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)

Zeus Kappdtas

939

(i) Zeus Kappdtas.

Pausanias1 in his account of south-western Lakonike says:
'About three furlongs from Gythion is an unwrought stone. The story goes
that Orestes sat upon it and was thereby stayed from his madness; wherefore
the stone was named Zeus Kappdtas in the Doric tongue.'

Attempts to determine the exact site of this famous stone have
led to some divergence of opinion. On the one hand, E. S. Forster2
in an article dealing with Laconian topography writes as follows:

' Near the modern Gymnasium, at the side of the Sparta road, is an abrupt
face of reddish stone some ten metres high, cut into the side of the hill of
Kumaro and now called neXeKijrd. At a point about four metres above the level
of the neighbouring road is the rock-cut inscription Moipa Aios Tepaarta>3. It
was cut by hammering with a round-pointed instrument, which made dot-like
incisions.

The distance from this spot to the centre of the ancient site agrees well with
the "about three stades" of Pausanias, and it may, I think, be regarded as
certain that this inscription marks the site of the sanctuary of Zeus Kappotas.
Ifpiio-rtor must then be regarded as the official title of the god, KcnnrwTas as a
local popular epithet. The spot as figured by Le Bas—Waddington [(fig. 781)4]
shows a rocky platform at the foot of the cliff, which perhaps was the
unwrought stone" mentioned by Pausanias.'

On the other hand, W. Kolbe5, writing six years later in his
Inscriptiones Laconiae, reverts to the view put forward by W. M.
Leake6, that the stone called Zeus Kappdtas was to be seen in
antiquity some two hundred yards further south at the point where
the rock still shows an archaic inscription in small letters difficult
to decipher and interpret, but possibly prescribing penalties for any
who should shift or damage the sacred object7.

I aus. 3. 22. 1 Yv8iov 5e rpets /idXiara dw^xfL ffradtovs dpybs Xldoi' 'Opiarqv Myovffi
Ka6etr64vTa eir' avTov vaiaaaBai rrjs fiavlaf 5id tovto 0 \idos Civop.dadt\ Zeis Ka7nrct>Tas
Ka-Td yXwo-o-av tt\v Awpida.

E. S. Forster in the Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1906—1907 xiii. 222 f.

[S'tfira ii. 31 n. 7.]

^ Lebas—Reinach Voyage Arch. p. 32 pi. Itin. 25 ( = my fig. 781). R. Weil in the
Ait, ^'lt/l- '8761. 1 e 1 ff. compares this 'Felsanlage' with that of Zeus Hypsistos at
h6ens (:»pra ii. 876 n. [ no. (1)).

W. Kolbe in Inscr. Gr. Arc. Lac. Mess. i. 217.

W. M. Leake Travels in the Morea London 1830 i. 248.
Gk R-Weil in tne Ath. Mitth. 18761. 154 f., Roehl Inscr. Gr. ant. no. 72, Roberts

R M?igr' 261 no- 2fio' A- N' Skias in tne ApX- l892 PP- 185—191 no. 1,
• Meister in Collitz—Bechtel Gr. Dial.-Inschr. iii. 2. 60 ff. no. 4564, Michel Recueil
scr. gr. no j y^ prQtt ancj l Ziehen Leges Graecorum sacrae ii no. 55, Inscr.

&caT~rC' ^aC' ^ess- i no- "55 /"Siva \ dirocrrpvtff crnii • \ al Si no. d-n-oaTpv\[S]cTai,
t|le ^0T" I e ho SoXos- I -poi Si hbire | vdfios, | ajroordro. The interpretation depends on
Lidd'1^311'11'' ass'gned to the unknown verb dToo-Tpuffeo-rai. H. Stuart Jones in the new
and Scott has 'dirocrrp\j8ao(iai, perh. = disturb, move, dub. in IG 5 (1). 11J5. 2