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)

604 Purpose of the Dipolieia

in the popular mind with Deukalion's downpour, we can better
understand certain circumstances attending Sulla's capture of
Athens in 86 B.C. He entered the city on the Kalends of March,
at a time when, as Plutarch1 says, the Athenians 'do many things
to recall the disastrous deluge of rain and the destruction that it
caused, believing that the flood happened just about that time of
year.' It has been conjectured with much probability that the rites
here referred to were those of the Hydrophdrta2. Shortly after
Sulla's entry, when Aristion on the Akropolis capitulated through
thirst, ' heaven at once gave a portent. On the very day, and at the
very hour, when Curio was bringing him down, the clouds gathered
in a clear sky and there descended such a quantity of rain that it
filled the Akropolis with water3.' Now, if we may argue from the
Hypophoria to the Hydrophoroi, it seems at least likely that the
opening rite of the Dipolieia was the fetching of water by way oi
a rain-charm. The water so fetched was poured over an axe and
a knife. A civilised age of course jumped to the conclusion that the
water was required simply for the sharpening of the tools. But I
shall venture to read a deeper meaning into the ceremony. May
we not fairly surmise that the axe—a double axe, as the frieze of
the Panagia Gorgoepekods shows4—was the weapon of the storm-
god Zeus, was in fact an Attic counterpart of the labrys5} Perhaps-
after all, the Sopatros-legend, which spoke of the Bouphonia as
introduced from Crete6, was not so wide of the mark as some have
supposed7. To wet such an axe with water would be a method °

1 Plout. v. Stiili 14. 2 G. Bernhardy on Souid. s.v. "TSpotpbp

La" of

To the 'TSpo<f>6pia may be added the Xirpoi of Anthesterion 13, when a pot ^
mingled seeds was boiled over the fire and offered to Dionysos and to Hermes Xeifl0S ^
behalf of the dead (Mommsen Feste d. Stacit A then pp. 391 n. 4, 397 f., Harrison /V<wf'
Gk. Rel? p. 36 fT., L. Deubner Attische Feste Berlin 1932 pp. 93 f., 112 ff., u8' %*1
Supra i. 684, ii. 1139), and also the annual ceremony of unspecified date (Mol"nlj,ie
op. cit. p. 424 n. 5), when wheaten meal kneaded with honey was cast into a cleft >n
precinct of Zeus 'OXiS^ttios {supra p. 170 n. o) near the grave of Deukalion (supra »■111

3 Plout. v. Suit. 14. * Supra p. 587 figs. 410, 4x1. 5 Supra ii. 559

6 Supra p. 590 ff". , ti-

7 B. Tamaro in the Annuario delta r. Scuola archeologica di Alette e delle tuff ^
italiane in Oriente 1921—1922 iv—v. 1 fiT. regards the Bouphonia as a rite orifiina"l'jeu5
the Mycenaean age. F. Schwenn Gebet und Opfer Heidelberg 1927 p. 119 says: J t
Sosipolis [in Magnesia] war ursprllnglich ein minoischer Himmelsherr und
spater den Namen seines hellenischen Bruders angenommen. Damit konnen wir ^
neben anderen Stierprozessionen und Stiertotungen, z. B. dem oben erwahnten P°vS ^
"Hpuos in Delphi, audi die Buphonienzeremonien in Athen in die minoische JM ^
zuriickftihren.' Id. ib. p. 131 : 'Der Buphonienstier in Athen diente zunachst nU ^
Schutz der Ackerbestellung, aber da zum Gedeihen der Saaten auch der Se£e ^
Himmels notwendig war, wurde die Stiertotung schon in vbrgriechischer Zeit m ^$
Dienst des Himmelsgottes verbunden—wurde sie zum Opfer fiir den He'r