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)

422 Water-carrying in connexion

water of Lethe can be seen gushing. These happy ones have no
sorrows to forget. But beside that fountain the vase-painter has
placed another family—Megara and her murdered boys. Despite
the bandages bound tightly about them, the blood still trickles from
the wounds inflicted by their father in his madness. No wonder
that they linger beside the waters of oblivion. Finally, on the
brink of the infernal river is an object interpreted by A. Furtwangler
as a large sieve with many holes in its upper surface. Rathei,
perhaps2, we should see in it the mouth of a big pithos, sunk in the
soil and riddled with holes. The context in which it is found favour

(A. Wiinsche Die Sagen vom Lebensbaum und Lebenswasser Leipzig 1905 pp. 71—9° ®' >
Lebenswasser in seiner eigentlichen Eedeutung in den verschiedenen Kulturrelig»onel'
go—104 'DasWasser des Lebens als Zauberbrunnen in den Marchen derVolker')-
appropriations and adaptations of the idea are found at Lebadeia (Paus. 9. 39- "

Kal iirl T$5e #XXo atidis v5up iriveiv M.VTifiocnjV7]S' airb rovrov re p.viflxove6ei Ta b<p®
Kara/Hanri, Plin. imt. hist. %i. 15 in Boeotia ad Trophonium deura iuxta flumen Hercy ^
e duobus fontibus alter memoriam, alter oblivionem adfert, inde nominibus inventus,
orig. 13. 13. 3 in Boeotia duo fontes alter memoriam, alter oblivionem affert), at
(E. L. Hicks The Collection of Ancient Greek Inscriptions in the British Museum «•
221 f. Oxford 1890 no. 600, a 2 f. \ja lepa tov TtavTOKparfopos deou Awvv<ro[v] \ [Klt ^

Have\\]riviov Kal "Htpalcxrov, c 28 f. [Mf]e(a(s) Mei>a.[i>5pos] | [Afl0?/s 'AXei;..... „s

inscription, discovered by J. T. Wood on the site of the great theatre, gives a list of Pe^ra
who on a certain occasion in honour of Dionysos, Zeus IlaceXX^ios (? = Hadrian- ^
ii. 1120 f. n. o) performed a mystic play, taking the parts of Mneia, Lethe, elc"[()1^
W. Quandt De Baccho ab Alexandri aetate in Asia Minore culto Halis Saxoiiun1 ^
p. 265 ff.), and perhaps in Lusitania, where the river Limia (the modern />'
identified with Lethe (Strab. 153, Appian. Iber. 71 f.) or Oblivio (Mela 3- i°> f.,
hist. 4. 115 (112), Flor. 1. 33. 12, Liv. perioch. 55, cp. Sail. hist. 3. 44, Sil. 'j^jiarly
r3- 555, 16. 476 f.), if not also in Kyrena'tke, where the river Lethon was
explained (Lucan. 9. 355 f., Solin. 27. 54). tf)at the

O. Kern in Hermes 1916 li. 555 infers from lines 6 f. of the Petelia table jas
mystic, though a child of Gaia as well as Ouranos, claims to be essentially oip"-1"^^ ^
such contrasted with the x^vioi (Orph. h. Tit. 37. 6 ff. if vixtwv yap nava v ^0
Kara Koapov. \ v/j.as klkXtictko} [t/qvLV %aXe7r?;i/ airoTr£{j.TTeLV, [ et tls dtrb x®0V^UV . anl on
oi'/coicri ireKaaBrj). Id. ib. 1917 Hi. 475 interprets in the same manner the ^^^00
a temple of the Meter Theon at Phaistos (F. Halbherr in the Museo Italiano at ^ernjcke
Classica 1890 m. 735 f. no. 183, E. Maassin the Ath. Mitth. 1893 xviii. 272 ff-.K- jn fae
ib. 1894 xix. 290 ff., E. Maass Orpheus Mtinchen 1895 p. 309 ff., G. de Sanc^ .. j; c),
Mm. d. Line. 1901 xi. 542 ff. with a facsimile (the inscription is not earlier than ' ^$$0$
F. Blass in Collitz—Bechtel Gr. Dial.-lnschr. iii. 2. 360 no. 5112) Bavita p-n (<die
■aavTiav p.aT-np irp(o)8iKi>UTf \ rois bolois t>lvxpt)Ti Kal oi yovcav vTrix0"Tai ^ K'T
ihren Adel (ihre Abstammung von Uranos) nachweisen konnen'j.

1 Furtwangler—Reichhold Gr. Vasenmalerei i. 50. ( ^ cias Fa5S

2 This explanation is dismissed by Furtwangler op. cit. i. 50 n. 1 (••• *} gfni!
der Danaiden, das im Boden stecken mtisste, auch nicht das umgekehrte ' p, 399
andere Form haben mtisste'...). But the analogy of the Munich amphora v^geSt pre'
fig. 262) and of the Palermo lekythos [supra p. 400 pi. xxxvi) affords the s burjed "J
sumption that the doubtful object is really meant for the mouth of a gieat 3 ^ e%ctf>
the ground. And how else should the vase-painter have indicated that it v/a

by the naive expedient of adding dots to represent the leaks?