Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

The efFeminate Twin 447
gedoppelten Herakles'^l a view provisionally accepted by G. F. Hill
(1897)- and B. V. Head (191 1)^
l""ig- 354- Fig. 3?5- Fig. 356-
(«) The effeminate Twin. '
And here we must notice a suggestion thrown out long since
by that pioneer of mythological study F. L. W. Schwartz^ He
held that the contrast between the doughty hero and the weakling
was a commonplace of Indo-Europaean saga^ to be compared
with the motif o{ the emasculated sky-god. Now I am not prepared
to follow our ingenious author, when he hazards the conjecture
that Kastor was named after kdstor, the ' beaver",' and recalls
the belief that this rodent gets rid of its pursuers by tearing off
its own testicles^ Nor can I agree with him, when he interprets
the mutilation of Ouranos by Kronos"^, or that of Kronos by
utraque manu arcum paratum tenet, supra quern insistit avis stymphalis.' Hence Mionnet
Descr. de iiUd. aiit. Suppl. vii. iii no. 131.
^ J. Friedlaender in the Zeitschr. f. Num. 1879 vi. 17 f. described, but did not figure,
a specimen now at Berlin, the reverse of which is from the same die as the reverse of
Sestini's coin.
^ G. F. Hill in the Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Lycia, etc. pp. ex, 322.
^ Head ZTw/. num.- p. 707.
* F. L. W. Schwartz Der Ursprung der Mythologie Berlin i860 p. 138 ff.
® Id. ih. p. 147 cites Herakles and Iphikles, Agamemnon and Menelaos, Hektor and
Paris, Siegfried and Gunther.
^ So, from a different point of view, does J. Rendel Harris Boanerges Cambridge 1913
pp. 296, 302 f., 310. I am not concerned to deny the possibility, and even the attractive-
ness, of this derivation. Only, it seems to me that the evidence produced in support of it
is inadequate.
' See e.g. M. Wellmann in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. iii. 40of, O. Keller Die
antike TierweWLeipzig 1909 p. 188.
* Hes. t/ieog. 154 ff. (Gaia, angry with Ouranos because he hated their offspring and
would not let them see the light, produced grey adamant, made a sickle of it, and bade
her children take vengeance on their father. Kronos, her youngest son, alone dared the
deed. Gaia gave him the jagged /tdr^e and hid him in an ambush. Then came great
Ouranos, bringing night, and spread himself above Gaia. Kronos reached forth his hand,
shore off his father's genitals with the /idrpe, and flung them from the land into the sea.
The bloody drops, falling upon Gaia, gave rise to Erinyes, Gigantes, and the nymphs