DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7477#0024
IN THE LIGHT OF CRETAN DISCOVERIES 17
Hellenic element in Hellas itself or belonged to a more
Eastern religious sphere, closely, as we shall see, related
to the Minoan, its centres having to be sought in Syria or
Anatolia and Cyprus.
Such was the ' Tomb of Adonis ' in the temple-court of
Byblos, that of Aphrodite at Paphos beside her sacred cone,
and of the same Goddess—here clearly Minoan—under
her old Cretan title of Ariadne in the sacred grove of
Amathus. At Paphos, too, we find the tomb of Kinyras
—' lord of the lyre '—the Cilician double of Apollo.
In Greece proper such so-called tombs,—an expression
due to later ignorance of the essence of baetylic worship,—
bear traces of their pre-Hellenic sources. At Argos a
' Tomb of Ariadne ' was shown in the sanctuary of the
' Cretan Dionysos '.
The image of Apollo, which had only partly lost its ani-
conic shape, over the tomb of Amyklae really connects itself
with his double, Hyakinthos, whose name belongs to the
earlier ethnic stratum. At Delphi, where the older elements
of Cult go back to a Minoan plantation, the omphalos itself
was regarded as a tomb, which was, however, piously trans-
ferred to the Thracian Dionysos.
In the great days of Greece it was repugnant to religious
feeling that a God should have a grave-stone. Nothing
could he more eloquent of this attitude than the scornful
outburst of Epimenides ' the Divine ', regarding the mortal
Zeus of Crete. The words of his poem on ' Minos ',
partly quoted by St. Paul in his Epistle to Titus,1 have been
now more fully supplied by the Syriac Commentary of
Ishodad,2 which at the same time confirms St. Paul's
attribution of the lines to the Cretan ' Prophet', the Author
of an epic poem on Minos :
1 Titus i. 12.
2 See Mrs. Gibson's translation of the Commentaries of Islw'dad of Merv
(Home Semiticae) and Prof. Rendel Harris's brilliant identification of the
fragment of Epimenides' Minos: op. cit. pp. xii-xv. Compare, too, Sir
William Ramsay's observations, Asianic Elements in Greek Civilization
(1928), p. 32 seqq.
C
Hellenic element in Hellas itself or belonged to a more
Eastern religious sphere, closely, as we shall see, related
to the Minoan, its centres having to be sought in Syria or
Anatolia and Cyprus.
Such was the ' Tomb of Adonis ' in the temple-court of
Byblos, that of Aphrodite at Paphos beside her sacred cone,
and of the same Goddess—here clearly Minoan—under
her old Cretan title of Ariadne in the sacred grove of
Amathus. At Paphos, too, we find the tomb of Kinyras
—' lord of the lyre '—the Cilician double of Apollo.
In Greece proper such so-called tombs,—an expression
due to later ignorance of the essence of baetylic worship,—
bear traces of their pre-Hellenic sources. At Argos a
' Tomb of Ariadne ' was shown in the sanctuary of the
' Cretan Dionysos '.
The image of Apollo, which had only partly lost its ani-
conic shape, over the tomb of Amyklae really connects itself
with his double, Hyakinthos, whose name belongs to the
earlier ethnic stratum. At Delphi, where the older elements
of Cult go back to a Minoan plantation, the omphalos itself
was regarded as a tomb, which was, however, piously trans-
ferred to the Thracian Dionysos.
In the great days of Greece it was repugnant to religious
feeling that a God should have a grave-stone. Nothing
could he more eloquent of this attitude than the scornful
outburst of Epimenides ' the Divine ', regarding the mortal
Zeus of Crete. The words of his poem on ' Minos ',
partly quoted by St. Paul in his Epistle to Titus,1 have been
now more fully supplied by the Syriac Commentary of
Ishodad,2 which at the same time confirms St. Paul's
attribution of the lines to the Cretan ' Prophet', the Author
of an epic poem on Minos :
1 Titus i. 12.
2 See Mrs. Gibson's translation of the Commentaries of Islw'dad of Merv
(Home Semiticae) and Prof. Rendel Harris's brilliant identification of the
fragment of Epimenides' Minos: op. cit. pp. xii-xv. Compare, too, Sir
William Ramsay's observations, Asianic Elements in Greek Civilization
(1928), p. 32 seqq.
C