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

182 The Dithyramb, Spring-Festival, etc. [ch.
upper branches of the tree, and continuing down actually on the
leftmost branch, is an inscription 1 in early Corinthian letters,
T5MVP05. Ticrvpoi. The word is in the nominative plural, not
the ordinary genitive of place. Does 'Ticrvpoi' stand for 'Tityroi'?
And does Tityroi stand for ' play of the Tityroi,' as Satyroi stands
for ' play of the Satyrs ' ? Can the inscription refer to a Spco-
fxevov, a Satyr-play of the return of spring, the blossoming of the
tree, and the marriage of the maiden ? On the reverse of all
these coins the type is a bull (Fig. 42 b). Was the Bpco/xevov
accompanied, as on the sarcophagos, by a bull-sacrifice ?
In Athens, then, we have the uncouth Spcofievov of the Bou-
phonia with its mimic resurrection of the ox ; in Crete, on the
sarcophagos, we have the new life of spring represented and
induced by a 8pco/j,€vov of obelisks leaf-covered, with thunder-axes
and spring birds. Now the Bouphonia was celebrated, as has
been seen, at the last full moon of the Attic year, in midsummer,
when the land was parched. Its object wr as to induce dew ; the
Cretan Spwfievov was manifestly, like the sacrifice of the bull at
Magnesia, celebrated in spring. This brings us straight to the
question of seasonal festivals, and takes us back to the Hymn of
the Kouretes.
In the refrain, it will be remembered (p. 8), the Kouros is
bidden to come to Dikte ' for the Year ' (e? iviavrov), and, when
the aetiological myth has been recounted, it is said 'the Horae
began to be fruitful year by year,' [*Q.pai Se ftp\vov icarr/ros.
Not only was the Kouros bidden to come for the Year, but if
we may credit Aratus 2 , the Kouretes of Dikte, when they deceived
Kronos, hid Zeus in the cave and reared him for the Year («s
iviavrov).
1 The inscription was read as Ticrvpoi by Dr von Sallet, who first published the
coin in the Zeitschrift f. Numismatik, vi. p. 263. See also W. W. Wroth, Cretan
Coins in Numismatic Chronicle, rv. 1884, p. 35. The suggestion that Tiavpoi may
indicate a Spu/xevov of Tityroi is due to Mr A. B. Cook. For Tityros as goat-daemon
see Paul Baur, Tityros in American Journal of Archaeology, ix. 1905, PI. v. p. 157.
The goat-daemon here published holds a cornucopia.
2 Phaen. 163, 164
6 /JUV TOTS KOVpl'$OVTCL,
ALktwi ev evuiSei, 6peos crx e ^ ov 'ISat'oto,
dvTpwt. eyKaridevro kcu Zrpecpov els eviavrov ,
AiKTouoi KovpT)res ore Kpdvov exf/evSovTo.
For AiVtwi should probably be read Xvktwi. Diels, Fry. d. Vors. n. p. 497, attributes
this legend to the Kretika of Epimenides.