdrois apo. Ka
tO>v jj.v(TTrjpluv twv Trap' "HWrjaiv ap%ei p.iv ret Ka8dp<ria, KaBdirep ical tois /3ap/3apois T
\0vTp6f. k.t.\. See further F. M. Rendtorff Die Tanfe im Urchristentum Leipzig i9°f'
H. Windisch Taufe und Siiude im altesten Christentum Tubingen 1908, R. Reitzenstein
Die Vorgeschichte der christlichen Taufe Leipzig-Berlin 1929.

2 G. Glotz L'ordalie dans la Grece primitive Paris 1904 p. 11 ff. ('Les ordalies pal
la mer').

3 E. Strong and N. Jolliffe in the Joum. Hell. Stud. 1924 xliv. 103 ff.

4 E. O. James in J. Hastings Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics Edinburgh 19
x. 563 a.

5 Mommsen Feste d. Stadt Athen p. 242 ff.

6 Athen. 496 a—b IIAHMOXOH. oKevos Kepaneouv fienfiiKwSes iSpaiov r)tTvxV> s lcoT"'
Xigkov hioi wpoaayopetiovcriii, & <p-qtsi Ihtyi^iAos. XP^"™ ^ a"TV 'EXevfflvi ry Te\e"T<^ f
tusv p.v<TT7ipiuv i]p.ipa, rjv koX dir' airov irpoaayopttiovci Tt\ruj.ox6as ■ iv 77 Svo t^f*
Tr\7)pibaavT€S, tt)v /xh rrpbs dvaroXds, tt\v Si irpbs Siicriv avi<jrap.evoi dvaTpiirovaiv, &vCht*1°V'rt
prjaiv /ivaTLK-qv. nvr)ixovedei Si airwv ko! 6 rbv TltupWovv ypa\j/as, riVe Kpirlas €<ttIv 0 t<ipMvoSl
7} EvpnrtSTis (frag. 592 Nauck'2), \iyuv ovtus- "iva Tr\7ip.ox&as rdaS' els x^^nov ' ^""^
eiftf/HQS irpoxeuiiev.'

7 Supra n. 6.

8 Supra pp. 179 ff., 188.

9 Hesych. Koy\, op.Ta£ (C. A. Lobeck cj. Koy% o/iolws, 7rd£) ■ lirupuvriiia. rcre'SeirH'''^

polemic of Lobeck Aglaophamus i. 775—783 hardly suffices to establish his emends
(which is printed as a certainty in both editions by M. Schmidt) and in any case^ \iet
not absolve us from the duty of seeking an explanation for the formula. I shoul
 
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