Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

582 The double axe and Zeus L,abrdyndos
And an extract from Machon the Alexandrine comedian, likewise
cited by Athenaios^ tells an anecdote which emphasises the dual
aspect of the Mylasian deity:
Once on a time the flute-player Dorion
Came to Mylasa, but could find no lodging,
So sat him down within a certain prec.nct
That chanced to be before the city-gates,
There saw the temple-sweeper sacrificing.
'I' the name,' quoth he, 'of Athena and the gods,
Tell me, my friend, whose temple this may be.'
'Zenoposeidon's, sir !' the man replied.
Then Dorion : 'And how could anybody
Expect a room for one here, where they say
The very gods are lodging two by two !
The name ZBnoposeidon, which thus goes back to the time of Machon
{s. iii B.C.), if not to that of Dorion {s. iv B.C.)^ appears in the local
inscriptions from c. 200 B.C. onwards^ and is not altogether forgotten
by the Byzantine scholarship of the twelfth century^ Concerning
the ritual of the god we know little or nothing. But P. Le Bas points
out that the Taurophonia, mentioned in a decree of the Otorkondeis
as the occasion of a solemn traditional assembly, were perhaps cele-
brated on his behalP.
The fact that the Carians recognised a Zeus-like Poseidon or a
Poseidon-like Zeus is to me at least of considerable interest. For I
have longcontended that the Hellenic Poseidon himself wasoriginally
but a specialised form of Zeus. In 1903^ accepting with some modification
the views of H. L. Ahrens'' and W. Sonne*, I took the name
1 Machon ap. Athen. 337 c— D. " Cp. Athen. 435 B—c.
* Supra p. 578 n. 4 no. (i) ff.
* Eustath. ill 11. p. 763, 50 f. (on //. 9. 457 Zet^j re Ka.Tar)(dovi.o% k.t.X.) oti Zeuj Kai
ivTavda Karax^ovLOS 6 "Aidris, us idv tls etiroi drip inroyeios. ei 8e Kara TraKaiav iaropiav
wepL TLva KapiKou TroTa/j.6v Zrjvbs Tlo