Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/327

 The European Sky-god. 303

and choruses and phallic companies, dancing and singing the while : as they sang and danced, they crowded after him, chanting that he was the one true god (^eo?), the other gods being asleep or away from home or non- existent." ~^^ Demetrius must have posed as Zeus ; for on the spot where he descended from his horse was built a sanctuary of Demetrius Karai/SaTij^;,-^'^ as though he were Zeus KaTail3dT7]<i ; his title IIoXiopKT}T7]<; was perhaps an ambitious imitation of Zeus IloXtey^ or lioXiovxo^ ; ~^^ and a mantle woven expressly for him is described as "a superb piece of work made to represent the universe and the celestial bodies." -^^ Alexander the Great was regarded not merely as the son of Zeusp° but as Zeus himself: he was painted by Apelles holding a thunderbolt,-^^ i.e. with the universally acknowledged attribute of Zeus. Even Menecrates of Syracuse, court-physician to Philip of Macedon, assumed the title IMenecrates Zeu? on account of his life-giving powers and went about wearing a purple robe and a golden crown to look the part.-^'^^ Examples could be multiplied ; for among the Hellenistic successors of Alexander cases of deification are common. ~^^ If I am right in my conjecture, they must be considered as due to a recrudescence of the early Pelasgian belief in the essential divinity of the king.

Finally, Tzetzes, whose authority in matters of mytho- logy is not small, definitely asserts that the ancient Greeks used to call their kings " Zeuses " (A/e?). Thus, for

-^ Athen., 253 c. The words of the ithyphallic song, a remarkable com- position, are quoted in the sequel.

-^ Clem. Alex., pro/reJ>t., 4. 54, p. 48 Potter.

268 pjy(._ ^^V. Demetr., 42.

-® lb., 41.

"^^ Callisth. ap. Strab., 814 ; Ephipp. ap. Athen., 537 e.

-" Plin. nat. hist., 35. 92. See further Class. Rev., xvii., 404, n. i.

^- Athen., 289 A-290 A ; Plut. vit. Ages., 21 ; Ael. var. hist., 12. 51.

^^ See e.g. Dr. F. F. Hiller von Giirtringen in Pauly-Wissowa, ii., 186 ff., and the literature cited in Class. Rev., xvii., 278, n. i.