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)

The holed vessel in Italy 427

iii. The holed vessel in Italy.

In the preceding sections it has been argued that certain phrases
and beliefs current among the modern and Byzantine Greeks1, taken
together with the wording of a well-known Aristophanic verse2,
Point backward to the existence of a primitive rain-charm, which
consisted in pouring water through a sieve3. It has been suggested
that such a custom would fitly explain the use of a sieve in divina-
tion4 and of a holed vessel in various myths, rites, and doctrines—the
water-carrying of the Danaides5, the nuptial and sepulchral loutro-
Pkdroi6^ and the punishment of the uninitiated in Hades, who are
doomed to bear water in broken pitchers, or in a sieve to a leaky
Pi'thos1.

Now it seems a priori probable that the same ancient fertility-
cWm was at one time practised in Italy as in Greece. But that this
Was actually the case, cannot be proved. At most we may suspect
that the usage underlies a few proverbial phrases and popular
Editions.

■Plautus8, for example, makes a slave say to a lover, who is
m°Ping for his mistress:

Unless you weep for her with tears of silver,
That which you claim to prove by these your tears
Is worth no more than rain-drops caught in a sieve.

^oubtlg

futii,-

less this is, as it is commonly assumed to be, a proverb for

e effort after the unattainable. But whether Plautus was here
Ply writing Latin or—as is certainly possible—translating from
reek original (say, by Menandros9), we have no means of
cidingio_ jn ej(-iier event the form of the expression is peculiar and

1 Supr

Sup,
Supra

' P- 335 f- 2 Supra ii. 2, iii. 333 f. 3 Supra p. 336.

ra P- 336 n. 5. 5 Supra p. 355 ff.

is pj P" 37° ff. 7 Supra p. 397 ff.

crit>run*>*eud- 100 ff., where for the vulgate 'non pluris refert quam si imbrem in
a ^eras G. Gotz and F. Schdll, following the cod. Ambros., read 'legas.'
10 Tl °hanZ Gcschicht' der rbmischen Litteratur"1 Miinchen 1898 i. 53.
date: (ij'p^6 several Greek variants of the proverb, but all of Roman or Byzanti

datp. / . . are ^veral Greek variants of the oroverb. but all of Roman or Bvzantiie
Hxorcos

*0o,icfo(jj flj"' fi°dTrl'' ttovovptwv. (2) Plout. prov. 50 KOffKlvip tpipets vdup, Apostol. 9. 91
®Wurn \ ^'wt' T&" abvv&Tuv, Souid. s.v. KOOKwriSbr (Loukian. Tim. 3, eptst.
^Otton ,0 ."'.*a' 'raP01Mia- KOtnclvy lidup Ttpitpipw. iiri rwv dSwdruv. (3) Loukian
*c6,

"■fiKou • °U ^0*e' 1>iui>,' l^>n, '<Z (pi\oi, o flip irepos tovtuv rpdyov &p.i\yeu>, 0 Si aiiry
" WOTlBbxu;'

"0M(feiS) G locution substitutes a net for a sieve: (4) Plout.prov. 31 irapd Siktvois iiSoip
fybea efa°*Sl<ies g'l°»iologion in Boissonade anecd. i. 29 SiKritp ko/ilfctv ijdap fj v\lv6ov
Botl, • s> * ko.kulv woiudeiaav XP°VV ToXXy iv dvdpuivov fv%V <{eX»fr Swariv;

ages are already combined in Sen. de bene/. 7. 19. 1 'reddere est' inquit