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)

302 Rain-magic in ancient Greece

the airapxal were taken up from the subterranean store-house. The best part of them,
made into a pelands, was offered in sacrifice, the rest would be sold (the Athenian decree
already quoted continues 36 ff. Bbev <5e dirb fiev to ire\avo Kadori ixv Hvp.o%TlSaL
[ix^he^lyoJuTaL, TplrroLav de plbapxov xpvc7°k€p0v T0~lv Qto'iv heKa.[r^p\\^aL a]wb tov Kpi&ov
Kal tov Trvpov Kal tol TpnrToXe'p.oL Kal tol [6e]\oi Kal tcl Beat Kal tol Eu/3oXot /iiepeiov
Iicklxlttol re\eov Kal \ ret 'ABevalaL /36V xpvo~bKepov rets be aXkas KpL&as Kal irvpbs dir\o8op.evos
rbs /iLepoiroLos piera res /3oXes ava04p.ara avarid£v\aL tolv Beotv, irOLeo-ap.e'vos harr av tol
de/ioi tol 'ABevaiov 5o/ce|t, Kai eirLypatpev rots avaBe"pLa<TLv, /i6tl cltto to Kapiro res dirapx^
aveBeBe, Kal /leWtvov tov airapxbp.evov)—presumably not to be eaten, but to be mixed with
the grain for sowing. The a-rrapxal thus became veritable ' starting-points' of the k6k~Kos
yeveueas. All this was aptly expressed in mythological parlance. Kore is carried off and
wedded to Plouton in his underground abode. ' She re-emerges as the potential mother
of the new crop' (p. 163). And 'When we are told that the final revelation to the
Eleusinian epoptae was a o-t&xvs TeBepLtrpLfvos,.. .is it possible that we may see in this
ltt&xvs the epiphany of Kore herself as represented by the airapxal'!' (p. 162). Lastly,
the 'redistribution of the &Trapxal...is reflected in the myth of Triptolemos, charged by
Demeter with the dispersal of the seed-corn to all the civilised world' (p. 164).

(5) Count Goblet d' Alviella Eleusinia Paris 1903 pp. 71—73 holds that the nature
of the deities worshipped at Eleusis facilitated the coming of higher hopes for a future
life. Demeter received into her bosom both the sown corn and the buried dead. She
would extend her protection not only to the former but also to the latter—witness their
name Arjp.r)TpeioL (Plout. de fac. in orb. lun. 28 Kal roils veKpobs 'ABtivolol A-qp-ttTpeiovi
Lov6p.a£ov to 7raXai6v). Kore too, the very personification of the sown corn, descended
every autumn into the underworld only to come up again in the springtime young and
fresh as ever. Thus the grain was taken as a fit emblem of human existence, and rfl
Attike was sown on graves (Cic. de legg. 2. 63 nam et Athenis iam ille mos a Cecrope, ut
aiunt, permansit, ocius terra humandi: quam cum proximi iniecerant, obductaque terra
erat, frugibus obserebatur, ut sinus et gremium quasi matris mortuo tribueretur, solum
autem frugibus expiatum ut vivis redderetur). Similarly in Egypt Osiris or the Osirised
dead was assimilated to wheat or barley germinating in the earth when watered from
above. Indeed it seems likely that in s. ix—viii B.C. such Egyptian beliefs found the11
way. to Eleusis, lending point and precision to the hopes already inspired by the Gtf&
agrarian cult. ' Le rite final de l'epoptie, e'est-a-dire la presentation de l'epi de ble>
moissonne en silence, que l'hierophante exhibait aux neophytes comme le dernier mot de5
Mysteres, ne constituait, sans doute, a l'origine, qu'un rite agricole; il n'y avait rien » V
changer pour en faire un symbole de palingenesie humaine' (p. 72).

(6) P. Foucart, the father of this Egyptising hypothesis, in his final work on 1 ^
subject Les mysteres d'Eleusis Paris 1914 p. 432 ff. would identify the cut corn, not wl
Kore, but with Dionysos, who had of old been associated with Demeter (Plout. ijnacs ■
de Arati signis frag. 7. 1 Diibner ap. schol. Arat. phaen. 1068 5id Kal ol traXaiol T
Alovvltov Trj A-qix-ryrpa LTvyKaBLepioaav, alvLTTdpLevoL r6 ybvLpLov ttjs iiypbTrjTOs) and at Elelis
played Theos to her Thea (but see, for other possibilities, O. Hofer in Roscher
Myth. v. 536—539. A.B.c.), he being the Greek equivalent of Osiris as she of _
(P. Foucart op. cit. p. 90 ff.). On this showing the presentation of the corn-ears to
Eleusinian mystics was a rite derived from Egypt, where harvesters were wont to sct^
the first ears reaped, beating their breasts before the sheaf and calling aloud up011
(Diod. t. 14 piaprvpiov de (ptpovo-l ttjs eupeVews twv dpi}p.ivosv KapirCiv t6 Tripo<>^vov v;
auroLS e£ dpxaluv v6p.1p.ov Itl yap Kal vvv Kara rbv Bepiapibv robs irpibrovs ap-riBivras <<Ta
Bivras rot)s dvBpiiwovs KbirreaBai. trK-qalov rov 5pa.yp.aTos Kal ttjv ^Iltlv avaKa^elaBaL,^^
tovto irpaTTtiv Tipvqv airov{p.ovTas ryj Beo) tQv ebp-qptvoiv Kara tov ii, dpx5s T^s eVJ> aja
Kaipbv, cp. Firm. Mat. 2. 6 f. defensores eorum volunt addere physicam rationerh, fr"°geS
semina Osirim dicentes esse, Isim terram, Tyfonem calorem: et quia maturatae ^
calore ad vitam hominum colliguntur et divisae a terrae consortio separantur et ^.
adpropinquante hieme seminantur, hanc volunt esse mortem Osiridis, cum fruges ^eX
dunt so K.W. A. Reifferscheid for reddunt cod. J. F. Gronovius cj. condunt, F.