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)

la

Water-carrying and the Danaides 369

sky-god1. Again, O. Gruppe2 detects a rain-charm3 in the tradition
that the heads of Aigyptos' sons were buried by Danaos' daughters
at Lerna4 or dropped into the spring there as offscourings (apo-
kathdrmatd) by Danaos himself5. Lastly, we note the side-issue or
'nserted tale that Poseidon showed Amymone the Lernaean springs
lr> consequence of her union with him6. I am disposed, therefore, to
c°njecture that the wholesale endogamic marriage of the Danaides
W[th the Aigyptiadai was regarded as a most potent fertility-
charm7.

So far little or nothing has been said about a point which to the

tater Greeks and to the Romans after them became the point of the

hole story—I refer of course to the punishment of the Danaides in

world below. Here they must for ever carry water to fill a holed

P'tkos, and so atone for the murder of their cousins8. This water-

Carrying on the part of the Danaides cannot, however, be traced back

^ literature beyond the pseudo-Platonic Axiockos*, which betrays

-Picurean influence10 and has been assigned to the Alexandrine

Supra i. 756 n. 6. But see also W. Robertson Smith Lectures on the Religion of the
of * London 1927 p. 93 ff., S. A. Cook The Religion of Ancient Palestine in the light

^chaeology London 1930 pp. i,3of., 216ff.

3 Gruppe Myth. Lit. 1908 p. 338.
J' Rendel Harris in Folk-Lore 1904 xv. 431 ('Occasional Rain-charms'): 'At Ourfa
tlle , Were told that in dry seasons they dig up the body of a recently buried Jew, abstract
tne ea° and throw it into the Pool of Abraham.' O. Janiewitsch 'Durstige Seelen' in
dro / f- Rcl- 1910 xiii. 627 cites several examples of Russian peasants in time of
r!acj j* Pouring water on the corpse or grave of one who had committed suicide or who
thjr ,een Ranged, such persons being held responsible for the lack of rain. On the dry,
iriter ^ ■ d See mrtner °- Immisch ' AAIBAXTE2' ib. 1911 xiv. 449—464 and two
52-_!gUng articles by J. C. Lawson ' IIEPI AAIBAXTS1N' in the Class. Rev. 1926 xl.

4S„' IJ6 121. Supra p. 362 n. 2, infra p. 440 n. 9.

5 Zen"" P" 356-

6 ,.en • 4- 86, Apostol. 10. 57, alib. [supra p. 356 n. 4). .

Ve8etati . Uolde" Bough3: The Magic Art ii. 97 ff. ('The infl uence of the sexes on
^Sanda°n notes that parents of twins sometimes exercised a fertilising influence (in
Co"ecHs plantains («*■

ii. 102), in Peru on the beans (ib. i. 265 f., ii. 102 n. 1)), and
^nd js rjt^.an^ cases in which the intercourse of the sexes, promiscuous or otherwise, was
If 1 l6Ved to 1ulcken the growth of the crops.

my interpretation of the myth, it is easy to see why Danaos cast
356) • (j 'nto Pr'son- She had saved Lynkeus because he spared her virginity (supra
**' 3). 6 ove'm°tive was merely a poetic recasting of the prosaic fact (supra p. 356

8 £

Hilo'og^U b R°SCher LeX- Mytk- L

949 ff., C. Bonner in Transactions of the American
1902 xi» 1 JSociation 1900 xxxi. 28, 34 ff., id. in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology

8 plat. A ■ '54' l6+ff-' °- Waser 'n Pauly—Wi ssowa Real-Enc. iv. 2089 f.
p 10 A. Bri^L- ° E ^"^a X"P0S dire/Siix Kal AavatSuv iidpeiai aretius.

*• ifus "lann 'Eeitrage zur Kritik und Erklarung des Dialogs Axiochos' in the
gy'ec/lischen/ 96 li* +41—4551 Rohde Psyche' ii. 247 n. 1, W. Christ Geschichte der
t-Vteratur* MUnchcn 1912 i. 704 n. 8.

c- Hi.

24