Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

The Tarentine cult of Zeus Kataibdtes 29
disappeared, but the babe survived. So, as is said in the case of
Diobletoi, people supposed that she had met with a divine fate and
called her Thyone. Her child, having been saved from the fire, was
most divine : Kadmos looked after him and gave him the family
name of the Egyptian Dionysos^'
(e) The Tarentine cult of Zeus Kataibates.
A remarkable example of the cult of Zeus Kataibdtes is that of
Tarentum-. Klearchos, a pupil of Aristotle, states* that the Tarentines,
having overthrown Karbina, a city of the lapyges, and exposed
the boys, girls, and young women of the place to the grossest outrages,
were visited by the vengeance of heaven. All who had
offended at Karbina were struck by lightning. The Tarentines
therefore erected in front of their doors a number of pillars cor-
responding to the number of the men who failed to return from the
expedition into lapygia^ These pillars were still to be seen before
each house in Tarentum ; and, when the season of their destruction
comes round, the Tarentines, instead of lamenting the dead or
pouring the customary libations, offered sacrifices on the pillars to
Zeus Kataibdtes. Here it is fairly obvious that death by lightning
is regarded not as a disaster, but as an honour : funeral lamenta-
tions and libations were out of place. But who—we ask further
was the god that conferred this doubtful honour? The Tarentines
certainly called him Zeus Kataibdtes. Yet the form of his worship,
a pillar-cult, is not elsewhere attested for Zeus Kataibdtes. It
points rather in the direction of Crete. One would like to know
what the lapyges themselves said about it. Most fortunately
Athenaios, to whom we owe the excerpt from Klearchos, goes
on to tell us more concerning the lapyges^ Probably he is
' Charax _/)'ao. 13 {Frag. hist. Gr. iii. 639 Miiller) ap. anon, de incredib. 16 p. 325
Westerniann.
- On the various cults of Zeus at Tarentum see R. Lorentz De rebus sacris et artibtis
veterurn Tarentinorum Elberfeldiae 1836 p. 9 f. Supra i. 35 ff., 520 n. 2, 521 n. i, infra
§ 3 (a) iii (^).
* Klearch.^-a^. 9 {Frag. hist. Gr. ii. 306 f. Miiller) ap. Athen. 522 off.
^ Athen. 522 F koI /J-^Xf"-
'^"'^ ''''' ^'' '^dpavri €Kd