Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

6i2 The double axe and the labarum
The extant text^ shows that both sources contained a ritual invoca-
tion of the vine couched in poetic and to a large extent rhythmic
language:
'The white vine has other orderly and most charming effects, making a man
in his cups to be not only sober but merry as well. Thus far Kyranos. But from
the aforesaid point, where my authorities diverged, this is how Harpokration
continues: '' Blessed plant, leader of the gods, mistress of earth, sky, and air,
thou that relaxest the mind by thy cluster-bearing drink, so loosening every limb,
and causest sleep, no one by word, no healer by potiott, nay none shall prevail
against thee ; but thou bringest to light all that is in the souls of mortal men, and
of them that have mystic thoughts in secret thou, o Vine, having knowledge un-
Real-Enc. vii. 2410) and with the Alexandrine rhetorician Valerius Harpokration
(H. Schultz ih. vii. 2412 ff.). F. de Mely op. cit. Paris 1902 iii. i. Ixx ff. thinks that the
Harpokration of the Kyranides may have come from Alex;indreia near Babylon. Non
liqjiet. See Gossen in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Eiic. vii. 2416 f.
^X^'
1 F. de Mely op. cit. Paris 1898 ii. i. 10, 7 ff. = Aj'raw. r. A. 28. 17 5^ XeuxTj anireXos
Kal &\\as ivepyeias Koa-fiiKas Kai xap'e''"''