Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/314

 290 llic European Sky-god.

Zeus, and cast lots for Argos, Lacedaemon, and Messene.^^^ In all probability the Paternal Zeus of the Heraclidai, like the Paternal Zeus of Priam, was the three-eyed Pelasgian god.^^^

The Greeks, forgetful of their own past, were somewhat puzzled by this type of a triple deity. The explanation usually given was that such and such a god or goddess ruled in three different departments of nature. Thus the triple Hecate, a strange form introduced into art by Alcamenes a contemporary of Pheidias,^^^ was regarded by Orphic writers as the mistress of sky, sea, and earth. ^**^ Tzetzes^^^ states that Hermes was three-headed " as being a sky-god, a sea-god, and a land-god." Porphyry^^' sug-

'8« Apollod., 2. 8. 4.

'" H. Usener in his " Dreiheit " [Khein. Museum, 1903, N. F., Iviii., 161 ff.) argues that a divine triad, conceived as having three bodies, may degenerate into a single body with three heads or faces or eyes. Thus Hecate, who was usually represented as three complete figures back to back, is often rpiKdprjvog, a three-headed herm, sometimes TpiTvpoffwrroc with a three-faced head, and once at least rpiyX-qvoq with a three-eyed face [ib., pp. 163-166, 184). He therefore takes the name Triopas to imply " eine Verkiirzung urspriinglicher Dreileibigkeit " (?'/'., p. 183 ff. ). This argument, though I accepted it in Class. Rev,, xvaii., 75, now appears to me inconclusive. Three eyes may be, and probably are, an original equivalent or a later abbreviation for nia7iy eyes. Further than this we cannot go with safety.

'^^ Paus., 2. 30. 2, with P'razer's n., Farnell, ii., 551 ft".

189 Orph. hymn., I. if. eivoSirjv 'Ekutijv kX?^^'^, TpiodTrLv, eptfij'ijv, | ovpuvii)v xdovii]v Tt Kal tiva\ir]v, cp. Porphyry ap. Euseb. pmp. evang., 23. 6, O|0;^£i § avTMV Kal >'; "E/cdrj;, ojg avvexovca to rplaroixov {sc. air, earth, water). More often the triple Hecate was regarded as a trinity of Selene -|- Artemis -\- Persephone, representing the heaven, the earth, and the under- world (Roscher Lex., i., 1890, 43 ff., Farnell, ii., 553).

'^^ Tzetz. i7t Lye. Alex., 680, TptKf(pa\og ' avrog 6 'Ep/i>)e, mq ovpuviocj, OaXdacTioc Kal tTriyeiog. He adds alternative explanations, more far-fetche than this.

'^' Porphyry aj>. Euseb. p7-(Zp. evang., 4. 23. 6, firjiron ovroi elaiv lov dpxet 6 l.dpa'^iQ, Koi Tovriov ovfijioKov 6 Tp'iKpavog kuwj', tovtscttiv 6 iv Totg rpicn (TTotxtioic, vcaTif yy, dept, Trovtipbg Saifiwv ' ovg Karairavn 6 9ebs o tp^wv vrro X(~ipa.