Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

Caldron of Apotheosis 217
Ephoros, in the interests of probability, eliminates the bizarre
'caldron of hot water' and tacitly substitutes a commonplace 'pyre,'
thereby spoiling the end of his story, which suggests rather that the
sacred tripods made amends for a sacred caldron. I surmise that the
impiety of boiling the priestess at Dodona in a caldron of hot water,
an impiety authorised or at least instigated by the oracle itself,
implies a long-standing ritual, to which recourse might be had in
dark and desperate times.
At Delphoi, it is true, the priestess was not boiled in a caldron.
But we have to ask ourselves: What form would be taken by a
simulated boiling? The Orphic votary in like circumstances pronounced
the words
' I have fallen as a kid into milk,'
and in all probability stepped into an actual caldron for a make-
believe seething^ At Delphoi a she-goat, over which cold water
had first been poured, was sacrificed^, and the PytJiia then took her
no. 1285 and no. 266, Foiiilles de Delphes iii. 2 nos. 32 f.), serve as a means of transport-
ing sacred fire; still less was it, like that of Ptolemy ii Philadelphos (Athen. 198 c, D,
199 D, F, 202 B, c), a case of exaggerated pomp. Rather we may suppose that this was
an expiation in kind. A sacred Ubes (? tripod) had been defiled by an impious act : sacred
tripods must be sent year by year to replace it. Why they had to be stolen, and wrapped
in cloaks, we are not told. In Scotland at Hallowe'en divination was practised by means
of stolen kail :
' It was necessary that the plants should be stolen without the knowledge
or consent of their owner; otherwise they were quite useless for the purpose of divina-
tion' (Frazer Golden Boiigh'^: Balder the Beautiful i. 234f.). Possibly the same notion
played some part in Herakles' theft of the Delphic tripod. The wrapping in cloaks was
probably prophylactic (cp. e.g. supra i. 58, 107 n. 4, 523, alib.).
^ Supra i. 676 f.
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