Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/329

 The European Sky-god. 305

earth-god. Certain functions of the human Zeus too may be grouped under the same three headings. As vice- gerent of the bright sky-god he had control of the sun, and was expected to feed its flames. As representing the god of showers and storms, he could cause rain to fall or evoke a sudden thunderstorm. As an earth-god incarnate, he was responsible for the crops in their season, and after death became a ruler in the underworld. Traces of all these powers can be detected here and there among the remnants of Greek legendary lore and ritual practice.

Minos, for example, married Pasiphae, a daughter of Helios,-^^ and received as a present from Hephaestus or Zeus the bronze man Talos/^- whose name means " the gyjj "283 Solar, too, in character were the Labyrinth, which was represented by a swastika pattern, ~^^ and the Minotaur within it.~^^ Minos, therefore, was believed to have the sun in his custody. Aeetes also, whose father was Helios, possessed the fleece of the golden ram that symbolised the sun.~^^ Atreus prided himself upon a golden lamb, again a solar symbol, which he kept shut up in a coffer. Thyestes stole it by guile, and then declared to the people that the man who owned the golden lamb ought to be king. To this Atreus agreed ; and it looked as though the kingdom would pass from him to Thyestes. But Zeus sent Hermes and bade Atreus make a compact about the kingdom, in- forming him that he was about to cause the sun to travel backwards. Atreus made the compact, and the sun set in the east. This miracle was accepted as proof of Atreus'

-^' Roscher, Lex., iii., 1666, where Tiirk observes that TIa<n(pai]c is an epithet of Helios (Orph. hynui., 8. 13 f., aQuvare Ze?, | tucie, iraaifaeQi Koafiov to Ttipicpofiov ofi/ia).

-^ ApoUod., I. 9. 26 ; Ap. Rhod., 4. 1641.

-** Stipra, p. 273, 71. 62.

-^^ Class Rev.., xvii., 410 f.

-^* lb., 410, supra, p. 272.

-*'' Supra, pp. 271 f., 293 f.

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