DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14699#0106
1064
Appendix R
of Zeus is placed in the far west—a sunset fancy, for which mortals sigh in
vain. Thus Euripides in his Hippolytos makes a chorus of Troezenian women,
fain to escape from the troubles of this life, exclaim:
O to win to the strand where the apples are growing
Of the Hesperid chanters kept in ward,
Where the path over Ocean purple-glowing
By the Sea's Lord is to the seafarer barred !
O to light where Atlas hath aye in his keeping
The bourn twixt earth and the heavens bestarred,
Where the fountains ambrosial sunward are leaping
By the couches where Zeus in his halls lieth sleeping,
Where the bounty of Earth the life-bestowing
The bliss of the Gods ever higher is heaping I1
The myth here touched upon is set out more fully by Pherekydes, the logo-
grapher of Leros, who is called an Athenian2 also, probably because he spent
most of his life at Athens. When Zeus married Hera,—he says3—the gods
brought wedding-gifts to the bride. Among them came Ge, bearing boughs
of golden apples. Hera, astonished at the sight, bade plant the boughs in her
garden4 hard by Mount Atlas. But Atlas' virgin daughters, the Hesperides,
kept taking of the apples; so Hera set a monstrous snake to guard the tree.
This snake was slain by Herakles and translated to the stars by Hera6.
Pherekydes' tale gives prominence to Ge ; and it is to be observed that a
Pindaric fragment", our oldest source for a marriage of Zeus in the remote
west, mentions as his consort, not Hera at all, but Themis—a goddess expressly
identified with Ge both in the poetry of Aischylos and in the official nomen-
clature of Athens".
(11) Inferences concerning the Hierbs Gamos.
We have now passed in review the evidence, both literary and monumental,
for the hierbs gdmos of Zeus and Hera. Two points emerge and must be
emphasised.
1 Eur. Hipp. 742—751 trans. A. S. Way.
■ Souid. s.v. <l?epeKv5ris, on which see W. Christ Gcschichtc dergriechischen JLittcratur6
Miinchen 1912 i. 454 f. and W. Schmid—O. Stahlin Gcschichtc der griechischen Litcratur
Miinchen 1929 i. 1. 710 ff. .Supra p. 455.
3 Pherekyd. frag. 330 (Frag. hist. Gr. i. 79 f. Miiller) =frag. 16 c (Frag.gr. Hist.
1. 65 Jacoby) ap. pseudo-Eratosth. catast. 3, Hyg. poet. astr. 2. 3, Myth. Vat. 1. 106,
2. 161, schol. Caes. Germ. Aratea p. 382, 21 ff. Eyssenhardt. Cp. the longer account in
Pherekyd. frag. 33 (Frag. hist. Gr. i. 78 f. Miiller) =frag. 16 a and frag. 17 (Frag.gr.
Hist. i. 65 f. Jacoby). See also Athen. 83 c (supra ii. 1021).
4 This garden is called"Hp7;s Xei/tiij/ (Kallim. //. Artem. 164) or 9eS>v k-ijiros (Pherekyd.
frag. 33 a (supra n. 3)). It is identical with the 'QKeavov Krjiros, where the Clouds array
their dance (Aristoph. nub. 271). Cp. roils 'ZeK-qvt]^ ko.1 'AippoShrji XetfxQvas (Plout.
amat. 20).
Here grew the trefoil CikvBoov (Hesych. s.v.), used as fodder by the fawns of Artemis
and the horses of Zeus (Kallim. /(. Artem. 163 ff.).
6 Supra p. 489 figs. 318 and 319. 0 Supra ii. 37 n. 1.
7 Supra ii. 176 n. 1.
On Themis as 'an emanation from Ge' see Farnell Cults of Gk. States iii. 12 ff. Cp.
also Preller—Robert Gr. Myth. i. 475 ff., Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. pp. 101 n. 5 ff., 148
n. 5f., 1066, 1080 n. 6, 1094, n66n. 13.
Appendix R
of Zeus is placed in the far west—a sunset fancy, for which mortals sigh in
vain. Thus Euripides in his Hippolytos makes a chorus of Troezenian women,
fain to escape from the troubles of this life, exclaim:
O to win to the strand where the apples are growing
Of the Hesperid chanters kept in ward,
Where the path over Ocean purple-glowing
By the Sea's Lord is to the seafarer barred !
O to light where Atlas hath aye in his keeping
The bourn twixt earth and the heavens bestarred,
Where the fountains ambrosial sunward are leaping
By the couches where Zeus in his halls lieth sleeping,
Where the bounty of Earth the life-bestowing
The bliss of the Gods ever higher is heaping I1
The myth here touched upon is set out more fully by Pherekydes, the logo-
grapher of Leros, who is called an Athenian2 also, probably because he spent
most of his life at Athens. When Zeus married Hera,—he says3—the gods
brought wedding-gifts to the bride. Among them came Ge, bearing boughs
of golden apples. Hera, astonished at the sight, bade plant the boughs in her
garden4 hard by Mount Atlas. But Atlas' virgin daughters, the Hesperides,
kept taking of the apples; so Hera set a monstrous snake to guard the tree.
This snake was slain by Herakles and translated to the stars by Hera6.
Pherekydes' tale gives prominence to Ge ; and it is to be observed that a
Pindaric fragment", our oldest source for a marriage of Zeus in the remote
west, mentions as his consort, not Hera at all, but Themis—a goddess expressly
identified with Ge both in the poetry of Aischylos and in the official nomen-
clature of Athens".
(11) Inferences concerning the Hierbs Gamos.
We have now passed in review the evidence, both literary and monumental,
for the hierbs gdmos of Zeus and Hera. Two points emerge and must be
emphasised.
1 Eur. Hipp. 742—751 trans. A. S. Way.
■ Souid. s.v. <l?epeKv5ris, on which see W. Christ Gcschichtc dergriechischen JLittcratur6
Miinchen 1912 i. 454 f. and W. Schmid—O. Stahlin Gcschichtc der griechischen Litcratur
Miinchen 1929 i. 1. 710 ff. .Supra p. 455.
3 Pherekyd. frag. 330 (Frag. hist. Gr. i. 79 f. Miiller) =frag. 16 c (Frag.gr. Hist.
1. 65 Jacoby) ap. pseudo-Eratosth. catast. 3, Hyg. poet. astr. 2. 3, Myth. Vat. 1. 106,
2. 161, schol. Caes. Germ. Aratea p. 382, 21 ff. Eyssenhardt. Cp. the longer account in
Pherekyd. frag. 33 (Frag. hist. Gr. i. 78 f. Miiller) =frag. 16 a and frag. 17 (Frag.gr.
Hist. i. 65 f. Jacoby). See also Athen. 83 c (supra ii. 1021).
4 This garden is called"Hp7;s Xei/tiij/ (Kallim. //. Artem. 164) or 9eS>v k-ijiros (Pherekyd.
frag. 33 a (supra n. 3)). It is identical with the 'QKeavov Krjiros, where the Clouds array
their dance (Aristoph. nub. 271). Cp. roils 'ZeK-qvt]^ ko.1 'AippoShrji XetfxQvas (Plout.
amat. 20).
Here grew the trefoil CikvBoov (Hesych. s.v.), used as fodder by the fawns of Artemis
and the horses of Zeus (Kallim. /(. Artem. 163 ff.).
6 Supra p. 489 figs. 318 and 319. 0 Supra ii. 37 n. 1.
7 Supra ii. 176 n. 1.
On Themis as 'an emanation from Ge' see Farnell Cults of Gk. States iii. 12 ff. Cp.
also Preller—Robert Gr. Myth. i. 475 ff., Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. pp. 101 n. 5 ff., 148
n. 5f., 1066, 1080 n. 6, 1094, n66n. 13.