receives from Athene the celebrated necklace and peplos, 'the star-bespangled robe,' so famous in the mythic history of Thebai, and is married to Kadmos, the Man-ofthe-East, its founder and the son of the Phoenician king.1 It is not difficult to estimate the true value of Hellenik mythic genealogies; they have evidently some meaning, and are founded on certain facts. But this signification is to some extent esoteric. Thus the pedigree in question illustrates (1) the natural connection between the two earth-goddesses, Demeter and Kybele, which has been already noticed, (2) that the mystic Korybas is born in the home of non-Hellenik mystery, and that many of his connections are Phoenician; (3) that the whole family are descended from the beaming sun of Eastern climes, Dionysos Pyropos, the Fiery-faced, are in fact the children of a flame-cult. But in order that the pedigree may be correct in form, the Sun is changed into a female, the bright-beaming nymph Elektra, and as such, is duly wedded to Zeus, the Aryan All-father. Thus the Elektran, the fourth of the Seven Gates of Thebai, was dedicated to the Sun. Strabo gives an interesting dissertation on the Kouretes and Korybantes, in which he notices that Pindaros 4 and Euripides identify the Bakchik and Phrygian rites. He states that the names Kabeiroi and Korybantes were invented to designate the ministers, dancers, and servants employed about the sacred rites, that these beings were not only ministers of the gods, but were themselves also called gods. Quoting many authorities, he says that there were nine Telchines in Rhodos, who accompanied Rhea to Krete; that Korybas was one of them, and that certain Rhodians held that the Korybantes were daemons, 1 Cf. Ephoros, Frag. xii. ; Diod. v. 48-9. 2 Cf. Poseidon, xxvii. 3 Cf. Ais. Hept. epi The. 418; Eur. Phoi. 1129; Nonnos, v. 76. 4 Dithyrambs. Frag. ix. 5 Cf. Hippol. 143. children of Athene and the Sun; that they were the same as the Kabeiroi and that they went to Samothrake. He further states that the Kouretes were Kretans, that in the Kretan history they are called the nurses and guardians of Zeus, and that Demetrios of Skepsis, cir. B.c. 160, who wrote a very learned work entitled Troikos Diakosmos, 'The Troian Array,' held that the Kouretes and Korybantes were identical. Quoting Pherekydes the celebrated logographer, cir. B.c. 470, he says that there were nine Korybantes who lived in Samothrake, and three Kabeiroi, children of Hephaistos and the nymph Kabeira, who were especially worshipped at Lemnos, Imbros, and in the Troad. He adds that Rhodos was anciently called Telchinis, from the Telchines, who according to many writers, excelled in the mechanical arts, and were found also in Krete and Kypros.1 Pausanias gives the names of the Kouretes, one of whom is Iasios, and states that they came from Mount Ida in Krete.2 Thirlwall is of opinion that the Telchines were Phoenicians, and that the legends respecting them embody recollections of arts. introduced or refined by foreigners who attracted the admiration of the rude tribes whom they visited.' That their connection is Phoenician is highly probable, although not matter of absolute history. The Bishop's views have been objected to as unsupported by evidence, but there is still less evidence that the Telchines were clouds. The Emperor Julianus states that Korybas is, i.e. represents, the Sun. The Pseudo Orphik Hymns, xxxi. and xxxviii. are addressed to the Kouretes, and Hymn xxxix to Korybas, who is called one of the Kouretes, who are themselves identified with the Korybantes. They are said to dwell in the sacred region 1 Strabo, x. 3, xiv. 2. 2 Paus. v. 7. 3 Hist of Greece, pt. I. iii. 3 of Samothrake.' Taylor's translation is not without merit : Deathless Curetes, by your pow'r alone, The greatest mystic rites to men at first were shown, And the loud tumult wanders through the skies. Grows in the dancing motion formed by you. Whose praise the land of Samothracia sings. This curious passage clearly indicates their close affinity with Dionysos, as assistants in the vast kosmic dance,1 and at once the nurturers and destroyers of mankind, as he is to men at the same time the mildest and most terrible of divinities. It is unnecessary to analyse these legends and myths in detail; they are all evidently harmonious, and teach the non-Hellenik character of the Kouretes and Korybantes, thus connected by Euripides with the Dionysiak ritual. Among other points, may be noticed, (1) Their solar connection as the children or associates of Helios, not as the Clouds against whom he wages war, and the implication of this connection as pointing to a foreign cult; (2) Their connection with Phoenician personages such as Kadmos, Hephaistos and the Kabeiroi, Phoenician arts such as metallurgy, and Phoenician localities such as Kypros, Rhodos, Krete, 1 Cf. Kretes, Frag. ii.; Sup. subsec i. Lemnos, Imbros and Samothrake; (3) Their mutual close and intimate affinity, though not absolute identity, as perhaps being different phases of the same personages, and (4) Their connection with the kosmogonic Dionysos, both as ministers of death and life, and as choir-leaders in the universal nature-dance or rhythm of motion.1 Strabo sagely concludes his Kouretik dissertation with the remark, all discussion respecting the gods requires an examination of ancient opinions, and of fables, since the ancients expressed enigmatically their physical notions concerning the nature of things, and always intermixed fables with their discoveries. It is not easy, therefore, to solve these enigmas exactly; but if we lay before the reader a multitude of fabulous tales, some consistent with each other, others which are contradictory, we may thus with less difficulty form conjectures about the truth."2 4 And hard by the raving Satyroi performed the rites of mother Rhea, and they added the dances of the triennial festivals in which Dionysos rejoices, glad on the mountains when from the running bands of revellers he falls on the plain, having a sacred garment of faun-skin, hunting for the blood of goat-slaughter, a raw-eaten delight.' The Satyroi, according to the Natural Phenomena Theory, are the phenomena of the life which seems to animate the woods as the branches of the trees move in wild dances with the clouds which course through the air above, or assume forms strange or grotesque or fearful, in the deep nooks and glens or in the dim and dusky tints of the gloaming.' The objection to this view, which applies rather to Pan and the Paniscs, 1 Souidas (in voc. Kouretes and Koureton stoma) calls them a nation, and says prophetic power was ascribed to them. Dionysos also is a Prophet (Bak. 298). Souidas (in voc. Korubantes) calls both Kouretes and Korybantes children of Rhea. Hesy 5 chios similarly (in voc. Korubas), 2 Falconer's Translation, ii. 191-2. 5 Mythol. of the Aryan Nations, ii. 15. is twofold; (1) it is unsupported by evidence, and (2) it does not account for the particular form under which the Satyroi are represented, i.e. with pointed ears, two small horns and goats' tails, or by later writers with larger horns, and goats' feet and legs. According to Donaldson, the Satyrs were only the deified representatives of the original worshippers, who probably assumed as portions of their droll costume the skin of the goat, which they had sacrificed as a welcome offering to their wine-god.'1 The first point for consideration is, What is the connection between Dionysos and the Goat? Virgil says that the goat is sacrificed as a vine-injuring animal,2 and the constellation Aix, the Goat, was similarly supposed to affect vines injuriously at its rising. This may be one link in the case, but there are others also, for as Virgil himself notices, various animals injure the vine, and Satyroi might, if this point comprised all the affinity between the god and the goat, have been represented with bulls' or rams' tails. The Bakchik cry Eua' has been said to be an imitation of the goat's bleat, and the goat as horned has, like the ram and bull, a certain connection with the god. But the chief link between the Satyroi, the goat and Dionysos is the erotic character of the animal,* corresponding to that phase of the god when the general vigour of the earth-life, Dionysos Karpios or Erikepeios, passes into personal amorousness as Ephaptor or Polyparthenos. The Satyroi represent the luxuriant vital powers of nature," and hence their connection with the kosmogonic god. This does not exclude Donaldson's idea, which is probably correct in itself, but manifestly too slender a 1 Theatre of the Greeks, 25; cf. Strabo, x. 3. Vide inf. VII. ii., Remarks on Pan and Heabani. 2 Georg. ii. 372-83; cf. Ovid, Metam. xv. 114. 3 Paus. ii. 13. 4 Cf. Diod. i. 88; King Lear, i. 2, his goatish disposition.' Goats' flesh was sometimes eaten as a satyrion (Athen. ix. 15). Vide Payne Knight on the Goat in Art. 5 Smith, Class. Dict. Satyri. |