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)

594 Myths of the Dipolieia: Diomos

firstlings of his flock, and was permitted to do so with all due
caution by the oracle, which said :

It is not right, son of the Theopropoi,
For thee to slay the sheep, a faithful breed ;
But that which bows the head of its own accord
Towards the lustral water sacrifice,
Episkopos,—'twill be a righteous deed1.

A goat was killed first in the Attic deme Ikaria, because it cropP
a vine2. The story of Diomos must have been added to this series
by some ^ajz-philosophical writer; for it exhibits the satne
moralising tendency that we have noticed in the story of SopatI°^

Again, J. Toepffer3has drawn attention to the fact that the
of Diomos and the ox bears a suspicious resemblance to an° ^
aition, in which Diomos figures with better right. He was ^
favourite of Herakles and eponym of the Attic deme ^ora^<
where a famous festival of the like name was held in ^eia^e
honour4. According to the lexicographers, Diomos was 0
sacrificing on a hearth to Herakles, when a white dog came
caught up the thigh-pieces and carried them off to a certain p ^
Diomos in alarm consulted an oracle. The god bade him bui
altar to Herakles on the spot where the dog had deposited
flesh. This was done, and the place called Kyndsarges, the p .
' of the White Dog,' in memory of the event5. Toepffer cone ^
that the name Diomos has made its way into the Bouphom3
from that of the Kynosarges. _ tors6'

This conclusion, though challenged by subsequent investig

1 Porph. deabst. 2. 9 off <re dtifiis urelveiv 6lav yhos ecrrl fSifiawv, \ lyyofe Coug^
5 6"' ekovgiov av KaravevaT} j ^xtpvLft' eirLdtieiv to 'E7r£(r/co7re, (pTjfJ^ ^iKa^?£erelice ^°
Anth. Pal. Append. 6. 263 accepts G. Wolff's cj. xtpplP' e"eiI' t6S'm ^

A. Nauck's x^fv^Ttiv Btiuv t£ a'. 'Jicipl1 ^

2 Supra i. 689 n. 1, cp. i. 678, 709 (pi. xl, 2). Porph. dc abst. 2- to fcoItett^
'Attiktis. Nauck adopts Meursius' cj. 'luapty, but the correction should be itse

into 'I/capfo;.

3 J. Toepffer Attische Ge7iealogie Berlin 1889 p. 155 f.

4 P. Stengel in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. v. 831. is sta'e<1

5 Phot. lex. and Souid. s.v. \<Lvv6crapyes. That the sacrifice was to Her;ake j ^ ^vev
by Steph. Byz. and Hesych. s.v. Kvv6o-apyes. Phot. loc. cii. says Aiop.01 0 A V .^aW
rg'BcrW?, but cp. Souid. loc. cit. Al6vp.os (which Meursius corrected to Alof*°sl

tffvev iv Ti) ecrrlg. (cod. V. omits ei>). roped

6 E. Maass in the Gail. gel. Am. 1889 p. 826 regards

Mo^ as a WT^I*
of AwfLTiSys, comparing *Atko,uos (whence AvKOfilSai) = Avko/j.ti5i]S, "AXk'M0* af/te>t
(id. 'Mythische Kurznamen' in Hermes 1888 xxiii. 613, H. Usener GStf? perS'"0',
1896 p. 55 f.), T-^os, Effpi^os, etc. F. Bechtel—A. Fick Die GriechiscM^^eO-
nameii1 Gottingen 1894 p. 99 record Aio-fiiduv, Aio-fitinjs, Aio-fiySris and t ie
Aio/nas (Corp. inscr. Gr. iii Add. no. 3827 bb, 1 from Kotiaeion). jIoAie"5 °

Maass loc. cit. p. 828 f. supposes that Diomos was priest of Zeus