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 437

°f the foundation of Roma Quadrata and inferred from the casting
°f first-fruits into the pit1 that the mundus was the larder or store-
house of the new city. W. Warde Fowler urged that, if it was used
f°r storing grain, we can see why it should have been opened on
August 242. That date 'follows the Consualia [Aug. 21], a festival
which almost beyond doubt has reference to harvesting, and
lrnmediately precedes the Opiconsivia [Aug. 25], which almost as
certainly represents the storage of the grain as completed3.' Warde
Fowler further conjectured that on August 24 'the seed-corn for
the autumn sowing was separated from the rest of the grain, and
dePosited in an underground storing-place4,' the mundus. Since the
rough old-fashioned wheat called far was sown throughout October5,
whereas the better wheat called triticum was not to be sown till
after the setting of the Pleiades6 (on or about Nov. 9), the other two
days for the opening of the mundus— October 5 and November 8—
are equally intelligible. When the city ceased to be a practical
Centre 0f agriculture, and the Etruscans established their dominion
m R°me, 'the mundus took on a new meaning connected with the

Et

scan ideas of a nether world7' and the lapis manalis was
, rongly linked with the Manes. The transition would be facilitated

dead16 ^aCt' ^U'y notec* ky Sir J. G. Frazer, that 'thespirits of the
are often supposed to watch over or further the growth of the
t>s- that is why the firstfruits are often presented to them8.'

METa7r lf"'t<f 8a\pas tov 'VGifiov 6/iov Kal rods rpo0eis, ipKifc ttjv ttoKiv, ck Tvppijvlas
'""'"'ep £y 'ie"°5 dvSpas lepois rial deap.6ii Kal ypd/ipia(np v(pr)yov/j.4vovs iKaara. Kal StSatTKOvras
"fois i'6JulJe^>eT^° P^®P°s y^P upuyq Trepl to vvv Konlrioy KVKXoTeprjs, airapxal re irdvTuv,
^! "■'Phro fJ~''W Ktt'l0's expuvTo, 0v<m 5' us avayxalois, aTiTed-quav {vravda. Kal t4\os, 41-
7°v @6d ^ka<tt°5 oXlyyv KOfxl^oiP fxoLpav, ZfiaWov eis ravra Kal avve}xlyvvov. koXovgi. 5e

TV irQi^L T0VT0V <f Kal tov oKvfLirov wi/HOTi jxovviov. elra uiffirep kuk\ov KivTptp irepiiypa^/av

1 T ' K-T.\,

^'as dug ' fibBpoi... oipvyrj wepl to vvv Ko/ifriov KVKkoTepi)s means 'a round hole

**S dug ro 6 neighbourhood of what is now called the Comitium,' not 'a circular trench
^rcH, n ... at's now called the Comitium.' A. L. Frothingham in the Am.Journ.
3861 nv X^'"'3'5 and, apparently, Sir J. G. Frazer in his note on Ov.fast. 4. 821

2 W Wa dnSkte the PassaSe'

3 ld- 'M e Fowler 'r,le Roman Festivals London 1899 p. 211 f.
nterP>-etationin& Patet' in the Jonrn. Rom. Stud. 1912 ii. 26 = id. Roman Essays and

c\ ' in th ■ ^-w g#.

1912 ii. 27 = id. Roman Essays and Interpretations

Oxford ,920 p. 26.

Pi:

[920

P- 27.

c

t'iern in knl "tr ***** l8' 205 far Septembri extremo usque in idus Octobres, alii post hun
" Verg Nove»bres.

I>, ' W> wtrd^V1' ff'' CP' Colum- * re rusL -■ 8-

"te'"Pretati Fowler in the Journ. Rom. Stud. 1912 ii. 29 = id. Roman Essays and

0»f fte/0f°rd '92° P* ^

'92op T>"" 'Rom-Stud- '912 ii. 30 n. 1 = id. Roman Essays and Interpretations