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)

3<oo Rain-magic in ancient Greece

ago been expressed by C. Lenormant in the Mimpires de VAcadimie des Inscriptions
1861 xxiv. 1. 374f., who was followed by S. Reinach in VAnthropologic 1903 xiv. 356f.
('l'epi de bid, pr&ente en silence a la foule assemblee'), Frazer Golden Bough'': The
Magic Art ii. 139 n. 1 (eirideiKviji>Tes roh tiroTrreijovo'L to [itya Kal 6avp.aarbv Kal rehtLbraTOV
ewowriKov eKei fivarr/piov iv aunv%, re6epio-p.hov araxvn (so punctuated by Duncker—
Schneidewin)), P. Foucart Les mysteres d'Eleusis Paris 1914 p. 434 ('Cette explication
me parait beaucoup plus satisfaisante, et je n'aurais pas hesite a l'adopter s'il ne fallait
admettre dans la phrase de saint Hippolyte une construction fautive. Apres tout, mieux
vaudrait s'y resigner, si 1'on y gagnait une interpretation plus conforme au mode d'enseigne-
ment qui fut en usage dans I'initiation'). S. Reinach, however, in the Rev. &t. Gr. 1906
xix. 344 n. 1 pointed out that 'le silence est tres souvent necessaire a l'accomplissement
de rites comme celui de couper une plante sacree': accordingly in his Cultes, mythes et
religions Paris 1906 ii p. xi he renders 'l'epi de ble, moissonne en silence.' Classical
scholars in general have concurred in this opinion, e.g. Harrison Proleg. Gk. Rel? p. 549
'an ear of grain reaped in silence,' M. P. Nilsson A History of Greek Religion trans.
F. J. Fielden Oxford 1925 p. 108 'the reaping of a few ears in silence,' J. M. Edmonds
Lyra Graeca London 1927 iii. 517 'an ear of corn reaped in silence.'

With regard to the significance of the rite, we are ill informed and widely diverse
hypotheses have been propounded:

(1) The context in Hippolytos asserts that the Athenians in their Eleusinian usage
were following the lead of the Phrygians, who spoke of God as 'a green ear reaped
(supra ii. 295 n. 2 xXoepde a-raxw reBepio-fUvov). The allusion is to a Naassene hym11
describing Attis in very similar terms (supra ii. 296 n. 4 xXoepoc <tt&xvv dfiijdtvTa, cp-
Firm. Mat. 3. 2 amare terrain volunt (sc. Phryges) fruges, Attin vero hoc ipsum volunl:
esse quod ex frugibus nascitur, poenam autem quam sustinuit hoc volunt esse, quod falce
messor maturis frugibus facit: mortem ipsius dicunt, quod semina collecta conduntuit
vitam rursus, quod iacta semina annuis vicibus reconduntur (C. Halm cj. renascantW-
K. W. A. Reifferscheid cj. redduntur. C. Bursian cj. recidivantur)). But Attis never
had any footing at Eleusis; and Hippolytos' attempt to find an Eleusinian counterpart 0^
him ends in a sentence probably defective and certainly obscure (Hippol. ref. haeres- 5*
p. 162 f. Duncker—Schneidewin 6 Zh o-rdxvs ovrbs Isti koI irapd ' A-drivalois 0 vapa r°v
dxo.pa.KTTjpto'Tov (poxxTTjp r^Xeios fxtyas, Kaddirep adrbs 6 iepo(pdvTK)s, o'ok diroK£KOfJ.fJ.tvos ^ '
cl>s 6 "Arris, eOvoux'0'M^''0' Sid Kuvelov Kal xaaav TrapjjrTj/^eos ri]v aapKiKty ytveW'
WKTbs 4v '¥i\evalvL {rub 7roXX£ irvpl reXwc ra /xeyd\a Kal appTyra ixvaTqpLa /3op Kal k£kP&1

1 icpbv '4tekg irbrvia Kovpov 'Bpip.ui MpLfxbv^ rovrtarLV l&xvpd luxvpbv).

(2) According to F. B. Jevons, the corn-ear exhibited at Eleusis implies a corn-tote^
in the remote past. ' Originally every ear of corn was sacred to the tribe which took c
for its totem....Then some one particular ear or sheaf of ripe corn was selected to lC^^£
sent the Corn-Spirit, and was preserved until the following year, in order that ^
worshippers might not be deprived during the winter of the presence and Protectl°"ted
their totem. The corn thus preserved served at first unintentionally as seed, and sugg ^
the practice of sowing; and even when a larger and proper stock of seed-corn was

in, the one particular sheaf was still regarded as the Corn-Mother, which, like the PeruVtlie
Mother of the Maize, determined by her supernatural power the kind and quantity 0
following harvest. In Eleusis this sheaf was dressed up as an old woman (supra u
n. 4), and was preserved from harvest to seed-time in the house of the head-man °
village originally, and in later times in a temple. This sheaf was probably higMy" * ^
and not allowed to be touched or even seen except on certain occasions....This man •
tion of the Corn-Goddess afforded not merely a visible hope and tangible PronllSetllted
the sowing of the seed should be followed by a harvest of ripe corn, but in itself cons ^
a direct communion with the deity...' (F. B. Jevons An Introduction to the nts ^
Religion- London 1902 p. 364 ff.). 'When, then, we find that in later times a" e(1 jn
corn was exhibited, we may fairly infer that it was an ear of corn which was ex J ^orn-
the primitive agricultural rites, and that it was originally the embodiment of t e^ ^ x;
Goddess' (id. id." p. 381). Cp. S. Reinach Cultes, mythes et religions Pans 19°