Universitätsbibliothek HeidelbergUniversitätsbibliothek Heidelberg
Metadaten

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

DOI Seite / Zitierlink: 
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14698#0411

DWork-Logo
Überblick
loading ...
Faksimile
0.5
1 cm
facsimile
Vollansicht
OCR-Volltext
344 The holed vessel in Egypt

The story of Kanopos implies the local cult of an actual man,
who died and was buried near the river-mouth. As a dead man he
would of course be identified with Osiris, and—from the position of
his grave—with Osiris as god of the Nile1. Nile-water was in fact
regarded as the very seed of Osiris2 and credited with generative
and fertilising powers of the highest order3. Apparently the divinised
Kanopos was represented by a terra-cotta strainer full of Nile-water.
Its holes were caulked with wax. Its surface was painted with
divers figures. And its neck was completed by the addition of a
human head. This peculiar, but not impossible, image must have
served some practical purpose; and it lies near at hand to conjecture
that in the hottest weather* the wax would melt, the image would
stream with water5, and a fertility-charm of exceptional potency
would automatically protect the neighbourhood from drought. The
alleged rencontre with the Chaldaeans is on this showing a later
moralising version of the previously existing rite6.

1 Heliod. 9. 9 6eoir\a.(TT0v<Ti tov NaXoc MyvivTioi Kal Kpeirrbvuv tov p.tywrov ayov<rw>
dvrip.ip.ov oupavov rbv Trorafibv ae/Avyyopovvres, ola 5tj 5ixa vt,<j>eruiv Kal iierCiv depiav t??
dpovniv-qv airoTs &pSovra Kal els 'iros del reraypLivois £wopi{3pL£ovTa. Kal ravrl fikv 0 iroXus
\eiis. a 5' tK6eid£ovttiv, iKetva. rod elvai Kal %r\v dvBpdnrovs, rty vypas re Kal ^pas ovo~las
ativoSov airiav p.d~kurra vop.i£ov<ri, to. 5' oiXXa oroi^eta roirois crvvwapx^v re Kal avvava<t>a^
eaBai \iyovres (an \eyovo-il) Kal tt)v p.ev vypdv, tov NeZXoc, Baripav 5e tt\v yrjv tt)V ctl'T^
i/jupaiveiv. Kal ravrl p.ev Stjp.oo-ievovai. irpbs 5e roiis jiiaras "\0~1v tt\v Trjv Kal'' Offipw
NeiXov KarayyiWovai, to. irpdyp.ara rots bvbp.ao-l /j.erd\afi^dvovres. On this equivalent
Osiris and the Nile see further Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. pp. 1573 n. 5, 1580 11. 8.

2 Supra ii. 482 n. o, infra n. 6. ^ I

3 Aisch. suppl. 853 ff. ix-qiTOT ISoiui rraXiv | a\<peaifioiov iiSup, \ 'ivBev de^bp-evov I
iditj>vTov alp.a /SpoTOicri 0dXXei with schol. 854 to faoirotovv rd Bpfy/xara, ?l £oV ■
p.era<popiKQs. Xtyei 5e < to > tou NeiXou and 856 dppevoybvov yap to vSoip tov 1 e'
SBev Zeis irtav IreKev "Apea. This exploit of Zeus is unrecorded elsewhere. Is
reference to the Egyptian Ares of Papremis (Hdt. 2. 63, cp. 2. 83)? Other »llusl°"^

the fertilising virtues of Nile-water are collected by R. Wagner in Roscher Lex.

Myth

111. 93.

4 Heliod. 9. 9 Kal yap was avviwetre Kal to. NeiXfia tote tt\v /j.eylffrijv wap A17ll7r
eoprrjv evearriKe'vai, Kara rpowas /xiv ras Beptvas p.d\wra Kal or' dpx'nv rrjs av^rjosas 0 jt _
e/xtpaivei reXov/ikv-qv, k.t.X. On the NciXiya see R. Wagner in Roscher Lex. Myth.

5 Sweating or weeping statues, whether ancient (e.g. Cic. de div. r. 74> 4" $ ' ie,g.
Obs. 31, Loukian. de dea Syr. 36 (supra i. 585), cp. supra ii. 428) or modem

P. Sebillot Le Folk-lore de France Paris 1907 iv. 165), are (SXXos \6yos. :p] r

6 W.Weber Drei Untersuchungen zur dgyptisch-griechischen Religion HeK'e'kel^0111es
pp. 42, 48 (summarised by G. Roeder in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. x. 1872 W ^ at
to the conclusion that the god Kanopos was a local type of Osiris-Neilos wor ^j,;cb
the mouth of the Nile. Osiris was hidden inside the jar in

the form of Nile-water^. ^

is known to have played a considerable part in late religious rites (e.g- j TQp

Os. 36 oi p.6vov 5k rbv NeTXov dWa wav bypbv dw\as 'OalpiSos dwopporp* KoKovd ^e^et,
lepav del wpowop-wetiei to i/dpeiov iwl rtp.7j tov Beov). More exactly, according q(j f0r
Kanopos was the Osiris-Neilos of fresh water: Set-Typhon, his opponent, s
 
Annotationen