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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

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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14698#0684

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Purpose of the Dipolieia 605

obtaining a rain-storm quite in accordance with the recognised
rules of magic \

An Attic counterpart of the Cretan labrys would be of course
an object of special sanctity—a 'holy axe' as Pindar2 called it. An
example of the sort, found near Athens a few years ago and now in
my possession, is decorated with all the resources of Hallstatt art3.
Accordingly, at the Bouphonia the utmost pains were taken to
transfer the guilt of bloodshed from the axe to its accomplice the
knife, while all present agreed to ignore the escape of the axe-
bearing priest. Even the knife, when condemned, was not, like any
ordinary inanimate object that had caused death, flung beyond the
frontier4, but was sunk at sea5—presumably one more rain-charm
to complete the performance.

(£) Zeus as an ox; Zeus Olbios.

It remains to consider the central act of this yearly drama—the
real death and simulated resurrection of an ox among worshippers
wh° partake of his flesh.

The ox is throughout treated as divine. Nothing short of this
fully account for the ritual rule that the boils must be a voluntary
Vlctim as it were consenting to his own death, for the feeling of

' rj1}111^ ' Malten in the fahrb. d. Deulsck. Arch. Inst. 1928 xliii. 138 is convinced:
Urs r.ei lst ar> einer Reihe von Einzelkulten beobachtet worden, wie in ihnen der Stier
K . un£'ich noch Eigengestalt war, dann aber dem Vater Himmel zuwuchs. Einen
ZUr(i^"n^t bilden die attischen Buphonien, die mit ihren Wurzeln in vorgriechische Zeit
Siihn re'c'len' 'n ihnen unterliegt der "Mord" an dem Stierdamon einer besonderen
q~ ' w°bei das Doppelbeil eine Rolle hat.' Another convert is B. Schweitzer in the

L^n /inz- 1928 cxc. 17 : 'So sind...die Buphonien...ein vorgriechisches Bauernfest.'
2erem eu"ner Atlische Festc Berlin 1932 remains dissatisfied : ' Bei der Beurteilimg der
Altert. °n'e des Zeusfestes ist nicht zu tlbersehen, dass dieses keineswegs in das graueste
v0n hinaufreichen kann.... Es sollte doch klar sein, dass Zeus Polieus auf der Burg
sejn , n unbedingt jtinger sein muss als Athena und erst spiiter zu dieser hinzugetreten
seinem ' und auch dann erhielt er nur einen Altar. Ich glaube nicht, dass man mit
P°ssibir VUlt Ul>er die archaische Zeit hinaufgehen kann.' But Deubner ignores the
archai ■ 'Wllich 1 hold to he the truth) that the cult of Zeus IloXieus came to Athens in
the passa fr°m Eleus's' where with its peculiar personnel and ritual it had survived

1 o a^e h"om Mycenaean to post-Mycenaean conditions.
Rain')66^- Frazer Golden Bough3: The Magic Art i. itfft. ('The Magical Control of

s Pubr^200'infra § 9 (h) " {r>)-

the decor l"^ra Addenda on "• 635 ff- CThe decoration of the double axe'). Since
br'dled a^?0" °f this sPecimen consists in pointille designs of a four-spoked wheel, a

. "^ca and 1 —----- ~----—~ t-------—"ft1 " — 4

mterPret t nded horse, a waterfowl, and a man—symbols all suggestive of a solar
retnotelya 10n-^uPra 333 AT.)—,it is probable that we have here a sacred axe, and
B°uPhoniaOSSlljle that °nce beIon5ed to a Bouph6nos, who wielded it at some forgotten
4 PoliajThen lhe sun was at its hottest (supra p. 588).
' 12°- 5 Supra p. 584.
 
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