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The Kouretes and Zeus Kouros: A Study in Pre-Historic Sociology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2013

Extract

Ἰώ, μέγιστε Κοῦρε, Χαῖρέ μοι,

Κρόνιε.

The opening words of the Hymn to Diktaean Zeus recently found at Palaikastro instantly arrest attention. Zeus the Father of Gods and Men is invoked by a title that to our unaccustomed ears sounds strange and barely reverent.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1909

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References

page 308 note 1 See pp. 339 ff.

page 308 note 2 Ritual Hymns of this or indeed of any class are unhappily rare. Our earliest instance is the invocation of the Bull-god by the women of Elis; the Delphic Paean to Dithyrambos presents a later and closer analogy, see my Prolegomena, pp. 438 and 417. To the question of these and their connection with the Dithyramb and choruses of I hope to return later.

page 308 note 3 See Prof. Gilbert Murray's restored text (pp. 357 f.).

page 309 note 1 Frg. 51.

page 309 note 2 Bethe, E. (Hermes, xxiv. 1889, P. 411Google Scholar) has shown that in all probability the source for Strabo's account as well as that of Diodorus (v. 64. 65) is the of Apollodorus, see Pauly-Wissova, Real-Encyclopaedie, s.v. Daktyloi.

page 309 note 3 Strabo, x. c. 466.

page 309 note 4 Strabo, x. c. 462. …

page 310 note 1 Iliad, xix. 193.

page 310 note 2 Strabo, x. c. 466.

page 310 note 3 Strabo, x, c. 466,

page 310 note 4 Loc. cit.

page 310 note 5 Frg. cxxix.

page 311 note 1 Eur. Hipp. 141.

The translations here and elsewhere are by Professor Gilbert Murray.

page 311 note 2 Apollod. 3. 2. 2.

page 311 note 3 Soph. ap. Strabo, x. c. 473 says of the Idaear. Daktyls,

page 311 note 4 Diod. Sic. v. 64. Idaean Daktyls are described as who superintend They invent fire and the use of bronze and iron. The Kouretes are

page 312 note 1 Strabo, x. c. 468.

page 312 note 2 Ibid. x. c. 466.

page 312 note 3 Ibid., x. c. 472.

page 312 note 4 x. c. 468.

page 312 note 5 x. c. 466.

page 312 note 6 x. c. 468.

page 313 note 1 Suidas, s.v.

page 313 note 2 Nonnus, , Bacch. xxxix. 61Google Scholar.

page 314 note 1 Abel, Orphica, 196.

page 314 note 2 Harpocrat. s.v.

page 314 note 3 Plut. De Is. et Os. xxxv. and De Ei ap. Delph. ix.

page 314 note 4 Firmicus Mat. De Err. Prof. Relig. 6. … imaginem eius ex gypso plastico opere perfecit et cor pueri, ex quo facinus fuerat sorore deferente detectum, in ea parte plastae conlocat, qua pectoris fuerant Iineamenta formata.

page 314 note 5 The sources for all these details are collected in Abel's Orphica, pp. 224 ff. and in Lobeck's Aglaophamus, pp. 553 ff.

page 315 note 1 Nauck, frg. 472.

page 315 note 2 Berliner Klassikertexte, v. 2, Gr. Dichterfragmente (2) 1907, p. 73. See also Körte, G., Die Kreter des Euripides in Hist. u. Phil. Aufsätze. E. Curtius, Berlin, 1884, p. 195Google Scholar and A. Kappelmacher, Zu den Kreten des Euripides, Wiener Eranos, 50 Versamml. Graz, 1909.

page 315 note 3 Nauck, frg. 484.

page 316 note 1

page 316 note 2

page 316 note 3 (a)

(b)

(c)

page 316 note 4 Prolegomena, pp. 483, 499.

page 316 note 5 De Abest. iv. 19.

page 316 note 6 See Nauck, ad loc.

page 316 note 7 De Hymnis Orphicis, p. 11.

page 317 note 1 Griechische Dichterfragmente, p. 77, note 1.

page 317 note 2 Prolegomena, p. 480, note 1.

page 317 note 3 Vit. Pyth. 17.

page 317 note 4 For the superstitions that gather round thunder-stones, celts as supposed thunder-stones, see H. Martin's La Foudre dans l' Antiquité. To the general question of the sanctity of thunder-stones and their place in the development of Greek religion I hope to return elsewhere.

page 317 note 5 This inscription is inaccurately reproduced by Perrot, and Chipiez, , Grèce Primitive, vol. vi. p. 119Google Scholar, Fig. 5. The first four letters as given by them are which led me to hope that the word inscribed was but Mr. R. M. Dawkins was good enough to examine the actual stone and to send me the inscription corrected. The drawing in Fig. 1, with the correct inscription, I owe to the kindness of Mrs. Hugh Stewart. Reproduced also by Cartailhac, L'âge de pierre p. 31, Fig. 14.

page 318 note 1 Loc. cit. supra.

page 318 note 2 Suidas, s.v.

page 319 note 1 The coins reproduced are in the possession of Mr. A. B. Cook and will be discussed in his forthcoming book on the European Sky-God. He very kindly allows me to anticipate their publication.

page 319 note 2 Brit. Mus. Cat. Gk. Coins, Syria pp. 270 f., Pl. XXXII. 6 and 8. The thunder-cult of Seleukeia Pieria is well known. Appian in his History of Syria (c. 56) says of the inhabitants of Seleukeia Keraunos had annually appointed priests, with whom may perhaps be compared the who had a seat in the Dionysiac theatre at Athens. See my Mon. and Myth, of Ancient Athens p. 274.

page 319 note 3 E. Braun, Kunstmythologie Taf. 6.

page 319 note 4 Annali d. Inst. xii. (1840) Tav. d'agg. K. I am uncertain where the relief now is. E. Braun, who publishes it, says it passed from the Palazzo Colonna to the royal castle of Agliè near Turin.

page 321 note 1 Arch. Zeit. 1846, Taf. 38.

page 321 note 2 Hes. Theog. 485.

page 321 note 3 Weibeck, , Kunstmythologie, Atlas, iii. 24.Google Scholar

page 321 note 4 Hes. Theog. 496.

page 321 note 5 x. 24. 7.

page 321 note 6 See Prof. Gilbert Murray's illuminating analysis and interpretation of the confused Hesiodic account in Anthropology and the Classics, p. 86.

page 321 note 7 x. 470.

page 321 note 8 Nauck, Frg. 57.

page 322 note 1 Ad Clemens Alex. Cohort. p. 5. Lobeck, Aglaoph. p. 700; the scholiast professes to explain but, as Mr. A. B. Cook kindly pointed out to me, is obviously some form of spinning top. The object described as a bit of wood with a string through it, is obviously a rhombos or Bull-roarer. The bibliography of the Bull-roarer is fully given by DrFrazer, , Golden Bough 2, vol. iii. note I.Google Scholar To the authorities here given must now be added the valuable papers by Mr. R. R. Marett, Savage Supreme Beings and the Bull-Roarer, in Hibbert Journal, Jan. 1910, and M. van Gennep, Mythes et Légendes d' Australie, Introduction, pp. lxviii. ff. The interesting fragment of a Dipylon vase published by MrDroop, J. P., B.S.A. xii. p. 82Google Scholar, Fig. 2 (b) represents a rite of the making of thunder and lightning. But I reserve the discussion of this fragment for a future occasion.

page 323 note 1 See my Prolegomena p. 492.

page 323 note 2

page 323 note 3 Nonn. Dionys. xxvii. 228.

page 324 note 1 On some Ceremonies of the Central Australian Tribes. Melbourne, 1901. Dr. Frazer's authority is Matthews, R. H., The Burbung of the Wiradthuri Tribes, Journal of Anthropological Institute xxv. (1896), pp. 297Google Scholarsq. 308, 311.

page 326 note 1 For details as to Death and Resurrection element in initiation Ceremonies see H. Schurtz, Altersklassen und Männerbünde, 1902; H. Webster, Primitive Secret Societies, 1908; Hubert, H. and Mauss, M., Mélanges d'Histoire des Religions, 1909, pp. 144 ff.Google Scholar; van Gennep, A., Les rites de Passage, 1909, pp. 93 ff.Google Scholar; Lévy-Bruhl, L., Les fonctions mentales dans les Sociétés Inférieures, 1910, pp. 409 ff.Google Scholar; and especially, DrFrazer, J. G., G.B. 13.2 iii. pp. 423 ff.Google Scholar

page 326 note 2 Les Rites de Passage, Paris, 1909.

page 326 note 3 This is not the place to discuss the question how far religious conceptions are the outcome of collective representation and as such are socially induced. But I should like here to record my conviction that so far as Greek religion goes the theories of MM. Durkheim and Huber and Mauss are supported by the fact that Orphic ritual and religion clearly takes its rise socially in tribal initiation rites. In the light of these new sociological investigations the phenomena of early Greek religion as well as early Greek philosophy will have to be entirely reconsidered, a matter to which, together with the question of Lethe, Mnemosyne, and the Platonic I hope to return in another connection

page 326 note 4 xxxviii. 14

page 327 note 1 See especially H. Schurtz, Altersklassen and Männerbünde p. 48.

page 327 note 2 H. Webster, Primitive Secret Societies ch. i.

page 327 note 3 iv. 31. 7

page 327 note 4 That institutions analogous to those of the Man's House among savages lived on in Crete we have abundant evidence in Strabo's account (B. x.) of Cretan institutions. The with their the the clearly belong to the same social morphology as the Männerhaus. It is probable that the and the custom (B. x. 483), is a misunder standing and in part a corruption of primitive initiation ceremonies.

page 327 note 5 Pisc. 33.

page 327 note 6 Webster, op, cit. pp. 50, 51.

page 327 note 7 Hertz, R., Contribution à une étude sur la représentation collective de la mort. Anniée Sociologique, x. 19051906.Google Scholar

page 327 note 8 Epimenides of Knossos, the typical medicine-man of antiquity, was addressed as —he had the power of leaving his body and returning to it at will—see Suidas, s.v. —he was —he acquired his lore not by learning but through the teaching of a dream. He is said to have written a He was, some said, worshipped by the Cretans as a god, see Diog. Laert. i. 111–115, and Max. Tyr. c. 22, p. 224.

page 327 note 9 x. 465.

page 328 note 1 H. Schurtz, op. cit. p. 358.

page 328 note 2 H. Webster, op. cit. pp. 101 and 187.

page 328 note 3 There may have been, as Mr. Hugh E. Seebohm kindly points out to me, a blend of the various rites undergone at successive ages, birth, puberty, etc.

page 328 note 4 In the archaic votive inscriptions of Thera carved on the living rock Koures occurs three times, each time with a Koppa see I.G.I.M.A. iii. 354, 355, 371, and Gaertringen, Hiller v., Die archäische Kultur d. Insel Thera Berlin, 1897, p. 17.Google Scholar For local cults of the Kouretes, see Prof. Bosanquet's paper.

page 329 note 1 Ant. Rom. ii. 70 71,

page 329 note 2 Loc. cit.

page 330 note 1 Among savages a conical cap of striking appearance is a frequent element in the disguise of the initiator or medicine-man. See Schurtz, op. cit. pp. 336, 370, 384, and L. v. Schroeder, Mimus und Mysterium, p. 476, and Codrington, The Melanesians, p. 78.

page 330 note 2 Loc. cit.

page 330 note 3 Annali d. Inst. 1869, Tav. d'agg. E. O. Benndorf, who publishes the relief does not say where it now is.

page 330 note 4 Mr. Cyril Bailey suggests to me that it may represent some sort of thunder-making implement, and kindly reminds me that a fragment of the Carmen Saliare reads:—

Cume tonas Leucesie prae tet tremonti

quom tibi cunei dextumum tonaront.

To the question of these implements I hope to return on another occasion in a discussion of Thunder-Rites.

page 331 note 1 Bacch. 123.

page 331 note 2 Loc. cit. supra.

page 331 note 3 See Ridgeway, Early Age of Greece p. 455, Fig. 83. Denys states that the shield carried on the left arm was a Thracian pelta. Prof. Ridgeway concludes (op. cit. p. 465) that it was the shield of the true Thracians, the kindred of the Mycenaean people, and that it survived in the rites of the Kouretes. According to Clement (Strom. i. 16, sub init.) the pelta was invented by the Illyrians, who, if Prof. Ridgeway is right, belong to the primitive Aegean stock. A curious double ancile appears on a denarius of P. Licinius Stolo, figured by Mr. W. Warde Fowler, Roman Festivals, p. 350. On the same coin the apex is very clearly shown.

page 331 note 4 Ovid, , Fasti, iii. 771.Google Scholar Restat ut inveniam quare toga libera detur

Lucifero pueris, candide Bacche, tuo.

page 331 note 5 Ovid, , Fasti, iii. 259273.Google Scholar

page 331 note 6 The sources for both festivals are fully given in Roscher's Lexicon, s.v. Mars, and in Mr. Warde Fowler's Roman Festivals pp. 44–54.

page 332 note 1 Fasti, iii. 259. Quis mihi nunc dicat, quare celestia Martis

Arma ferant Salii, Mamuriumque canant?

page 332 note 2 Mannhardt, Baumkultus, 266, 297; Usener, , Italische Mythen in Rhein. Mus. 1875, P. 183Google Scholar; Frazer, , op. cit. 2 vol. iii. pp. 122 ff.Google Scholar

page 332 note 3 De Mens iv. 49.

page 332 note 4 The reduplicated form Marmar occurs in the Carmen Arvale and from it Mamurius is probably formed, see Walde, Lat. Etym. Wörterbuch. s.v.; for Veturius as the old year, cf. Gk.

page 332 note 5 Fasti iii. 523 ff.

page 332 note 6 De Mens, loc. cit.

page 332 note 7 De Mens. iv. 49.

page 332 note 8 Varro, Sat. Menipp. p. 506, ‘Fe Anna ac Peranna,’ and Macvob. i. 12. 6, publice et privatimad Annam Perennam sacrificatum itur ut annare et perannare commode liceat.

page 333 note 1 Fasti, iii. 695. Ovid recounts the story as aeteological,

Inde ioci veteres obscaenaque dicta canuntur.

page 333 note 2 For the whole subject of May Brides and the False Bride, see MissGodden, G. M., Folklore, iv. 1893, pp. 142 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 333 note 3 Ovid, , Fasti, iii. 657Google Scholar.

Sunt quibus haec Luna est, quia mensibus impleat annum:

Pars Themin, Inachiam pars putat esse bovem.

page 333 note 4 The development among primitive peoples from weather-gods (e.g. thunder) to sun-and moon-gods, a sequence which appears to be regular, is well explained by Payne, E. J., History of the New World called America, vol. i. pp. 491 ff.Google Scholar

page 333 note 5 I am convinced that the twelve ancilia represent twelve moon-months, but the discussion would involve the kindred question of the Palladia and would exceed the space at my command.

page 333 note 6 Mon. d. Inst. ix. Tav. 58. See Marx, , Ein neuer Ares Mythus, A.Z. 43, 1885, p. 169.Google Scholar

page 334 note 1 Gaidoz, H., Le Dieu Gaulois du Soleil et le Symbolisme de la Rome, Rev. Arch. 1884, 32 ff.Google Scholar

page 334 note 2 Maurice Blomfield, Cerberus the Dog of Hades, 1905. Cerberus gabalas the heavenly dog of the Veda was later translated to Hades. Cf. the fate of Ixion. For Hekate as dog, cf. Porph, . de Abstin. iii. 17Google Scholar,

page 335 note 1 Annali d. Inst. 1852, Pl. F. 3. Nonnus also makes the Korybantes dance at dawn, op. cit. 361.

page 335 note 2 Gerhard, K., Über die Lichtgottheiten, Tav. i. 1.Google Scholar

page 336 note 1 De Salt. 17.

page 336 note 2 See L. v. Schroeder, Mimus und Mysterium p. 45, and Usener, , Pasparios in Rhein. Mus. 1894, p. 464.Google Scholar

page 336 note 3 Od xii. 4.

page 336 note 4 Strabo, 202.

page 336 note 5 Cf. v. 167. and 168.

page 336 note 6 ix. 123.

page 336 note 7 The object of this paper is rather the study of the social institutions (initiation ceremonies) out of which mythological representations arose than of the mythological figures themselves, but some notion of the content of Zagreus is essential to the argument.

page 337 note 1 x. 293. Bacchus reproaches Zeus with the favour shown to Zagreus,

page 337 note 2 Frg.

page 337 note 3 Nauck, frg. 228

page 337 note 4 There is abundant evidence of the worship of a primitive sun-and sky-god in Crete. For the Cretan sun-king Talos, Tan, Minotaur, and the solar labyrinth, see Cook, A. B., Class. Rev. 1903, p. 410.Google Scholar

page 337 note 5 xxi. 5.

page 338 note 1 Professor Gilbert Murray alone protests. ‘As for it is not so much that “orgies” is an unfortunate word; it is that we most of us do not understand what “orgia” exactly were, and we wish to know. “Rites” or “things done” as opposed to “things said” would help us, but we need more.’

page 338 note 2 Choeph. 167.

page 338 note 3 Compare Altind. rghâjáti which is used of the trembling and swaying of mountains at the birth of Indra. See Meyer, Leo, Handbuch der Deutschen Etymologie vol. 1, p. 574.Google Scholar

page 338 note 4 See Mr. R. R. Marett's Threshold of Religion, p. 33.

page 338 note 5 That the figure of the Koures actually survived in the Eleusinian mysteries we are told by Psellus, Quaenam sunt Graecorum opiniones de daemonibus, 3, See my Prolegomena, p. 569.