Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

The axes of Penelope 697
an appellative of Zeus, who is known to have taken on occasion the
shape of a hoopoe {epopsY- Popular etymology, always rife among
the Greeks and busied with this myth in the fifth century B.C.^ would
readily equate Tereus the 'Watcher'*' with Zeus Epopsios the 'Overseer*.'
In reality the Thracian TereVts correlates with the Phrygian
Tereie, an epithet of the mother-goddess worshipped on a mountain
near Lampsakos^ This tends to confirm our impression that to
Thracian believers Tereus the hoopoe was in some sense an embodiment
of the father-god.
Those who see in Odysseus a former fire-god" or sun-god' and in
Penelope a divinised duck can at least claim to detect a certain ap-
bility is mooted by Dr J. Rendel Harris, who in conversation has pointed out to me
(Feb. 1920) that, since the woodpecker is named Hadad or Heddad the " Smith " in north
Africa (J. Rendel Harris Boanerges Cambridge 1913 p. 3Q4f.), it is tempting to regard
Ilt/cos 6 KoX Zei^s as the Greek translation of Hadadnmmon [supra i. 577) and Picus as the
Italian equivalent o( Benhadad {Boanerges p. 36 n. i).
In weighing these various hypotheses we must not lose sight of the fact that HiKOi 6 Kal
Zei;? is consistently said to have been buried in Crete. Now the Idaean Cave has yielded
a tympanon of the ninth or eighth century B.C., which represents the youthful Zeus or
Zagreus in definitely Assyrian guise [sitpra i. 644 ff. pi. xxxv). Moreover, we have seen
reason to surmise that at Hagia Triada the soul of the prince embodying this deity took
the form of a jay (pica)—a bird whose bright plumage suggested comparison with the wood-
pecker {pieus) {supra pp. 522, 523
f.). It is, then, conceivable that the phrase IIikos 6 koX
Tie'us finds its ultimate explanation in an actual Cretan cult, and that this cult was known,
at least by tradition, to the chronographer who first tacked the history of Rome on to that
of Assyria. When Euelpides in Aristoph. av. 480 spoke of Zeus as 'soon destined to re-
store the sceptre to the Woodpecker,' it was no mere flight of fancy but a genuine piece of
folk-belief (C/ai'5. Rev. 1904 xviii. 81, J. Rendel Harris /s'^aw^r^^i' Cambridge 1913 pp. 15,
35 f-' 357)- -^ trace of it survives even in the dull catalogue drawn up by Niketas, bishop
of Serrhai, towards the close of the eleventh century A.D. (SchoU—Studemund anecd. i.
265 'ETri'^fTtt Atds no. 81 TTiKov, 266 ''EirldeTa Ato's no. 76 ttLkov, 274 Niket. rhythm, de
duodec. dear, epith. i. i ff. 'ETrt^era At6s...n-kos, 281 f. i 'Eiri'^era tov Ai.6s...iriKos).
1 /n/ra Append. M med.
^ Aisch. frag-. 304 Nauck^=Soph. /ra^'. 581 Jebb ap. Aristot. hist. an. 9. 49. 633 a
I7ff. (cp. Plin. nat. hist. 10. 86) toxitov 5' iizb-KT-qv ^iroira tQv avrov KaKQv |
KCLTTobrfKijiaai ^x^' I
weiroLKiKuKe
^pcLffi/f irerpaiov opviv iv Trai'Tei^X^?' I k.t.\. A. C. Pearson ad loc,
following F. G. Welcker Die Griechischen Tragodien Bonn 1839 ' .3^4' E- Oder in the
Rhein. Mas. 1888 xliii. 541 ff., Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 92 n. 4, and others, makes out
a good case for transferring the fragment from Aischylos to Sophokles.
* Schol. Aristoph. av. 102 6 Xeyofxevos Tr;pevi irapa rb T-qpeiv rrjv 'Iti {sic), et. t?iag.
P- 757' 45 f- TTjpei/j- 6 rripuiv to, rtSovr^v dyeTpai {eyeipai cod. V.) di/vd/j-eva Kai ciKpaalq,
r)5ovCjv XeXrifx/jLivos. Oder loc. cit. p. 553 cp. Ach. Tat. 5. 5 koX 6 Tripevs aiirats (jvvava-
^alvei, Kai opvis ylveraf Kal T-qpovcnv ^tl tov trddovs ttjv eiKOva.
•* Supra i. 737, in/ra Append. M med.
''
//. 2. 829 Trjpelfjs opos alvv with Eustath. in II. p. 356, 11 ff. and especially Strab.
589 (cp. 565) 01 b' diro TerrapaKOVTa crraSiwv Aafixl/dKov SeiKVvovcn XStpov, i