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)

6io

Zeus as an ox; Zeus Olbios

that ultimately the Bouzygai were responsible for keeping the
sacred oxen that ploughed at Eleusis1. Probably J. Toepffer2 is
right in his contention that, when the Eleusinian state ceased to be
an isolated priestly power, all three ploughings passed into the
. control of the Attic Bouzygai. O. Gruppe3 too attributes these
changes to political movements in progress at the end of s. vii and
during the first half of s. vi B.C.—the temporary predominance of
Megara and the permanent union of Eleusis with Athens. Indeed
it is likely enough that the original home of the Bouzygai was not
Athens, but Eleusis. The Eleusinians, says Pausanias4, 'assert that
the Rarian Plain was the first to be sown and the first to bear
crops, and therefore it is their custom to take the sacrificial

barley

and to make the cakes for the sacrifices out of its produce.'

Not only Eleusis, but Crete also is involved in the legend 0

Bouzyges. A tradition which goes back to Aristotle5 boldly

declared that Bouzyges was none other than Epimenides, the

famous Cretan prophet who is known to have visited Athens c. 5°^

B.C.6 That is a very remarkable identification, which—so far a

can see—must have been propounded by somebody bent on tracin»

an analogy between the sacred ox of Athens and the sacred t>

c the

of Crete. We have already7 insisted on the resemblance ol
communal feast at the Bouphonia to the communal feast in Cie
And we can hardly help wondering whether there had ever been ^
Eleusis, as there certainly was in Crete, an earlier phase of bov

1 Aristeid. or. 46. 129 f. (ii. 174 f. Dindorf) cites Eupol. A^oi frag. 7 tfl"*??^'

:

vrov n

a6o

vvv rts, ov y ZffTiv \4yeip; | 6 Hov^fjyijs dpcaros dXmJpios {Frag. com. Gr. rl. ^^0s

Meineke), and schol. A. ad loc. (iii. 473 Dindorf) comments 6 JJepiK\ijs iariv^ V j
o 3ovfyyr}s 6 dXtrfjotos. Bovftyqv p.kv ovv avTbv <p-q<Ji Kara rbv tovtov (teg' rov^ ^0vP'
rpbirov Sti roiis TpicpovTas kv "EKevalvi robs Upovs /36as aporpi&PTas Bov'^vyo-S ^ ^
tovto Se ovk £%0V tto.vtI fiovkopAvq iroteiv, el pt,7} /j.bvois rots Upeuffi. Trarpbdev ovv . jje
toiovtuv cTKkc to yivos 6 HepiKXijf Kai 5ia tovto Boufl>7?j>' avrbv iKa,\e<rev. <-Tt '' figas
schol. B. D. Oxon. (id.) has Bovtfiycu ko.\ovi>tcu ol rds iepds (3oCs rds ev "Ehevtrivi a"
Tpi<povTes. £k tovtuv be 6 ttepifcXijs KavrqyeTO. to yivos be tovto t\v Upbv. k.t.X-

2 J. Toepffer Attische Genealogie Berlin 1889 P- '38'

3 Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 52. „ ai)^<r<"

4 Paus. 1. 38. 6 to be ireblov t£> 'Pdpiov awapT)va.i irpGiTov \iyovai «al irpw7"0^ g^ltf
KapTro6s, ko.1 dtd tovto ov\cus avrov XPV17^0-^ ^(pict teal 7rote?o~0cu irip-P-oYro. ^
Ka.SiaTi]K(.v. . ue pu^f

5 Aristot. frag. 386 Rose2 ap. interp. Serv. in Verg. georg. 1. '9 "^jjtote^1"'
monstrator aratri'...vel Epimenides, qui postea Buzyges dictus est secundum f£i)£*5'„
cp. Hesych. s.v. Bov^6yt}f r/pws 'Attik6s, 6 (rj cod.) wpurros /Sous virb^ &porp ^1
iKoKetro Si 'Em/ueWS^s, schol. T. V. //. 18. 483 ko1 aporpov 5k irpCiros 'WW6"1
Maivibos codd.) 6 nai Hovfyytjs Ifrvgev. . pauly^

6 Plat. /egg. 642 D—E, on which see J. Toepffer op. cit. p. 141 and O. Kern 1
Wissowa Real-Enc. vi. 177.

7 Supra p. 606.