Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,2): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits) (Cambridge, 1940)

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Appendix P

the mouth of the Pontos (Theokr. 22. 27 f., Nikeph. Greg. hist. Byz. 5. 4 (i. 134
Schopen)). Apollonios of Rhodes tells how the Argonauts on their outward
voyage were warned by Phineus of the two Kyaneai, which were not firmly fixed
with roots beneath but constantly clashed together amid boiling surf, and
advised by him to send a dove in advance (Ap. Rhod. 2. 317 ff.); how they acted
on his advice and saw the rocks shear off the tail-feathers of the bird; how they
themselves making a desperate dash just got through, thanks to the helpful
hands of Athena, with the loss of the tip of their stern-ornament; and how the
rocks thenceforward were rooted fast and remained motionless (ib. 2. 549 ff.—a
fine piece of writing). It should be observed that Apollonios is careful to dis-
tinguish the Kyaneai or Plegades, as he terms them (Ap. Rhod. 2. 596, 2. 645,
and Kavvov ktIo-is frag. 5. 4 Powell ap. Cramer anccd. Par. iv. 16, 1 ff. and
Tzetz. in Lyk. Al. 1285), from the Homeric Planktai. For it is only on the
return voyage that he works in an allusion to the Planktai, which are described
as having surge at their bases and flame at their tops (Ap. Rhod. 4. 786ff.,
924 ft".) in obvious reference to the Lipari Islands (cp. Ap. Rhod. 3. 41 f. dXX'd
fiev (sc. Hephaistos) is xa^KC">va cat aKfxovas i/pi fteftrjKei, \ vrjcroio TrXayKrrjs
(iipvv fivxov with schol. ad loc).

Many of the Greeks, however, identified the Kyaneai or Symplegades of the
Bosporos with the Planktai (so first, perhaps, Hdt. 4. 85, then Asklepiades (? of
Myrleia: see G. Wentzel in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. ii. 1629) ap. schol.
Od. 12. 69 and other vearepoi (schol. Eur. Med. 2) listed by O. Jessen in Roscher
Lex. Myth. iii. 2546). And sundry Roman poets, placing Scylla in Sicilian
waters, associate her with clashing rocks (Ov. met. 7. 62 ff.) called Symplegades
(Ov. her. 12. 121) or Cyaneae (Iuv. 15. 19 f).

The right conclusion is drawn by O. Jessen loc. at., viz. that both the
Planktai and the Kyaneai or Symplegades presuppose the ancient popular
belief in a doorway to the Otherworld formed by clashing mountain-walls (T.
Waitz Anthropologie der Naturvolker Leipzig 1864 iv. 166 the Mexican dead
'hatte aneinander schlagende Berge...zu passiren,' Julg 'iiber die griechische
Heldensage im Wiederscheine bei den Mongolen' in the Verh. d. 26. Philologen-
versamml. in Wiirzbicrg 1869 p. 64 in the Mongolian saga of Gesser Chan bk 4
'Von da weiterhin kommst du zu einer andern Verwandlung, namlich zu zwei an
einander schlagenden Felswanden ; um zwischen denselben durchzukommen,
musst du selbst em Mittel ausfindig machen,' E. B. Tylor Primitive Culture*
London 1891 i. 347 f. the Karens of Burma 'say that in the west there are two
massive strata of rocks which are continually opening and shutting, and between
these strata the sun descends at sunset,' ib. i. 348 f. in an Ottawa tale Iosco and
his friends after travelling eastward for years reached the chasm that led to the
land of the Sun and Moon; as the sky rose, Iosco and one friend leapt through,
but the other two were caught by the sky as it struck the earth, A. Leskien—K.
Brugman Litauische Volkslieder und Marchen Strassburg 1882 p. 550 in a
Slovenian tale the hero's mother 'stellt sich krank und will Wasser von zwei
zusammenschlagenden Felsen, die aber keine Felsen, sondern Teufel sind, und
nur um Mitternacht zwei Minuten schlafen,' ib. p. 551 in a similar Slovak tale
the mother 'stellt sich krank und verlangt...das Wasser des Lebens und des
Todes, das unter zwei Bergen ist, von denen der eine um Mittag, der andere um
Mitternacht sich erhebt und gleich wieder zufallt,' ib. in a similar tale from
Little Russia the mother 'stellt sich krank und schickt den Sohn...nach
heilendem und belebendem Wasser zu den zusammenschlagenden Bergen,'
W. R. S. Ralston Russian Folk-tales London 1873 p. 235 f. cites stories of the