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)

590 Myths of the Dipolieia: Sopatros

bouplex1 might perhaps, for shortness' sake, be called Boutes. But,
again, Hesychios, or our manuscript of his work, may be blundering2-

(/3) Myths of the Dipolieia : Sopatros.

To account for the singular ritual of the Dipolieia various tales
were told. They are attached to three names—those of Sopatros,
Diomos, and Thaulon.

According to Theophrastos3, time was when men offered to the
gods the fruits of the earth and abstained from sacrificing, or even
eating, animals. But once, during a common sacrifice at Athens,
a certain Sopatros4—an alien occupying a farm in Attike—had set
out barley-meal and cakes for the gods on a table-altar, when one
of his oxen came in from the field and partly ate, partly trampl^
on his oblation. Sopatros in anger caught up an axe, which ^a
being whetted near by, and struck the ox a fatal blow. On nlS
anger abating he realised what an impious deed he had done, buried
the ox, and fled as a voluntary exile to Crete5. At home a drough
ensued, and the land yielded no crops6. Thereupon men consults
the Delphic oracle. They were told that the exile in Crete vvoul
put an end to their evil plight and that, when they had tal<el1
vengeance on the slayer and raised up the dead in the vei)
sacrifice7 in which he had been killed, it would be better for theI°
to taste of the dead and not refrain8 from so doing. Search ^aS
made therefore, and the guilty party was discovered9. Thinkin&

1 A. Mau in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. iii. 1058. jone

2 O. Jahn in the Nuov. Mem. d. Inst. 1865 ii. 4 n. 3 'Una terza denomin11*
presso Esichio, Bourns..., sembra riposare sur un equivoco,' W. W. Hyde in tne^ tjje
Joum. Phil. 1917 xxxviii. 158 n. o 'The BourdSai can have had nothing to do » ^
Bovtpovia or Bovriiroi, as Hesychius affirms,' L. Deubner Attische Feste Berlin i°32 ''0(jer
'Wenn Hesych die gleiche Person poiiT-qs nennt, so kann nur eine Verwechslung
Nachlassigkeit vorliegen.'

3 Theophr. ap. Porph. de abst. 2. 29 (cited supra p. 577 n. 1). rg()5

4 Porph. toe. cit. Mopov t) XiSnrarpov two.. O. Jahn in the Nuov. Mem- d. .nniU1zi
ii. 10 n. 2 detects here 'la mano d' un copista, che si ricordava d' aver letta
altrettanto di Diomo.' J. Bernays Theophrastos' Schrift tiber Frbmmigkeit Berl*^
p. 122 pointed out that Mop.ov ?) was an interpolation on the part of Porphyrins ^
meant to harmonize de abst. 2. 29 with de abst. 2. 10. Cp. J. Toepffer Attische <je' ^ ^
Berlin 1889 p. 154, P. Stengel Opferbrduche der Griechen Leipzig—Berlin 1910 P'

n. 3, L. Deubner Attische Feste Berlin 1932 p. 164 f. hon!1"^

5 Id. ib. p. 164 n. 3 compares Leukippos, son of Xanthios, who having uilint^"0(,r(*>))>
killed his father retired to Crete (Parthen. narr. am. 5. 5 (laropei'~&ph>-ri<r^va^
'dem klassischen Lande der Mordslihne' (see e.g. supra ii. 934 n. o).

6 Supra p. 426. endati°n °\

7 A. Nauck [supra p. 577 n. i) of course accepts the convincing
Lobeck Aglaophamus ii. 1093, who from the meaningless ava.<XTi)<ravTwv i» W*r
<ridXw dv (or 6V)t (aeaOai restored duaa-Trjcrdi'Tuip in fjirep airiOave Bvalq. ~KV0V

8 So P. Stengel in Hermes 1893 xxviii. 499 n. 1. . eadi"S r<"'

9 H. von Prott in the Rhein. Mus. 1897 Hi. 189 n. 2 retains the manuscript r