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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Addenda

Caucasian immigration and a change in the ruling race. Such Mischzvcsen had long been
known to the peoples of the eastern Pontos and may well have been introduced as a
novel motifinto 'Minoan' art by the victors. Semper surmises that the Minotaur was
first discovered by the Hellenes, probably to represent some traditional ' Minoan' word,
whose true sound and sense remain obscure. He notes that the legend of the Minotaur
is known from Greek sources only and involves an element of sex (Upbs yd.[ios), which
points to the presence of a non-'Minoan' factor in the population of Crete. This factor
he regards as ' uragaischen' and believes to have been racially connected with Asia Minor,
whereas the genuine founders of the 'Minoan' civilisation were a Mediterranean folk
racially akin to the Libyans.

Eva Fiesel in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. vi A. 270 f. comments on a bronze Etruscan
mirror (F. Borie 'La mort du Minotaure' in the Acole franfaise de Rome. Melanges
d'arcAMogie et d'histoire 1898 xviii. 51—63 pi. 1—2), which shows not only Minos,
Athena, Ariadne, and Herakles (mine, mcnrva, ariaBa, hercle), but also the bull-headed
Minotaur (devrumines). P. Kretschmer in Glotta 1931 xix. 216 had pointed out that this
Etruscan compound was the equivalent of [Ta]upos Hlvwlos on a 'Chalcidian' hydria from
Caere (Cervetri) [Louvre F 18, best published by A. Rumpf Ckalkidische Vasen Berlin—
Leipzig 1927 i. 13 no. 12, 175 fig. 3 pi. 26].

A. Schulten Numantia Mllnchen 1931 ii. 213 notes the prevalence of the bull-cult
throughout Iberia. Id. id. ii. 262 f. pis. 24 and 25 ( = my fig. 869) gives the black painted
decoration of a red pottery dolittm, which in a highly stylized geometric manner (A. del
Castillo in Ebert Reallex. ix. 138) renders a couple of bulls. Id. ii. ii. 257 pi. 16 ( = my
figs. 870 and 871) shows the designs on a polychrome jug, which represents two male
dancers wearing bulls' horns on their arms and bulls' hoofs (?) on their feet. The dance
may be that mentioned by Strab. 164 as celebrated by night avuiviiup tivl deip. In any
case the previous existence of such a bull-cult in Spain explains in part the age-long
popularity of the Spanish bull-lights. See further V. Alford Pyrenean Festivals London
1937 p. 193 f. on the Basque Toro de Fuego or ' Fire Bull' ('probably...a form of bull
devotion, separate from, though existing side by side, with the corrida or bullfight').

T. L. Shear in the Am. Joum. Arch. 1933 xxxvii. 540 fig. 1 (J. Cbarbonneaux in the
Rev. £/. Gr. 1935 xlviii. 83 fig. 2) publishes a gold ring from a Mycenaean tomb found
near the ' Theseion' at Athens: 'The scene represented on the ring is of unusual interest.
On the right a man is striding to the right. He has the head of an animal with long ears
or short horns. In one hand he carries a branch or spear, and with the other holds the
end of a double cord, which is attached to the waist of the foremost of two women behind
him. The women have veiled heads, high ruffs around their necks, and pleated skirts.
On the extreme left is a sacred pillar, and a small object resembling a bird or butterfly
appears in the background above the figures. A group consisting of a bull-headed man
who is leading two captive women recalls the legend of the Minotaur and the Athenian
maidens. The new discovery in Athens may illustrate an early version of the later
familiar myth.' But Shear's interpretation of the scene is far from certain.

E. Sjoqvist in the Archiv f. Rel. 1933 xxx. 344—347 fig. 11 gives the upper part of a
terra-cotta statuette from Aija Irijii in Kypros, which portrays a priest wearing a bull's
mask drawn over his head. Sjoqvist cites analogous figures and concludes : 'Ks scheint
daher, als ob die Tiermaskenverkleidung eine rituelle Tracht ware, besonders mit zere-
moniellen Prozessionen und Tanzen verknttpft. Es ist sicher kein Zufall, class die mit
Sicherheit bestimmbaren Priestermasken Stierkopfe sind. Die Reminiszenzen in Aija
Irini von einem urspriinglichen Stiergott sind sicher noch lebendig gewesen, und der
Stier war sein heiliges Tier und sein Symbol, auf gleiche Art, wie es mit Fladad in
Syrien und seinem Gegensttick in Anatolien der Fall war. Indem der Priester sein
Bild anlegte, ging er eine greifbare Vcreinigung mit der Gottheit ein, auf gleiche Art
wie Demeters Priester in Pheneos bei gewissen Kultakten die Maske der Gottin anlegte
\supra ii. n 36 n. 4]. Der Branch hat bereits wahrend der Bronzezeit eine grosse Ver-
breitung auf Cypern und innerhalb des syro-hettitischen Kulturgebietes gehabt und
scheint sporadisch auch in dem minoisch-mykenischen Kreise spiirbar zu sein.'

With this conclusion I have long been in substantial agreement (Joitrn. Hell. Stud.
1894 xiv. 120—132 ('The Cult of the Bull')). It would, I conceive, be true to say that all
round the shores of the Mediterranean in early times the thunder-god was envisaged as a
bellowing bull, whose human representative, the king or priest, identified himself with
the deity by donning a bull-mask or at least by wearing bull-horns. Even Zedekiah the
son of Chenaanah, when he claimed to speak in the name of the Lord, 'made him horns
of iron' (1 Kings 22. 11).

i. 497 ff. ' Minoan' Bull-fights. Sir A. J. Evans in Archaeologia 1914 lxv. 90 f. fig. 96
illustrates a couple of rhytd from ' Early Minoan' ossuaries in the Messara, Crete, showing
bulls with acrobatic performers ('the earliest record of these sports'). W. Crooke 'Bull-