Themis, a study of the social origins of Greek ... - Warburg Institute

172 The Dithyramb, Spring-Festival, etc. [ch.
In the light of the Hagia Triada sarcophagos it is all quite
simple and clear. As there, so here, we have an olive tree
The holy bloom of the olive, whose hoar leaf
High on the shadowy shrine of Pandrosos
Hath honour of us all.
Apollodorus 1 says that Athena came after Poseidon and having
made Kekrops witness of her seizure («aTaA,^'-v/re&)?), planted the
olive which now is shown in the Pandroseion. Athena is manifestly
a superfluous interloper. There is a holy tree whose name
we may conjecture was the 'All Dewy One.' It was tended by
maidens who did the service of the Hersephoria ; the Dew-carrying
Maidens to this day go out before the dawn to catch the dew of
May Day which is magical for bloom and health. The Hersephoria,
the Dew Service, took place on the 13th of Skirophorion, the night
before the Bouphonia 2 . It is natural to ask, Was there any
possible connection between the two ?
Not far from the statue and altar of Zeus Polieus on the Acro-
polis, where the Bouphonia was enacted, there was, Pausanias tells
vis, an image of Ge praying to Zeus for rain 3 . Cut in the living rock
about a dozen yards north of the Parthenon is an inscription near
to a basis that once held a votive statue ' Of
Ge the Fruit-bearer
according to the oracle 4 .' Possibly the lost statue was the very
image seen by Pausanias. Ge prayed to Zeus in his capacity of
Hyetios, the Rainy. A contemporary of Lucian, Alciphron by
name, has left us in his imaginary letters 5 some details of the
cult of Zeus Hyetios. A certain Thalliskos writes as follows to
Petraios
:
A drought is upon us. Not a cloud is to be seen in the sky, and we
want a regular downpour. You have only to look at the ploughed land to
see how dreadfully parched the soil is. I am afraid all our sacrifices to
1 in. 14. 2.
2 For the evidence see Moramsen, Heortologie, p. 44. The month Skirophorion
is certain, for the Etymologicum Magnum says of the dppr)(popia- eopri) iiriTeXovfieini
ttj 'A07]i>qi kv tiZ 2,Ktpoopiuii>i p.rjvL. The exact day, the 13th, is not certain, but
highly probable. Suidas says of the Bouphonia, eopri] TraXaia r\v