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)

The owl of Athena 817

grasped in his left hand and the fingers of his right hand raised and spread, while his head
was bound with a fillet, was said by Apollonios of Tyana to portray the athlete as a priest
of Hera (Philostr. v. Apoll. 4. 28 p. 76 f. Kayser, but cp. Paus. 6. 14. 6, Ail. de nat. an.
^' 55> var. hist. 1. 24). A statue of the youthful Zeus Kdsios at Pelousion held a pome-
granate in its outstretched hand (supra ii. 986 n. o).

Aphrodite is said to have planted the pomegranate in Kypros (Eriphos Meliboia
fr*g. 1, 11 f. (Frag. com. Gr. iii. 556 f. Meineke) ap. Athen. 84 c). Her connexion with
'he fruit comes out also in the story of Melos. According to the interp. Serv. in Verg.
ec?. 8. 37, a certain Delian named Melos fled to Kypros in the reign of Kinyras. Kinyras

Fig. 623.

who6 .comPan'°n to his son Adonis and gave him to wife Pelia, a relative of his own
fathpW.aS '''<evv'se a devotee of Aphrodite. Pelia bore Melos a son, called Melos after his

Adonr' anc^ tne k°y was brought up inter aras, i.e. in the precinct of Aphrodite. When
he got h*aS killed by 'he boar, Mel os i in his grief hanged himself on the tree from which
pity f 18 narne AIBos: Pelia, his wife, hanged herself on the same tree. Aphrodite in
that b 161^ ^ate made perpetual lament for Adonis, transformed Melos i into the fruit
to E>elosS name' ^e''a mt0 a dove (T^«a). and bade Melos ii return with followers
Arrjan S' did so, and becoming powerful there founded the state of Melos (cp.
#t*, j°S 0f Nikomedeia frag. 71 (Frag. hist. Gr. iii. 599 Mu\\er)=/rag. 70 (Frag.gr.
^Xav „' . Jac°by) ap. Eustath. in Dionys. per. 530). It should be added that the
coins of Melos is always a pomegranate, never an apple (see e.g. Babelon