Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

242
Dionysos at Delphoi
Daphnephoria\ a festival likewise held every eighth year. Yet, if
Apollon settled at Delphoi in days when the octennial cycle was
in vogue, we must not therefore jump to the conclusion that he had
staked out his claim before the arrival of Dionysos. For, though
the Stepterion included a mimetic representation of Apollon's fight
with Python, the Herois and the Charila were distinctly Dionysiac :
the former resembled the ascent of Semele and was explained by
a mystic tale known to the Thyiads ; the latter assigned important
duties to the principal Thyiads The fact is that the oktaeteris was
an ancient rectification of the calendar, which left its mark on a
variety of customs and myths^. It was never the exclusive property
of any one god or goddess, and at Delphoi it was common to the
rites of Apollon and Dionysos. Fortunately for our solution of the
problem we can appeal from the early oktaeteris to the still earlier
trieteri's*. Delphoi was in classical times the centre of certain far-
famed trieteric rites ^; and these were notoriously the rites, not of
Apollon, but of Dionysos^ Unless, therefore, we hold—in defiance
of the Greek and Roman chronologists'—that the trieteris was no
^ I have dealt in detail with the Daphnephoria in Folk-Lore 1904 .w. 409 ff. See also
Boetticher Bantnkultus p. 385 ff., P. Paris in Daremberg— Saglio Did. Afit. ii. 24 ff.,
P. Stengel in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. iv. 2140, O. Jessen ib. iv. 2140 f., Nilsson Gr.
Feste p. 1645., Farnell Cults of Gk. States iv. 284 fif'., Frazer Pausanias v. 4 iff., id.
Golden Boiigh'^: The Magic Art ii. 63 n. 2, The Dying God pp. 78 f., 88 f., Adonis Attis
Osiris^ ii. 241. Sir J. G. Frazer (The Dying God p. 79) contends that at Thebes 'in his-
torical times Apollo appears to have ousted Cadmus from the festival,' and thinks it 'not
impossible that at Delphi also... Apollo may have displaced an old local hero in the
honourable office of dragon-slayer.
^ Plout. qiiaestt. Gr. 12. Cp. L. Weniger Uber das Collegittm der Thyiaden v. Delphi
Eisenach 1876.
^ Supra i. 692. See further A. Schmidt Handhttch der griechischen Chronologie Jena
1888 p. 56 ff. (with the caveat of W. H. Roscher Die enneadischen und hebdoniadischeti
Fristen und Wochen der dltesten Griechen {Abh. d. sacks. Gescllsch. d. Wiss. Phil. -hist.
Classe 1903 xxi. 4) Leipzig 1903 p. 73 n. 204''), F. K. Ginzel Handbiuh der mathetna-
tiscken und technischen Chronologie Leipzig 191 1 ii. 365 ff., Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel.
p. 957 n. I.
* Supra i. 690. The historical priority of the trieteris is accepted also by A. Schmidt
Handbuch der griechischen Chronologie '^ena. 1888 p. 31 ff., G. F. Unger Zeitrechtmng der
Griechen und Romer'^ (in L von M tiller Handbuch der klassischen AlterttDits-wissenschaft
i^) Mtinchen 1892 p. 731 f., G. F. Schoemann Griechische Alterthiimer* Berlin 1902 ii.
460 n. 2, Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 955
Primitive Ti?ne-reckoning 'LwnA 1920 p. i.
® Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 956 n. 2.
f. It is too summarily rejected by M. P. Nilsson
* The myth and the rites in question are well put together by L. Weniger in the
Archiv f. Rel. 1906 ix. 231 ff. Cp. M. Ross De Baccho Ddphico Bonnae 1865 p. 2 ff.
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