Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

252 Dionysos displaced by Apollon
The fact is, they were gods of very much the same general character,
both young male powers intimately related to Father Sky and
Mother Earth, both closely connected with vegetation, both famous
for their ecstatic and orgiastic rites*. Small wonder that fusion and
confusion resulted, when one cult had been amalgamated with the
other.
The gradual rapprochement and ultimate identification of Dionysos
with Apollon can be well traced in extant literature. In the
sixth century B.C. Pythagoras declared that Apollon was the son of
Silenos^— a view perpetuated by the pedantic systematisers, who
distinguished five Apollons, the fourth being Apollon Nomios the
son of Silenos, born in Arkadial In the fifth century B.C. Herodotos
learnt from the Egyptians that Apollon (Horos) and Artemis (Bou-
bastis) were children of Dionysos (Osiris) and Demeter (Isis),
nursed and preserved by Leto. Accordingly Herodotos charges
Aischylos, who alone of the Greek poets had made Artemis a
daughter of Demeter, with drawing from the same Egyptian source*.
Having already detected one Egyptism in a play of Aischylos', we
shall not straightaway scout the notion of a second. Still, we have
not in this case, as we had in that, the support of a definitely
Egyptian context. We shall therefore be slow to conclude that
Aischylos was really Egyptising. More probably he was in Orphic
to; pacTiXd AlovvctcjI rrjv /ULOvdSa tt}v ' ATroW(i}vi.aKr)v awoTpiwovcrav avrov rfji eis t6 TiTaviKOv
TrXrjOoi TTpoddov Kai ttjs i^avacTTaaeus rod ^auCKdoii dpbvov Kai (ppovpoOcrav avrov d.xpo.vTov
iv TTJ ivLocrei. The Orphists were fond of describing Apollon by titles comparable with
Aiovvaoddrrji ; in a hymn of but 26 lines they dub him ^i.o8uttjv . . JXiridodwTrjv . . .ZrjuoSoTTJpa
(Brodaeus cj. ^ri\o5oT7Jpa)...^vvo5oTT]pa...Tr'\ovTo5oT^pa...\l/vxo5oTijpa...ihpeaL5ihTr]i' {h. Ap. 3,
6, 7' '5. 17. 24, 25 (Abel Orphica p. 285)) !
' L. Stephani in the Compte-rendu St. P^t. 1861 p. 57: ' Vor alien anderen Elementen
aber, welche im Wesen dieser beiden jugendlich-schonen Sohne des Zeus gleichmassig
ausgepragt sind, niacht sich bekanntlich der ekstatische Charakter bemerklich, welcher
an ihrem Gefolge nicht weniger, als an ihnen selbst hervortritt,' cp. Strab. 468 01 ix,iv ovv
EXXij/'es 01 vXilcTToi. T(2 Aiovvacfi Trpocr^deaav Kai rcj; ' AwdWojvi Kai rf/ 'Erarj; Kai rah
Moi^crats Kai Ar]fX7]Tpi, vrj Aia (Kai da cod. x), t6 dpryiaari.Koi' irav Kai rb fiaKXLKOv Kai to
XopiKov Kai TO irepi Tas reXeras /xvaTiKov, k.t.X. E. Maass Orpheus Miinchen 1895 p. 185
notes that in Orph. Arg. 9
avaKTo% I
K^vTptf} i\avvbixevos.
* Supra p. 221.
f. Orpheus was inspired to sing Bd^xo'o ^'«' 'ATriXXwi/os
^ Aristoteles iheologitmenal { = Ax\sio\.. frag. 283 [Frag. hist. Gr. ii. 190 Miiller)) ap.
Clem. Al. protr. 2. 28. 3 p. 21, 7
f. Kai TirapTov rbv 'ApKdda tov "ZCKrivov- NSftios oSroj
KiKXriTai TTapd 'ApKd(nv, Cic. de nat. dear. 3. 57 quartus in Arcadia, quem Arcades
Nomion appellant, quod ab eo se leges ferunt accepisse, Ampel. 9. 6 quartus Sileni filius
in Arcadia, cp. Arnob. adv. nat. 4. 15 quadrigas Apollinarium nominum, Lyd. de mens.
4. 71 p. 124, 4 f. Wiinsch iroXXoi di iK rod oXov Acos Aloi, wcrTrep 'A-rroXXwves t) Ai6vv(roi.
f. and
See further W. Michaelis De origine indicts deoruin cognoviinum Berlin 1898 p. 47
Wide Lakon. Kiilte p. 254 f
* Hdt. 2. 156, cp. Paus. 8. 37. 6 (Aisch./;-a^. 333 Nauck-).
® Supra i. 341 f.