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

174 The Dithyramb, Spring-Festival, etc. [ch.
last full moon of the Attic year 1 . The maidens gathered their
dew in the precinct of Ourania in the Gardens. The Bouphonia
was an appeal to the sterner powers of the sky, to thunder, and
lightning, and the rain-storm.
It is worth noting that an invocation of dew for the fertilization
of man and plants and cattle forms part of an Epiphany hpw^evov
that goes on in the island of Imbros 2 to-day. A sort of 'aetiological
myth ' is chanted, telling of the ' Baptism of Christ.' Our
Lady goes down to Jordan, takes water, washes and then entreats
S. John Baptist to baptize the Holy Child. S. John makes
answer
:
Let him wait till the morn
That I may ascend into heaven,
To send down dew upon earth,
That the master and his lady may be bedewed,
That the mothers and their children be bedewed,
That the plains with the trees be bedewed,
That the springs and the waters be bedewed,
That the cattle may be tame,
And the idols may fall down.
We find ourselves in full magic, S. John the Baptist and the
Baptism of life-giving dew—the New Birth. S. John must
ascend, must become a ' sky-god,' before he can descend.
If, spite of the conjunction of thunder-axe and tree on the
sarcophagos, the thunder-god Erechtheus and the olive tree strike
us still as dissonant, we may find conviction when it appears that
the same strange marriage is found in the lower city. In the
Academy Pausanias 3 saw an olive plant, said to have been the
second to appear. It was doubtless fabled to have been a graft
from the sacred olive of the Acropolis. All olive trees throughout
Attica which could claim this high descent were called Moriae
(propagated, /xe/xopr]/j,evai) and were protected by special sanctions
were also
under the immediate care of the Areopagos 4 . They
1 Gruppe, Gr. Mytholpgie und Religion, p. 34. The whole question of the dew
and rain aspects of the Sky-god will be fully discussed by Mr A. B. Cook in his
forthcoming work 'Zeus,' chapter ii. § 8, 'Zeus and the Dew,' § g 'Zeus and the
Rain,' § h Zeus Hyetios n. Diipoleia. Since the above was written it has been
shown by Dr E. Maass (A. Mitt. xxxv. 3, p. 337, Aglaurion) that Aglauros is a wellnymph,
goddess of the clear shining water, of a-y\abv vdup. She and her sisters
are therefore a trinity of water and dew.
2 I owe my knowledge of this interesting spng to the kindness of Mr A. Wace,
who allowed me to see a proof of his forthcoming article on North Greek Festivals.
a I. 30. 2 /ecu