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)

772

The snake of Athena

which actually lived in the Erechtheion. Herodotos1, describing the
eve of Salamis, writes as follows:

The Athenians say that a great snake dwells in their sanctuary2 and guards the
Akropolis. So they say and in proof of their words set out for it a monthly
offering, to wit a honeycake. This cake had always before been consumed, but
was now left untouched. When the priestess made that known, the Athenians
were more willing to leave their city, because they deemed that the goddess too
had deserted the Akropolis.

Plutarch3 tells the same tale, except that he regards the whole
business as a ruse on the part of the artful Themistokles. Other
authors add nothing of importance, and the common assumpti011
that the snake was Erechtheus or Erichthonios is a probability
rather than a certainty. At most we know that Aristophanes4 called
it 'the house-keeping snake,' masculine in gender and therefore not
to be identified with the goddess herself.

The original significance of the snakes that figure so frequently
in the myths and rites of Athens is by no means easy to determine'
In view of the curious5 belief that the spinal cord of a dead man
turns into a snake6—a belief still current in Palestine7—it would

1 Hdt. 8. 41.

2 On the actual haunt of this reptile see supra ii. 1148 11. 2, J. M. Paton The Ertc
theum Harvard Univ. Press 1927 pp. 435 n. 3, 456, 486 n. 1 (3), 491 n. 1 ('It is peihal's
allowable to see in the crypt beneath the North Portico and in its probable extension
along the inside of the north wall the reputed dwelling-place of the sacred serpent-'
indeed the serpent had any real existence, and was not a mere hypostasis of the ch''10"^

divinity, Erechtheus (Petersen, Burgtempel, pp. 61—93)'). The obscure vv«.« -r ^

word ipta*^

throws little or no light on the situation: see A. C. Pearson's excellent note on °P
frag. 643 Jebb.

3 Plout. v. Them. 10. ^

4 Aristoph. Lys. 758 f. a\\' ov Stiva/j.ai "yay ovSc Koip.ao-6' iv irb\ei \ ei ov T " j
etSov rbv oUovpbv ttotc with schol. ai loc. tov kpbv SpiKovra ttjs 'Aff-qvas, tov ipvXaK
vaov and Hesych. oUovpbv b<piv ■ tov t?;s TloXidSos ipOXaKa bp&KOvra. Kal °l ^ , -j
(pao-iv, ot de Svo iv rip lepip tov "EpexOiws. tovtov Se rpuXana ttjs aicpoTr6\e(bs <pao-i[v)> ^ ^
p.e\iTOVTTa.v waparWeo-ffai, Phot. lex. s.v. oiKovpbv Stpiv ■ tov ttJs IroAiaSos <pv\aK ^
'Hpbboros- HXapxos 5e avrov bio (F. Creuzer cj. Kal 'Hpbgoros < pkv Iva </>V<Tl'' ^ . ^
Upip, >4>i/\apxos de airov dvo) (Phylarch. frag. 74 {Frag. hist. Gr. i. 355 Mullety

72 (Frag.gr. Hist. ii. 186 Jacoby), cp. Eustath. in Od. p. 1423, 8 fif. Detween

5 Not so very curious, either. For there is, of course, a rough resemblance ^ ^
the cord with its tapering end and the snake with its tapering tail, as my ft ie^ajce's
colleague Dr F. Goldby assures me. The likeness of the vertebral column to a
skeleton is less pronounced. ^

6 Ail. de uat. an. I. 51 p&xis av8pdirov veKpov (pao-iv inroo-nTrbft.eVQV rbv p-v ^t
Tpivei is 6<piv Kal iKirlTmi rb Oijplov, Kal 'e'pirei rb aypLihrarov (k tov ijp.epuTaTov ^ ^ ^
p.ev Ka\uiv Kal ayaOCbv to. \el<pava avairaveTat, Kal ?xeL a8\ov ficvxlav, uxrirep t ^ j^aV
ipvXT) twv toiovtuv to. <j.5bp.eva re Kal vfj.vovp.eva tK tSiv <xo<pCiv irovnp&v <>^ ^^eVl&s
pax^s TOLavTa tlktovsl Kal fieTa Tbv filov. rj Tolvvv rb irav [J,v96s eo'Tiv, tf, t'1 ravr ^ ^itfS0^
ireirto-Tevrai, irovripov veKpbs, djy KplveLv efj.£, 6'0ews yeviadai iraT^p tov rpbff0

¥iy*ro. .According'"

7 J. E. Hanauer Folk-Lore of the Holy Land London 1907 p. 283