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)

1030 Appendix R

bay-leaves which might be worn by those that actually served the goddess.
This Samian custom of wearing willow is mentioned elsewhere1. Anakreon2
says of a young friend from Samos :

Megistes whose heart answers mine
Ten months ago
Would wreath him so
With willow and drink deep the honeyed wine,
More important is an epigram by Nikainetos3 of Samos, which throws some
further light upon the usage:

Ah, Philotheros, fain would I
Fanned by the western breezes lie
Feasting with Hera—not in town.
Enough for me a mere shake-down.
See, nigh at hand there is a spread
Of native willow for my bed
And osiers, the old Carian wear.
Bring wine, and list the lyre's sweet air,
That we may drink and praise beside
Our island-queen, Zeus' glorious bride.

From this it appears that at the feast of Hera the guests not only wreathed
their heads with willow, but also reclined upon willow boughs and sang of Hera
as the bride of Zeus.

Such rites can be paralleled, at least in part, from othar cult-centres. Thus
at Sparta the image of Artemis was called Lygodhma the 'Willow-bound' as
well as Orthia the 'Upright' ostensibly because it had been found in a thicket
of willows, which twining round it kept it upright4. And at Athens it was
customary for women celebrating the Thesmophoria to lie on a bed of willows6.
Indeed, priests in general used to strew willow leaves under their couches0,
and as late as the eighteenth century Christian monks wore girdles made of
willow osiers7.

1 Tenaros ap. Athen. 672 a states that willow was a.ypolKt>]v...aTe<pai>wp.a. But we do
not know who Tenaros was, nor whether his aypoiKoi were Samians. Still less information
is given by the jejune note of Aristarchos ap. Athen. 671 f f. tin Kai \ijyois iarapavovvTo
oi dpxaToL.

- Anakreon frag. 41 Bergk4, 21 Diehl ap. Athen. 671 e f., 673 d, cp. Poll. 6. 107.
Hephaistion (the metrician?) published a pamphlet irepl rod Trap' 'kvaxptovri Xvyivov
UTapavov (Athen. 673 e).

3 Nikainetos ap. Athen. 673 B ff.

Both Anakreon and Nikainetos speak of the feasters as drinking wine. E. Maass in
Hermes 1891 xxvi. 187 n. 3 holds that Hesych. 'EXvyeis- Al6i>wos if 2a/x<f> implies the
existence of a Dionysos 'in the Willow' (ec Airyy) at Samos. But the order of the words
in Hesychios demands the reading 'EXiyeiis: see M. Schmidt ad loc, O. Jessen in
Pauly—Wissowa Keal-Enc. v. 2367.

4 Paus. 3. 16. 11 (quoted supra ii. 421 n. 5). Asklepios at Sparta was called 'K.yvWa.%
because his wooden image was made of a7cos (Paus. 3. 14. 7).

6 Ail. de nat. an. 9. 26, Dioskor. 1. 134 (135) p. 130 Sprengel, Galen, de simpl.
medicament, temp, ac fac. 6. 2 (xi. 808 Kiihn), schol. Nik. ther. 71, Eustath. in Od.
p. 1639, 2 ff., Plin. nat. hist. 24. 59.

6 Schol. a //. 11. 105, Eustath. in II. p. 834, 37 ff.

7 N. Venette La Ghie'ration de I'/wmme Londres 1779 i. *31- f' 'quelques moines
Chretiens se font aujourd'hui des ceintures avec des branches de cet arbre (sc. agnus