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)

42o Water-carrying in connexion

The Othenvorld landscape, here described in language of haunting beauty and profound
significance, includes the palace of Hades, with a white cypress standing beside it, a°d
a fountain on either hand. The soul must avoid that on the left—the water of Lethe—and
beg a draught from the other, the water of Mnemosyne. Guardians are set before it! t>u
he is to challenge them boldly with the words:

I am the child of Earth and starry Sky.
Sky-born—ye know it of yourselves—am I.
Now parched with thirst I perish ; cool the cup
Of Memory's water—let me drink it up.

At this the Guardians will suffer him to drink from the fountain divine, and thereaftei
shall live as a king among heroic peers.

The same scenery appears in the Celtic Elysium—the palace, the silver apple-11
beside it, the shining well with its five streams [Folk-Lore 1906 xvii. 144 ff-)- Much'"*;
same is implied by the quests undertaken in south-European 'Expulsion' Tales
golden seat, the apple-tree beside it, the Dancing Water with its formidable guardians
[supra ii. 1016). Nay more, the self-same landscape furnishes not a little of the iniag ^
in The Revelation of St John—the throne of God, the tree of life, the river proceeding ^
of the throne [Rev. 2. 7, 22. 1 ff.). All such pictures, if I am not mistaken, presupp°se
a more or less sublimated form the essential features of the old-world king, as Sir Ja
Frazer first descried him. He is the local champion, the strongest man of the dis >
who is prepared to defend his title against all comers. He is found at an appr0P^ ^
centre, beneath a sacred tree, beside a sacred river. He must keep up his streng ^ ,^
feeding perpetually upon the fruit of his tree. He fights, indeed, with a branch or 1 ^
And if he feels faint with the effort, there is the magic water gushing

his hand.

the

feet. Last but not least, he is a divine personage, at once mortal and immortal, a
king, a kingly priest. In such an one we recognise not only the Orphic votary
Otherworld visitant, the folk-tale hero, and 'him that overcometh.' 0lar
As to details, the Xewri) Kvirdpuraos is hardly to be explained as a w'llte, njaO
(D. Comparetti Lamhielte orfiche Firenze 1910), despite the name (XeiKij) and garnes'
associations of that tree {supra ii. 467 ff.). One recalls, by way of warning, J0S'lU£lgan(jys'
comment on Eur. Hel. 384 ' figura Leaenae, i.e. Ursae,' or for that matter Sir John ^ s 3
note on Eur. Bacch. 1017 'It is highly probable that by the "lion" in these Pa^Q[n jts
panther is really meant'! That Kvirdpiao-os was not used at random appear5 ^q\V
recurrence on the three gold tablets of s. ii B.C., found at Eleuthernai in ^r^egonlpei'z
in the Museum at Athens (A. Joubin in the Bull. Corr. Hell. 1893 xvii. 121 ff., i- j.
id. p. 124, J. L. Myre[s] ii. p. 629, F. Blass in Collitz—Bechtel Gr. ^)ial-'/"S^\'e\s P*e
245 no. 4959 a, Harrison Proleg. Gk. Rel.'2 p. 574, G. Murray ib. p. 660 f-> H- ^a),
Fragmente der Vorsohratiker'1 Berlin 1912 ii. 1 76 (Orph. 'Altbezeugte Fragml"fl^^^
A. Olivieri Laviellaeaureae Orphicae Bonn 1915 p. 14f., O. Kern OrphicoruM *stored
Berolini 1922 p. 105 f. ('Fragmenta veteriora' 32b)), of which the archetype aS^, 5^1(£,
by Olivieri runs: ' Sixf/ai oSos iyii Kal cnrdWviiai.' 'dXXd 7ri'e nfiov \ Kpdvas atei>a^ ^ ^hy
r>k0 Kv<pdpia<ros. \ rls 8' ial; [ttS 5' i<xl;Y Tas vids 17M' Kal 'SlpavSi darepoevTOS. . pyffr
should a cypress be described as Xewo}? F. Lajard Recherches sur le culte du <?? ^o0n
midal Paris 1854 PP- 156 ff., 311 f., observes that the oracular trees of the Sun ^ ^ se0do-
consulted by Alexander the Great in Prasiake are said to have been cyPre ^S^0"',
Kallisthenes hist. Alex. Magn. 17. 27 ff. Kroll Kal el<xf)veyKav 7)1*8* ets rtva ^
lv0a...-ij\ios Kal [r/] ae\-r)vri iv fiicqj too irapabelaov t Kara. Si airovs 't'P0"1'0" " & ^
/to! viKipnp. Suo St rjv SivSpa rd wpoei.p-riij.ha, a rjv 7ra/)airX7j<ria Kvvaplatrois..-^ ^pofll^
SivSpa [rd irpoeip-rjH.iva\ irapbfioia rrj iv AlyvwTip fivpofiaXdvy, Kal 6 Kaprbs ^^^^ ToS & *
pevov St to fiiv dppevtKbv dppivuv \oyiap.bv, t6 St BrjXxiKbv B-rjkeiSv bvoita ^pie^P^^
17'Xios, rijs Si $t)\eias (rekf)ViJ, (a) iXeyov r-rj iSla <pwvrj /lovdov ifiaovaat. ravra ^ (S
Sopds iravTolwv (d-qpluv), to fiiv &ppei> dppivuv tS Si BrjXv 8-rjXeMV. vaP "^l(l>raV0'' T^ i
oix inrijpxev otire xa^KOS °"Te Kao-o-Wepos otire irijXbs (els) TrXdviv. if-0" :^ ^eo> e
at Sopal SoKouaiv elvat, fiprjcav Xeicrwc Kal TrapSdXeuv. ovk i^eori St o>Se to.