Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

66 lupiter-Columns
Holtedoorn— is probably dated 197 a. D. and another— that from Iversheim—falls between
222 and 235 A. D., has been plausibly identified with the Old Norse Hl66yii, the mother
of Thor (J. Grimm Teutonic Mythology trans. J. S. Stallybrass London 1882 i. 256 f., 266
n. 2, F. Kauffmann ' Dea HkrSana' in H. Paul—W. Braune Beiirdge stir Geschichte der
deutschen Spracke und Litei-aturYiaWe&jS i894xviii. 134— 157, E. Mogk in the Gruudriss
der germanischen Philologie^ Herausgegeben von H. Paul Strassburg 1900 iii. 358 f., 370,
R. M. Meyer Altgerinanische Religionsgeschichte Leipzig 1910 p. 307. The connexion is
denied by E. H. Meyer Germanische Mythologie Berlin 1891 p. 203, P. D. Chantepie de
la Saussaye The Religion of the Teutons Boston and London 1902 p. 105, and others.
M. Schdnfeld Wortei-buch der altgermanischen Personen- iind Volkernamen Heidelberg
191 1 p. 140 f. concludes: ' Fraglich is die von Kauffmann und Mogk angenommene
Identitat mit an. HISSyn\HlilSana mit lu aus / gegeniiber HldSyn mit der Dehnstufe
/()?).' But K. Helm Al/germanische Religionsgeschichte Heidelberg 1913 i. 381 sums up:
• Immer noch ist trotz alien dagegen geausserten Bedenken ihre Zusammengehbrigkeit
mit der nordischen Hlodyn am wahrscheinlichsten, vvodurch allerdings nicht viel gewonnen
ist, da Hlodyn selbst sehr wenig klar ist '). Further, both Hhidena or Hliidana and
HldSyn have been related (J. Grimm Teutonic Mythology trans. J. S. Stallybrass London
1882 i. 266 n. 2, K. Helm Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte Heidelberg 191 3 i. 381—383.
E contra E. H. Meyer Gey7nanische Mythologie Berlin 1891 p. 203, P. D. Chantepie de
la Saussaye Tlie Religion of the Teutotis Boston and London 1902 p. 105) to the Holden,
i.e. the 'Good Folk,' the sprites, and their representative Frau Holda (Hulda, Nolle,
Htille, Holl), a goddess who—like Wodan [supra p. 62 n. i)—belongs to the Furious
Host (J. Grimm Teutonic Mythology trans. J. S. Stallybrass London 1882 i. 265 ff., 1883
ii. 456, 487, 596, 883, 1883 iii. 933 ff., 946 ff., 1055, 1888 iv. 1367, ali/j., E. H. Meyer
Germanische Mythologie Berlin 1891 pp. 21, 74, 242 ff., 247 f., 266, 272 ff., 282 ff., alib.,
E. Mogk in the Gruitdriss der germanischen Philologie'^ Herausgegeben von H. Paul
Strassburg 1900 iii. 278 ff., P. D. Chantepie de la Saussaye The Religion of the Teutons
Boston and London 1902 p. 273 f., R. M. Meyer Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte
Leipzig 1910 p. 114 f., K. Helm Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte Heidelberg 1913 i.
381—383). In Middle Dutch Frau Holda is called Verelde {^ox Ver Elde= Frau Hilde
or Frau Hulde) and gives her name to the Milky Way {Vroneldenstraet — Frauen Hilde
or Hulde Strasse: see J. Grimm Teutonic Mythology trans. J. S. Stallybrass London 1882
i. 285).
In the nursery-tales and popular superstitions of Germany Frau Holda plays a con-
siderable part. When it snows, she is making her bed and the feathers fly—a notion as
old as Hdt. 4. 7, 4. 31 (J. Grimm op. cit. i. 262 f.), cp. J. C. F. Bahr ad loc. Such a
goddess might well be selected to typify the winter.
Holda would be Romanised as Minerva because both alike patronised spinning. On
the one hand, 'Holla is set before us as a spinning-viiie ; the cultivation of flax is assigned
to her. [Was Hludana worshipped by the Frisian conductores piscatus as helping them to
make their fishing-nets? A. B. C] Industrious maids she presents with spindles, and
spins their reels full for them over night ; a slothful spinner's distaff she sets on fi7-e, or
soils it.' Etc. (J. Grimm op. cit. i. 269 f.) On the other hand, Minerva, who at Rome
in republican times had figured mainly as a mistress of arts and crafts, under the empire
became more and more specialised into a goddess of spinning and weaving (TertuU. de
pallio 3 p. 929 Oehler, Arnob. adv. nat. 3. 21, 5. 45, Serv. in Verg. Aen. 5. 284, 7. 805
cited by G. Wissowa in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 2988 and G. Fougeres in Daremberg
Saglio Diet. Ant. iii. 1929) presumably through assimilation to Athena (see especially
Ow. fast. 3. 815 ff.), the Greek patroness of distaff and loom (Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel.
p. 1215 n. 13, cp. ib. p. 1184 n. 7, p. 1212 n. i).
At this point it is of interest to remember that in the Platonic myth the ' straight light
like a pillar' becomes, as we read on, the ' spindle of Ananke ' {supra p. 44 f.). ' Had
Platon a Germanic source, not only for the former, but also for the latter? In China too
the Milky Way is associated with a Weaving Damsel, whose shuttle is the star a Lyrae
{infra §3 (a) vi (X)).