Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

2 94 The Mother-goddess and h.tr pdrearos
we assume—as, I think, we must—that Attis was but Papas reborn.
After all, the Phrygians were not alone in the belief that a son
may be the rebirth of his own father. This has been the faith of
numerous tribes in all five continents^ And readers of Samuel
Butler's Life and Habit are aware that analogous views can still be
held by sane men.
(e) The Mother-goddess and her paredros.
The Phrygian conception of the Son as the Father reborn throws
light upon a variety of religious problems. It helps us to understand
that otherwise perplexing aspect of old Anatolian worship, the asso-
ciation of the Mother-goddess with a youthful paredros, who is
at once her consort and her child'-. This is seen to involve no
sanctioning of an essentially illicit union, but rather—at least in
original intention—a primitive view of normal relations between
father, mother, and son. Accordingly in the dactylic and spondaic
lines quoted by Hippolytos {c. 235 A.D.)^ from a Naassene source
{c. 200 A.D.)^, but composed at some earlier date, perhaps under
Hadrian, for a citharodic performance in the theatre', Attis is
equated with such divinities as Adonis, Osiris, Dionysos, and the
like. The first fragment is as follows
Blest son of Kronos, or of Zeus,
Or mighty Rhea, hail
Attis (sad name for Rhea's use),
Whom weeping Syrians wail
Trfis (tS?) and /xa (Stephamis Thes. Gr. Ling. vi. 187 D f. , H. van Herwerden Lexicon
Graeawi stippletorium et dialecticitiii- Lugduni Batavoruni 1910 ii. 907 f., 1082, iioo).
Even these childish vocables made their way into the language of religion. The former
seems to have occurred in the hymn of the Salii (in Fast. p. 205 « 11 f. Muller, p. 222,
22 f Lindsay pa pro parte, et po pro potissimum positum est in Saliari carmine L. C.
Valckenaer corr. patre—a reading accepted by C. O. Muller and by R. Ktihner
F. Holzweissig Aiisfiihrliche Grammatik der lateinischen Sprache'^ Hannover 1912 i. 196)
the latter became the name of the great mother-goddess of Asia Minor (W. Drexler in
Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 2215 ff., Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. pp. 1527, 1548, alib.y id. Myth.
Lit. 1908 p. 557). Both are found in Aisch. sitppl. 890 ff. =899 ff. fxa Ta, fia Fa,... | ...c5
/3a, Fas Tiai, ZeO with schol. w irdrep ZeO, F^s irat, whence L. C. Valckenaer cj. c5 ttoi Fas,
n-a Zed, C. A. Lobeck a; fxa ya, ttS. ZeO, H. L. Ahrens {infra § 3 (c) i (7;)) cj Ba7are
MafeO or c3 Ba7are 7ra ZeC.
^ Frazer Golden Boiigh'^: The Magic Art i. 104 (Lower Congo), ib?: Adonis Attis
Osiris* i. 91 f (Lower Congo), A. E. Crawley The Idea of the Soul London 1909 p. 233 ff.,
and especially E. S. Hartland Primitive Paternity London 1909 i. 195— 199 (Maidu of
California, ancient Irish, Indian Aryans, Egyptians, Kulin tribe of S.E. Australia, ancient
Scandinavians). Cf Folk-Lore 1905 xvi. 293 (ancient Italians).
^ Supra i. 645 with n. 12, 648.
* G. Salmon in Smith—Wace Diet. Chr. Biogr. iii. 93 ff., H. Lietzmann in Pauly
Wissowa Rcal-Enc. viii. 1874 f.
* F. Legge Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity Cambridge 1915 ii. 11 f., 26 n. 5.
' U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff in Hermes 1902 xxxvii. 329.