Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/441

 The European Sky-god. 411

stars. At Thebes, as at Delphi, the tenure of this priestly king was reduced from eight years to one. Pausanias-^^ says : " The following custom is still to my knowledge observed in Thebes. A boy of good family, handsome and strong, is made priest of the Ismenian Apollo for a year. His title is laurel-bearer, for these boys wear crowns of laurel leaves." Dr. Frazer, in his commentary on this passage, suggests that the Theban laurel-bearing may have commemorated the slaying of the serpent by Cadmus, who was said to have served Ares eight years, as expiation for his offence.^^^ If this be so,-^* the parallel between Theban and Delphic usage is complete ; for Thebes, like Delphi, had a tradition that its monster was no mere animal, but a king called Serpent. Palaephatus"^ declares : " The king of Thebes at that time was Serpent, the son of Ares, whom Cadmus slew, thereby obtaining the kingdom," and a frag- ment of Dercylus,^-^ the Argive historian, states " that Harmonia was the daughter of a Theban king named Serpent, and that Cadmus married her after slaying her father." Indeed, an archaic vase in the Louvre collection--''

%v\ov. Cp. the monetary types of Uranopolis in Macedonia. Obv. the sun as a rayed globe or rayed star : sometimes the sun and moon together. Rev. a figure, whose head is surmounted by a spike and a star, sitting on a globe and holding a long sceptre topped by a ball from which hang two fillets {Brit. Mus. Cat. Gk. Coins, Macedonia, &c., p. 133 f.).

222 Paus., 9. 10. 4.

^^ Apollod., 3. 4. 2, Suid. and Phot. s. v. KaS/ieia viKtj.

^* An argument in favour of Dr. Frazer's suggestion is furnished by a vase from Vulci, now at Berlin, which represents Cadmus attacking the serpent in the presence of Harmonia and various divinities. Cadmus is crowned with laurel ; Nike, Athena, and Eros hold laurel-wreaths ; Apollo has a laurel- wand ; and the blank spaces of the design are filled in with laurel-trees (Roscher Lex., ii., 837 f.). A vase from the Crimea, now at St. Petersburg, also shows Cadmus crowned with laurel before he attacks the serpent {id., ii.,

839)-

^^ Pakiephat. de incredib., 6.

^ Dercylus ap. schol. Eur. Phmi. 7 = Muller/r«,§. hist. Gr., iv., 387.

"^ Arch. Zeit., 1881, pi. 12, 2 = S. Reinach repertoire des vases feints, i., 435. I-