Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/296

 272 The European Sky -god.

to Heracles. In Crete the sun was expressly called a bull,^^ and it is probable that the son of Minos the Cretan king disguised himself as a bull (the Minotaur) when he wore the ritual costume of Zeus.^^ There is also much to be said for the view that the Cyclops, whose fiery eye is rightly explained as the solar orb,''^ was an early form of Zeus.^^ Macrobius indeed — though his penchant for solar mythology must always be borne in mind — definitely states that " the ancients call the sun the eye of Jupiter." '^^

" Hdt., 2. 42. The skin of the victim sacrificed to Zeus M£i\(^(oc or to Zeus Krijo-toe was known as Aicif kojSiov, " the fleece of Zeus " (Polemon ap. Hesych. s.v.^, or Alov kuSiov, " ike Zeus fleece " (Polemon ap. Athen., 478 c, Bekker anecd., 242, 26, cp. Eustath., 1935, 9): Suidas, if his text may be trusted, even says that the Greeks called it ^ia., ^^ Zeus" (Suid. s.v. Aibg ku)Siov^. Miss J. E. Harrison {^Py-olegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, p. 23 ff.), on the strength of the verbs dioTroninli', cnroCioTronTruv, denies any connexion with Zeus, and refers us to the root appearing in the Latin dirus. But why should not these verbs mean practically what Eustathius says they mean — " to send away evil things in the name of Zeus 'AXe^ifca/coc " (Eustath., 1935, 13)? Hesychius too connected them with Zeus (Hesych., dioTrofnruaOai' KaOaipeiv. iSioje Sk TO KaQaipovrag rbv Trpoarpoiraiov Aia.); andifAToj' meant " the Zeus- fleece," as Polemon, Eustathius, &c., agree that it did, dioTrofiireliv and dTToSio-iroinrElv would be perfectly correct formations for " to send away by means of a Zeus-fleece." Rams'-skins were elsewhere used in the service of Zeus. In the heat of summer, when the dog-star appeared, a procession of young men clad in fresh rams'-skins made its way to the sanctuary of Zeus 'AKpaXog on the summit of Mt. Pelion (Dicaearch., 2. 8). And those who con- sulted the dream-oracle of Zeus 'AfKpiapaoQ (Dicaearch, i. 6) at Oropus sacrificed a ram and slept on the skin of it (Paus., i. 34. 5, with Frazer's 7t.).

^ Bekker, anecd., 344, 10 ff"., dSiovviOQ ravpog' 6 i'jXiog inru tmv Kp7]TuJv ovTd) Xsyerai. )v ttoXiv fiiTOiKi^ovra ravpi^} TrpoauKaGQivra irpot]yi~ia9ai, cp. Apollod., i. 9. 26, who says of Talos 01 St Tavpov avTuv Xeyovaiv,

" Class Rev., xvii., 404-412, where I wrongly identified Minos himself with the Minotaur.

^ See W. Grimm, "Die Sage von Polyphem," in Abhandl. d. Berl. Akad. d. IVissensch., 1857, p. 27 f., and the literature quoted in Class. Rev., xviii., 326, w. 24.


 * » Class. Rev., xviii., 325 ff.

'^" Macrob., Sat., I. 21. 12, solem lovis oculum appcllat antiquitas, with Jan's M.