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

I] The Kouretes as Guardians 23
necklace of skulls he will sit playing with the child on his knee.
But, rare though Human Sacrifice is, and rarer still its survivals,
the mock slaying of a boy in initiation rites is so common as to be /
almost universal, and in a large number of instances it is the
memory of this mock slaying, misunderstood, that survives. By
way of placation, of palinode, we offer to the humanist the mysteries
of Zagreus made harmless, humanized by anthropology. Dhura-
moolan 'pretended that he killed the boys.'
Primarily then the Kouretes are, in their capacity of Initiators.
Ohi lrl-Nurtnrers, Guardians (iiathorpoipoi^ cfrfXa/ce?). Strab
abo 1
on this point emphatic! ^Tn the Cretan discourses,' he says, ' the
Kouretes are called the nurses and guardians of Zeus,' and again 2
Fig. 3.
in trying to explain the word Kouretes he says, ' they were so
called either because they were young and boys, or because of
their rearing of Zeus.' They earned this title, he adds, through
being ' as it were Satyrs attendant on Zeus....' In the light of this
initiation nurture the other functions of the Kouretes fall easily
and naturally into place.
The Kouretes are armed and orgiastic dancers (6px>l o~rrjpe