Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

Apollon and Artemis •
possibilities. In the first place, the Milky Way was that ' Road
477
of
the BirdsV along which the swans drew Apollon to the land of the
Hyperboreans-. This accounts for the intimate relations of Kyknos,
the ' Swan,' to Phaethon. The Hesiodic (?) version preserved by
Hyginus^ states that Kyknos, king of Liguria, bewailing the fate of
his kinsman Phaethon was changed into a swan and chanted his
dying song. Similarly Pausanias'' relates that Kyknos, a musician,
became king of the Ligurians inhabiting the Celtic country beyond
the Eridanos, and at his death was transformed into the bird by the
will of Apollon. Phanokles^ the Alexandrian elegiast, in his Erotes
retold the tale and, no doubt, gave it the romantic touch, which is
discernible in later allusions". Claudian'' adds that Phaethon, raised
to the sky, became Auriga, and his sisters the Hyades, while
Both Auriga, the '
The Milky Circle sprinkles the spread wings
Of Cycnus, once his comrade.
Charioteer,' and Olor, the ' Swan,' are to be seen
nightly on the Milky Way^ Lucian in his little work On Amber or
Swans claims to have visited the Eridanos and lost his illusions.
He saw neither poplars nor amber, and the natives had never heard
of Phaethon !
' However,' he continues, 'there was one thing I still thought I really should
find there, and that was flocks of swans singing on the banks. We were still on
the way up, and I applied to the boatmen again : " "Are
About what time do the
swans take post for their famous musical entertainment.''—Apollo's fellow craftsmen,
you know, who were changed here from men to birds, and still sing in
memory of their ancient art." But they only jeered at me :
all day about our country and our river, pray.-"" Etc., etc.''
you going to lie
and compendious treatment of the subject), O. Gruppe ' Aethiopenmythen ' in Philologus
1889 xlvii. 328—343, S. Eitrem ' De Phaethonte ' ib. 1899 '^''i- 4*^'—4641 J- Hopken
Die Fahrt des Phaethon Emden 1899 p. iff., C. W. Vollgraff De Ovidi mythopoeia
Berolini 1901 pp. 45—61 (' De fabula Phaethontis'), id. Nikander iind Ovid Groningen
1909
i. 105— 109, Gruppe Myth. Lit. 1908 p. 594 f. See further the bibliography in
Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 2175 f.
^ Supra p. 38. - Supra p. 460 ff.
* Wy^. fab. 154, cp. schol. Strozziana in Caes. Germ. Aratea p. 174, 4 ff. Breysig.
* Paus. I. 30. 3.
^ Verg. Aeti. 10. 189 ff. with Serv. ad loc, Ov. ?net. 2. 367
^ Phanokles ap. Lact. Plac. narr.fab. 1. 4.
ff. (cp. anon, miscell. 6 in
A. Westermann MTeOPPA^OI Brunsvigae 1843 p. 347, 32 ff. = nAPAAOSOrPAOI
Brunsvigae 1839 p. 222, 13 f.).
'' Claud, de vi cons. Llonor. 1 73 ff. Opinion differed as to the author of these catasterisms.
ff. makes
Claud, loc. cit. refers them all to Helios (ib. 170 Titan). Nonn. Dion. 38. 424
Zeus set Phaethon in the sky as Auriga, the Eridanos as Flumen. Interp. Serv. in Verg.
Aen. 10. 189 says that Kyknos was placed among the stars by Apollon.
* Hyg. poet. astr. 4. 7 notes that the Milky Way passes through the following con-
stellations :
Aquila.
Olor, Perseus, Auriga, Gemini, Procyon, Argo, Centaurus, Scorpio, .Sagittarius,
9 Loukian. de electro 4 f. trans. H. W. Fowler.