the main forms of the cult of Zeus. III

1. Double ax. In Crete, the myth and cult of Zeus are found at the most varied levels of the local mythology.
a) Apparently, the myth of the double ax - Labrys (Labrys) should be attributed to the most ancient mythological ideas about Zeus in Crete. As far as we can judge from the monuments of fine art that have come down to us, it is very difficult to reveal the exact meaning of this ancient fetish. There have been attempts to generally challenge the sacred meaning of this symbol. However, its religious and mythical meaning is beyond any doubt, and if it is impossible to achieve complete accuracy here, then the approximate semantic orientation of this symbol seems to be quite clear: heaviness and sharpness, easy penetration even into solid bodies, action immediately in opposite directions, elementary corporality, huge destructive power, a necessary tool for lining and, in particular, for any construction. This ancient symbol (and perhaps even a direct image) of Zeus was known throughout Asia Minor and the shores of the Aegean Sea.

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First, the double ax was a production totem. This is evident from the unusually deep interweaving of this symbol with the whole life of nature and society. This is evidenced by many monuments of Cretan archeology. The myth and cult of the double ax is a product of such consciousness, which is still colossally dependent on the objective world, is still as helpless as possible and therefore evaluates this objective life of nature and society as demonic, magical, so that even individual things, and even those made by human hand , are still filled with magical power, are totems, or at least just fetishes.
Secondly, the myth and cult of the double ax in the monuments of Cretan archeology have long reached their cosmic development. In myth and cult, the double ax is associated with the sky, and with the earth, and with the afterlife, and with inanimate objects, with inanimate nature and plants, with animals and man. He acts as some kind of universal force, embracing the world as a whole and in all its individual manifestations.
Thirdly, the cult of the double ax in Crete, in Asia Minor, and in the related areas of Greece is very indicative of primitive thinking, which usually combines opposites in its ideas. He is both destructive and creative. He is an inanimate object, and he also grows as a stem of plants. He kills the bull, because it sticks out in his forehead, and he also turns this bull into a deity that gives life to people. He is in the sky, and soars in the air, he is also an accessory of the ritual. Before us is a very expressive phenomenon of primitive, undifferentiated thinking, when one and the same object or one and the same name turns out to be infinitely diverse in its meaning, depending on the functioning in one or another area.
Fourthly, this double ax is a remarkable historical complex. The most diverse stages of social and mythological development are felt in it. This symbol has existed for several millennia, and its prevalence can only be compared with the spread of the symbol of the cross in later times. The fact that this is a production totem and a magical tool takes us back to the deepest antiquity, perhaps even to prenatal society.

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At the same time, the fact that it is an ax here, that is, processed metal, immediately pulls us out of this hoary antiquity and leads us into the era of the Bronze or Iron Age. This is a restoration in the Bronze Age of bygone times of undivided primitive magic, which by that time had largely ceased to play its former role.
Further, we have here a combination of the mythology of the Paleolithic and the Bronze Age, as well as matriarchy with patriarchy. On the one hand, it is a symbol of unbridled creative and destructive nature, and on the other hand, it suddenly appears in one hand of Zeus at the very time when he has a scepter in his other hand - this symbol of established patriarchal power, a royal attribute. The materials that have come down to us also show such Zeus, who, being associated with a double ax, contain signs of both sexes, that is, in a very vivid form they symbolize a transitional step between matriarchy and patriarchy. Finally, it is very easy to notice on the numerous Cretan double axes that have come down to us very late and subtle art, testifying to the later times of the communal-clan formation and early slavery and to that high stage of culture, which is incomparable not only with the Paleolithic period, but even with many periods of metal. For the historian-mythologist, the Cretan double ax is a complex of great historical complexity, and its mythology is very intricate.
Having indicated these necessary prerequisites for understanding the mythology of the Cretan double ax, we now present some factual materials based on the latest archaeological research.
b) The double ax in its mythological essence was a symbol of some supreme deity. So, on one gold ring found in Mycenae, there is an image of a female deity, similar to the Minoan Rhea, surrounded by women under the vault of heaven with the Sun, Moon and star and with two double axes connected together, hovering in the air. This is evidence, if not of the “heavenly” and supremeness of the double ax, then of its great significance. On a sarcophagus from Agia Triada (circa 1400 BC) we find images of a bull being sacrificed and some kind of pillar,

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crowned with a double ax with a bird on it. This is also an indication that here is a symbol of something towering above the ground. On the other side of the same sarcophagus is a procession of three women with vessels in the direction of two similar pillars with double axes and birds. Immediately depicted are men with animals and a lyre, going to the grave of a young man and performing the burial rite. Cook (II 521 ff.) believes that here is evidence of the myth of Heaven and Earth (depicted as two double axes) and of the periodic rebirth of Zeus in the form of the youth Zagreus. All these pillars look like pine trunks, and we can assume that here is an indication of the connection of a double ax with the plant world. On another sarcophagus there is a lily-shaped plant with three flowers, two of which have double hatchets instead of stamens, and in the third instead of a pistil there is a light column topped again with a double axe. The double ax, apparently, was somehow especially connected in representations with lilies: on the above-mentioned gold ring from Mycenae, lilies are also in the foreground. The image of the interlacing of double axes with lilies and bull's heads on vases was found in large numbers on the island of Pseira, northeast of Crete. There are images of an ax in the form of a lily blossoming between the horns of a bull; between two bull heads - axes in the form of lily petals; in addition, between the axes - olive shoots (on a vase dating back to 1500 - the first late Minoan period). Another vase was found on the island of Mochlos, which clearly expresses the connection of the handle of a double ax with a plant (of the same first Late Minoan period). There are several other similar finds in Crete.
Further, excavations in Crete found metal double hatchets on columns and pillars, as well as in ornaments on the same pillars. Evans also considers these images as a symbol of the supreme Cretan deity. It has been suggested that the combination of an ax and a wooden column (or stone pillar) is a symbol of the marriage of Heaven and Earth. At Knossos, Evans found in small ritual rooms two pairs of horns with holes, into which the handles of double axes had once been inserted; double axes remained right there, near these holes. Here they were found

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terracotta figurines of a bird-like goddess and priestesses. This sanctuary dates back to 1400-1200. BC e. They found double axes between the horns of a bull on agate plates. It can be assumed that in the indicated sanctuary the service of a double ax and a bull was performed. Axes with ritual horns have been found in excavations before. Such are the images on vases from Salamis, in Cyprus (in the British Museum), on lead plates with the characteristic addition of ivy on a bull's head, found in Olbia, finds in Panticapaeum (our Kerch), etc. Thus, this symbol was very widespread in Aegean world. The Minoan cult of horns and axes also existed in the Hellenic era, as is shown, for example, by the excavations at Tarentum.
Finally, on a gem, probably from the island of Melos (published by Cook, II 544), we find an image of a flying winged god with a double ax in his hand. Often the axes are carried by priests or gods. At Kato Zakro, a clay seal depicts a priestess carrying a sacred robe for the goddess and a double axe. In Palekastro, double axes were found with ornamentation depicting, among other things, a goddess with a double ax in each hand. Athena in Crete was also perceived close to Mother Earth and also carrying a double ax (coins from Oxyrhynchus of the era of Domitian, Trajan, Hadrian and Antoninus Pius). Athena with a double ax appears in the collection of St. Genevieve in Paris among Egyptian deities. Theseus on red-figure vases of the 6th c. BC e. depicted with a double ax (in the fight against Procrustes). In the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, on the western pediment, figures brandish double axes. To commemorate the liberation by Theseus of the road between Athens and Delphi from robbers, the Athenians sent a man carrying a double ax at the head of the embassy to Delphi. “And when the Athenians sent an embassy to Delphi, those who carried axes walked in front, as if for the cultivation [Blades conjecture] - the Earth” (Schol. Aesch. Eum. 13).
Many double axes were also found at Delphi. Archeology has generally found both in the East and in the West many figures carrying double axes. There were double axes and in the form of a bull.
The enormous religious and mythological significance of the double ax is indicated by those amazingly diverse

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nye materials from which images and all kinds of decorations were made.
Bronze, gold, agate, chrysolite, amber, bone double axes were found; they have rosettes, bead ornaments, various archaic figurines of women and heads of animals (rams, bulls). Minoan axes were sometimes decorated with some kind of diagonals and zigzags, in which researchers saw lightning, but which, presumably, have a much deeper ritual meaning here. There were flowers on the axes, butterflies with round eyes, antennae, wings, concentric circles, heads of swans and ducks. The axes themselves, in their form, sometimes resemble the figure of a man, then a bull, then a butterfly, or the shape of a gong. There was a trend towards doubling double axes - perhaps to symbolize the masculine Heaven and the feminine Earth. In Palekastro, two double axes were found, even with a large number of blades. The pottery is also in some places decorated with double axes.
c) Thus, we see that the myth and cult of the double ax in Crete (and in those areas where there was influence of Crete) decisively penetrated all being, inanimate matter, plant, animal and human world. At first, in the ancient, bronze, era, this Cretan double ax was probably not distinguished from Kronos. This deity was conceived in a marital relationship with the great Minoan goddess, and this latter is an analogue of the Greek Rhea (Kronos is the husband of Rhea). The historians Istres and Xenions speak of the sacrifices of children to Kronos and that the Kuretes fled from him in the Cave of Ideas. In the myth, Kronos swallows his children. The etymology of his name may be related to ceirö - "kill", "devour" - and indicates a "cutter". The very epithet of Kronos - ap-cylometis - perhaps should be understood not figuratively: "cunning", "crooked", but literally: "with a crooked knife." All this would point to the human-devouring (and generally life-devouring) nature of the ancient Cretan Kronos, who is nothing but Labrys - this terrible double axe.
Subsequently, with the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age, the myth of Kronos took the form of the myth of Zeus. This Zeus more fully embodied the periodic return of life instead of absorbing it in the myth of Kronos.

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All this ancient mythology of the double ax passed to this Zeus, which then, of course, gave way to higher mythological constructions.
d) In the present study, there is no need to touch upon the non-antique parallels of the myth of the double axe. It is only necessary to emphasize that this myth was widespread in all the countries surrounding Greece - in Lydia, Caria, Phrygia, and throughout Asia Minor, as can be seen from the large number of various kinds of monuments cited by Cook (II 559-599) in the chapter on Zeus Labrand. This myth and symbol is found in the origins of myths about such deities as Demeter, Apollo, Dionysus, Poseidon. But especially this myth and cult is associated with the so-called Zeus Labrand. Zeus under this name (as Cook says) went around the whole world, especially this cult flourished in Caria, in the town of Labranda, near Milas, where the corresponding temple, sacred road and various cult objects were found and described. This Zeus from Labranda is also interesting for its chthonic features: the militant Carians associated him with the war and called him Stratius, Warrior, and Aelian (De nat. an. XII 30) derives the very name Labrandeus from "stormy rain" (hysas labröi), meaning the raininess of this area and reflecting one of the widespread views of Zeus as inseminating moisture. In addition, one of the reliefs found in Milas depicts a beardless Zeus with some kind of bonnet (calathos) on his head, with a necklace around his neck, with a double ax in one hand and with a scepter in the other, with four rows of female breasts and legs , tied with mesh attire. In Arcadia, in Tegea, near the temple of Athena Alea, marble was found with a different relief: a bearded Zeus in a tunic and himation, with a double ax in his right hand and with a spear in his left, with a necklace; from under the chiton, six bulges are visible, resembling a female breast; on the sides are the figures of the Carian king and queen, brother and sister of the famous Carian king Mausolus. How this monument came to Tegea is unknown. But the engraved inscription: "Zeus", and everything else clearly speaks of the Carian "double-edged" Zeus, who expressed the fullness of the chthonic perception of life, the synthesis of the forces of generation and destruction. These two remarkable reliefs (Kuk II 592 et seq.) perfectly depict the true chthonic essence of the ancient

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th myth and the cult of the double axe. Here - the transition from matriarchy to patriarchy. The same images of Zeus Stratius with a beard and with a female breast were found in many other places, as, for example, in Cappadocia. Zeus, depicted in Labrand, is closer to his Greek images. In general, all these Zeus of Labrand, Zeus Stratii, Zeus-half-men, half-women clearly testify that the myth of the double ax spoke of the internally creative animal-producing forces of nature.
e) It is necessary to say about Labrys - a double ax in connection with the Cretan labyrinth. For the first time in 1892, M. Mayer suggested the etymological relationship of these names, believing that the famous Cretan Labyrinth is the “place of the double axe”. Later, Kretschmer joined this. Cook also says that the Cretan Labyrinth is the same as the Carian Labranda. There is no doubt that it was the Labyrinth that was considered the main seat of Zeus in the form of a double ax, Zeus-Labrys. The Minotaur himself, half-man, half-bull, the only inhabitant of the Labyrinth, is Zeus, or some form of him.
The widest prevalence of the myth of the double ax is indicated by its penetration even into the realm of Christian and semi-Christian legend. It can be considered established that the famous monogram of Christ, i.e., the Labarum, which Emperor Constantine had on his banners, is nothing more than the same emblem of a double ax that has gone through a very long evolution. Archaeologists give one ritual diagram, consisting of two pairs of concentric circles with the names: "father" and "son" on the left pair and with yellow and blue paint on the right pair, with a double ax between both pairs of circles. The double ax is also an attribute of the Roman Jupiter Ferentius.
The wonderful image of a double ax has not yet found a real disclosure in the scientific and mythological literature. This disclosure is also not included in our task. We restrict ourselves here to only some illustration of the very fact of the widespread distribution of this myth at all stages of the development of the mythology of Crete and its neighboring regions. Unfortunately, the myth of the double ax can only be illustrated by memory

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nicknames of the fine arts, and not literary works, which could hardly have been at such an early stage of human culture. However, we managed to find one very late monument (No. 10 a), not earlier than the 5th century. n. e., which is a magically medical compilation of a certain gnostic (gnosticism is a pagan processing of Christian mythology) and containing, among other things, a hymn to a vine connected to a double ax. Here we have, however, a later mystical restoration of the ancient myth of the double ax, but in it it is not difficult to see the cosmic severe contours of this forgotten, but once universal symbol.
Another such late monument of the myth of the ax (but of third-rate importance) may be a small poem by Simmias of Rhodes (No. 10 b) - the product of later artificial formalism.
2. Mythology of plants, animals and heroic mythology.
a) In Crete, there is no shortage of purely vegetable symbols (without a double ax), meaning the supreme deity. So, monuments were found that depict a kind of “world tree”, which cannot be understood as a symbol of the supreme deity.
However, Crete is a classic country of "animal" mythology, the cult of animals, especially the bull. It is characteristic that the double ax, as we have seen above, is often found here, by the way, in conjunction with the cult of the bull. Such, for example, are the numerous images of a bull's head with a double ax stuck in it that have come down to us. This symbol is also difficult to unravel, but one idea appears here quite clearly - this is the idea of ​​identifying the deity to whom the sacrifice is made, and the sacrifice itself (i.e., the deity here is at the same time the victim). In the form of a bull, Zeus kidnaps the Phoenician princess Europa and delivers her to Crete, where near Gortyn, under a plane tree, he marries her, from where - the famous sons: Minos, who reigned in Crete, and Rhadamanthus, the famous judge in the kingdom of the dead, to whom the legend later added Sarpedon, the king of Lycia. When Minos asks Poseidon to confirm his divine origin, a magnificent bull comes to Minos from the sea as a sign of this,

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and since Minos refuses to sacrifice him, as required, then, as punishment for this, Minos' wife Pasiphae falls in love with this bull. From this marriage, the famous monster Minotaur is born, that is, a man, again, with a bull's head. But these Cretan myths must be considered in an essay dedicated specifically to Cretan heroes. And we do not elaborate on them here. Consideration of the numerous images of a bull belongs to the field of archeology of Crete.
b) The Cretan myths also say that in Crete we have a completely finished anthropomorphic idea of ​​Zeus, undoubtedly associated already with the emergence and development of patriarchy. This includes, first of all, the whole mythology of the birth, upbringing and death of Zeus. Zeus is born as a human baby; and if there was his grave, then, obviously, he dies here, too, in the form of a man (above, p. 127).
Finally, in Crete, the mythology of citizenship, statehood, and legality is associated with Zeus. The most royal power, characteristic of the late heroic age (and not of matriarchy), was associated precisely with the Cretan Zeus and his son, King Minos. Scepter of Minos - Zeus scepter; to them he does justice and the administration of the great lands.
In modern science, it has been established that already in the II millennium BC. e. in Crete, an early slave-owning society of a primitive type was born in the manner of the early Eastern monarchies I.
c) Mythology in Crete also entered the heroic period in its development. The mythical characters of Crete, over the course of their centuries-old history, were freed from gross fetishism and direct demonism, received anthropomorphic development and already became a foreshadowing of a truly Greek, already quite plastic mythology. This can be seen in the images of Zeus and Europa and their sons - Minos, Rada-manta and Sarpedon.
The millennial culture of Crete reflected all stages of matriarchy, patriarchy and early slave society. In mythology, the multi-temporal pro-

1 Struve V. V. The social system of ancient Crete // Bulletin of ancient history. 1950. No. 4. S. 43 ff.

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the emanation of its various elements is very palpable. Being in Crete essentially (i.e., in connection with the Mother Goddess) purely chthonic, the image of Zeus undoubtedly absorbed various Asia Minor myths and cults related to Attis, Cybele and, in general, to the Great Mother.
Minos, for example, is the real king of the heroic age (according to Hesiod, "the most regal of mortal kings", No. 12h), and he is not only completely anthropomorphic, but even is in many respects a completely historical person, despite his chthonic and demonic origin. . This mixture of demonism and anthropomorphism is beautifully depicted in the famous myth of Minos receiving his laws every nine years directly from his father Zeus (No. 12 b). Apparently, this myth already exists in Homer (No. 12 a), if the word enneöros in Odyssey XIX 179 is understood as “every nine years”, when Minos received instructions and laws from Zeus. Diodorus (No. 12 d) and Strabo (No. 12 c) speak not only of the ascent of Minos to Zeus to receive the laws, but also of their conversations in a certain cave, by which, of course, one must understand the Cave of Ideas. Other ancient interpreters understood the Homeric reference to “nine years” either in the sense that Minos began to reign for nine years, or that he was brought up by Zeus for nine years, or that he reigned for nine years (Schol. Od. XIX 179, Apollon. Lex. Hom. 68, 12; Etym. M. 343, 21). Zeus, giving instructions to Minos for his humane and progressive legislation, as well as Zeus, making Rhadamanth, famous for his justice, a judge in the underworld, this Zeus, obviously, went far beyond the anarchic mythology of the old matriarchal chthonism and demonism, which is why all the raptures before Minos and his reign in later restoration literature.
3. Space mythology. a) Supporters of the solar-meteorological theory used every slightest allusion to the solar-lunar elements in the mythology of the Cretan Zeus. However, the religious and mythological facts of Crete that have come down to us strongly speak against this theory, and especially those that must be considered the most ancient. The whole social practice of primitive society with its naked and wild chaos of animals

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instincts, with its slightly divided and confused consciousness, with its insignificant rationalization of labor and social relations - all this is transferred to the objective world, and everything that exists is considered from this angle. The earth here is not just the earth, and the sky here is not just the sky, but these are two living beings united in the same primitive and spontaneously wild tribal community, which was then the real tribal communities. Cretan mythology begins with a fetishism of purely animal bio-social instincts; and if it comes to the worship of the earth as a whole, or the sky as a whole, then this does not occur at the beginning, but at the end of the mythological process. Heaven and earth are conceived exclusively in the form of a primitive maternal tribal community, very far from their purely visual or astronomical significance.
b) We have already mentioned Zeus Velchane, who can be considered the deity of light, fire, dawn (and maybe spring). Symbols of the Sun, Moon and stars are found quite often in Crete in the monuments associated with Zeus. Zeus was identified with the day (No. 13 in); on the site of the marriage of Zeus and Europe, the herds of the Sun graze (No. 13 s). There is information about the representation of Zeus at the same time as the sky and the underworld. Euripides (frg. 212, 1-8) writes (prose translation):
“To you, the ruler of everything, I bring a libation and sacrificial bread, Zeus, or Hades, if you like to be called that. You accept from me a fireless sacrifice, abundant in fruits and poured out from a full cup. After all, among the heavenly gods you took into your hands the scepter of Zeus, and over the underground you are involved in power along with Hades.
That Zeus is theriomorphically associated with the Sun in the form of an animal, we know from other sources. So, in other places we will meet with Zeus the ram. In Crete, however, we find, as a common symbol, Zeus the Bull, who is at the same time the Sun (No. 13 a). A wonderful analogy for this is, of course, Egyptian mythology. That Zeus is the bull-Sun can already be seen from such a comparison: in Apollodorus (Apollod. I 9, 26) Talos (a copper giant) is called a "taurus", that is, a bull (No. 15 b), and in Hesychius (No. 15 a) Talos - the Sun. Therefore, since Talos is the hypostasis of Zeus, we can conclude that Zeus here is a bull and the Sun at the same time

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exactly. In the form of a bull, the Sun, according to the Cretans, indicates to people the place of residence (No. 13 a). There is a well-known analogy to this: a cow that pointed the way to Cadmus in Boeotia, as well as to the Trojan king Il the place for the foundation of Troy. Pausanias (IX 12.1) states that the cow Cadmus, also known as Europa, had a white spot representing the Moon. The killing of a plowing bull was considered a great crime in Phrygia and elsewhere and was punishable by death (No. 13 a). It is characteristic that the first who killed the bull was Prometheus (No. 13 a). There are materials indicating the connection of the bull with the sky and the stars. So, the bull that brought Europa to Crete was raised by Zeus to the sky in the form of a constellation (No. 13 d).
c) Further, not only Zeus himself, but also his entourage often bears the features of one or another of their relationship to the sky. The dog assigned by Zeus as a guard to Europa was subsequently ascended to heaven in the form of a constellation (No. 13 e). Associated with the sky: the hypostasis of the Cretan Zeus - the Minotaur, the Cretan wife of Zeus - Europe, the heroic hypostases of Zeus - Asterius and Talos. These features can be correctly understood only in connection with an absolutely chthonic interpretation of their roots.
On the coins of Knossos, the Labyrinth is depicted not only with the Minotaur, but also with the Sun or with a star. The mimic dances at Knossos are an image of the Labyrinth, and the Labyrinth itself was largely understood as an image of the movements of the heavenly bodies. The inhabitant of the Labyrinth, the Minotaur, bore the name of Asterius of the Stars (No. 14 g). Plutarch (Agis. 9) speaks of the cult of the wife of King Minos Pasiphae on the border of Messenia and Laconica, and Pausanias (III 26, 1) found statues of Pasiphae and Helios - the Sun there and understood Pasiphae not as a local deity, but as Selene - the Moon. It can be assumed that Zeus pursues Europe in the form of a solar bull, and Britomartis (Cretan Artemis) plunges into the sea in the form of the Moon, avoiding Minos the Sun. At Knossos there were ritual dances depicting the marriage of Zeus and Hera, not only in the form of a bull and a cow, but also in the form of the Sun and the Moon. In the same place (Diod. V 72) they imprisoned the queen of Knossos in a wooden cow to symbolize her marriage to the bull - the Sun. A similar custom is known in Egypt (Herod. II 129), where such a wooden cow was carried out into the light of the sun. Silver coins have been found at Mycenae.

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heads of cows with golden horns and a golden rosette between the horns, symbolizing the Sun and its rays.
The Minotaur, the son of a solar bull and a moon princess, bore the name of Asterius of the Stars. Europa and Britomartis Diktinna, beloved by Minos, were associated with the Moon in the views of the ancients. Here you can see the influence of Phoenicia.
The mother of Europe Telephassa bore the epithets "broad-luminous" 6 * or Argiope - "wide-eyed" (Hyg. Fab. 6, 178, 179). Both are possibly epithets for the Moon. Europe (Europe) was compared (Rocher) with Eyryphaessa, Selena's mother. Selena, by the way, also rides like Europe on bulls. The environment of Zeus is close not only to the sky, but also to the earth, to its vegetative functions. Thus, Europe is close to the earth through her husband, Zeus of the Dodon, who was represented in the form of an oak. Hence, Europe is essentially the same earth, Mother Earth, the corresponding Cretan equivalent of the Greek Mother Earth. This is in harmony with the fact that Zeus is the sky here. Europe, in connection with its proximity to the earth, also has a purely vegetative significance. On one white kilik (goblet) of the Aegina temple of Athena, Europe sits on the back of a bull, holds on to the horn with one hand and holds a flower in the other hand, which researchers consider a symbol of fertility. Another vegetative symbolism is also associated with Europe: her marriage to Zeus under a green plane tree, her image (on coins) sitting on a willow; Helike-Iva was the nurse of Zeus on Ida. Greek artists depict Europa (red-figure amphoras) on a bull with baskets woven from willow. Quite a lot of coins have been found, on which there is an image of Europa-Willow.
Hera (wife of Zeus) is also close to Earth. She bore the name of Europe and (Hesych. - Europia-Hera) at a certain stage was little different from her. This is evidenced by the image on one coin of Europa sitting on a willow, with a wreath on her head and with a scepter ending in a cuckoo (attributes of Hera). Characteristically, on the other side of this coin is depicted a bull followed by a gadfly (perhaps the same one that pursued Io and which, as Cook (I 532) says, is "an emanation of Zeus himself"). In Gortyn there was a feast of Titira in honor of the marriage of Zeus-heaven with Europa-Earth.

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All these data (their number could easily be increased) undoubtedly point to the fact that the Cretan Zeus himself, and Europa, Minos, Pasiphae, the Minotaur, the Labyrinth, in the process of myth development received cosmic significance (cf. also the identification of Zeus with in the afternoon at No. 13 b).
4. Cretan polysynthetism. Asterius. In conclusion, consideration of the main aspects of the Cretan mythology of Zeus, it is necessary to note one more, which is distinguished by its synthesis and the combination of heterogeneous and logically poorly combined elements. These are the myths about Asteria and Talos. Here we have the stage of the most real anthropomorphism, which in these myths also assumes ancient teratomorphic forms, but in their content these are purely human stories. At the same time, these myths include the former chthonic elements, growing here to heavenly, solar-stellar mythology.
The name Asterius (sources write either Asterios or Asterion) is primarily associated with Zeus himself. It is Zeus Asterius, i.e. Starry Zeus (No. 14 a), that appears in Crete as the father of Minos and the spouse of Europe. However, the legend makes the mortal husband of Europe (after Zeus) also Asterius, who here is already the son of Tactam, the grandson of Dor (this Dor, the mythical ancestor of the Dorians, according to Diodorus (No. 31), invaded Crete along with the Pelasgians and Aeolians). There are repeated references to Asteria in Nonna's poem about Dionysus (No. 14 e, f). Apollodorus (III 1, 2, No. 14 a), referring to the historian Asclepiades, reports that Asterius had a daughter, Krita, and this Krita was the wife of Minos (instead of Pasiphae). He either has sons, Miletus and Cadmus, or is childless (Apollod. III 3, 1, No. 14 a). According to Nonnus (XIII 222 ff., XL 285 ff.), he leads the Cretan army on Dionysus' campaign in India, and is wounded there. In Lycophron (14 d) he is interpreted as the son of the Minos commander Taurus.
If we combine all these scattered materials about Asterius into one whole, it will become quite clear that here we are dealing with some kind of heroic hypostasis of Zeus, which has reached not only complete anthropomorphism, but even oblivion of any of its divine origins, so about the identity of the corresponding hero with Zeus says only his name - Starry.

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5. Talos. a) We find the same interesting conglomeration of mythological forms of different times in the Cretan legends about Talos. In Crete, Zeus of Talea was also known (No. 15 a). Hesychius (No. 15 a) directly interprets: "Taley is Zeus in Crete." The Cretan inscriptions say the same. The inhabitants of Dreros, a city in eastern Crete, worshiped various deities, including Zeus-Thaleus and Helios (inscriptions). In the city of Olus there was a sanctuary for Zeus-Taley. Perhaps he was also worshiped on Ida, since at its foot an inscription was found indicating a connection with the Taley peak, where Zeus was also revered. In Laconica, the highest point of Taygetos was called Thaleton and was dedicated to the Sun with a sacrifice of horses (Paus. III 20, 4). There is a Laconian inscription: "To Zeus Taletitus, Auxesia and Damoya"; the last two are the goddesses of fertility, and Zeus (the motif of fertility) was combined with them. In this regard, Usener brings the name of Talos closer to the Greek verb thallö - "flower". Such an etymology is possible. Zeus was revered in Crete, therefore, under the name of Thaleus or Taleian. It was one of the many images of the general Cretan chthonic Zeus (his chthonicism may be indicated by a stalactite cave on the northern spur of Ida, known by the same name). This is some kind of chthonic demon, perhaps brought from the East, like the Zeus wife of Europe, terrible and bloodthirsty, demanding human sacrifices for himself and representing the identification of a fertile and deadly principle typical of early chthonicism. To this it is necessary to add also the vague reference of the sources to the bovine nature of Talos (No. 15 b), as well as some undoubted, but in their meaning obscure bird (No. 17 g) and snake (No. 17 b) rudiments in this image. This Talos, like Zeus in general, reaches the cosmic completion of chthonicism and is even interpreted as the Sun (No. 15 a), while at the same time preserving rudiments from the animal world.
b) But on the other hand, it turns out that Talos is not at all an elemental-demonic principle, but a kind of hero, though close to the image of a monster, a giant (No. 15 c) or a giant. One of the options (No. 15 b) says that he still belongs to the copper generation of people, thus being copper and alive at the same time.

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just like the dog with whom he was assigned by Zeus to Europe and its cave after the marriage of Zeus with Europe. At the stage of anthropomorphism, the myth of Talos began to evolve rapidly in the direction of giving it purely human and, above all, semi-divine features. There was a message (No. 15 d) that he was the father of Hephaestus himself (Malten, however, believes that instead of "Hephaestus" in this text one should read "Festus", so here we are talking about Talos as the father of Festus, the eponym of the founded them of the city), or that Talos is the brother of Minos and Rhadamanthus (No. 15 f), i.e. son of Zeus. In the future, this semi-divine anthropomorphism turns into real heroism. There is also one (very dubious) text about Talos as the son of the sea goddess Eurynome and Adonis (Serv. Verg. Ecl. Χ 18).
On coins from Phaistos (4th century BC), Talos is depicted as a winged man with a stone in his hands, and on the reverse side of the coin - an angry bull, on other coins on the reverse side - a hound. These coins can be compared with those of Knossos, where the Minotaur (also one of the incarnations of the Cretan Zeus) is also depicted with a huge stone in his hand. Sometimes these stones are understood as stars or the Sun. Myths tell that Talos becomes an assistant to Minos, that Talos was made by the celestial artist Hephaestus and presented him to Minos (No. 15 b, etc.). He guards Minos not only in Crete, but also in Sardinia, where he destroys his opponents either with fire or by pressing them to his chest (No. 16 b, c, U g).
c) An interesting detail is the indication of some sources that the people killed by Talos laughed with a special laugh, which was called "sardonic" or, as the sources write, "Sardanian". Detailed explanations about this laughter are given by the Platonic scholiast and Svidus (No. 16 b, c) with references to the historians Timaeus, Demon, Cleitarchus and Tarreus, as well as to the famous poet Simonides.
The ancient researchers, and from the modern Welkers, derive the name "sardonios" from the Greek verb sairö, indicating a laugh with twisted lips, which does not correspond to the inner mood of a person. Other ancient authors derived this name from the island of Sardinia, where there was supposedly a special kind of plant,

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causing convulsions and laughter in people as a result of poisoning. Actually, these involuntary convulsions on the face gave the impression of laughter. Along with this, a number of sources interpret "Sardanian" laughter as sarcastic, malicious, ironic (materials on this laughter are given in our article under No. 16). The connection of this sardonic laughter with the myth of Talos is apparently spoken of by the Homeric scholiast (No. 16a). Interesting materials are provided in the study of L. Merklin (Merklin L. D. Talossage u. d. sardonische Lachen. Memoires de l "academie des sciences de St. Petersburg, Memoires des savants etrangers. 1854. VII. P. 74). "Sardanian" laughter was a saying, like as in ancient times they spoke of Ionian, Chios and Tirynthian laughter.There is still no complete explanation of the essence of Sardanian laughter in connection with the myth of Talos.
d) The purely heroic elaboration of the myth of Talos also includes one silent mention (No. 15 e) of him as the son of Oenopion (and Oenopion is the son of Dionysus and the founder of winemaking) in connection with the spread of the grape culture (cf. FHG II 50, frg. 13). This should also include reports from some sources about the love of Talos for Rhadamanthus (No. 15) and about some son of Talos Leucus.
Perhaps a further step in the development of the anthropomorphism of the Talos myth is a well-known very strange indication. Namely, in one myth it is said about the only vein in the body of Talos, which went from the neck to the heels and ended in a copper nail. This may be, according to Blumner, an indication of the well-known technique of hollow casting (Blummner. Technol. u. Terminol. d. Gew. 1877. IV 285, 325), that is, it is a certain reflection of a certain stage of the metalworking industry. In a statue made of clay and covered with wax, a hole was made in the heel for the subsequent flow of wax and clay from the statue, replaced by molten copper. Pulling the nail out of the end of the vein could also mean the outflow of blood, i.e. the death of Talos.
On the other hand, Simonides (frg. 202 A), according to Photius (Phot. Lex. II 146-147), says that “Talos made by Hephaestus, being copper and jumping into the fire, destroyed the Sardinians who did not want to go over to Minos, moreover, he pressed them to his chest, and they grinned

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poured." This incomprehensible jump of Talos into the fire, about which Simonides speaks so unintelligibly also in another place (No. 16 c), may be nothing else than the immersion of the statue, previously made of clay and wax, into a fiery pit to separate and replace the latter. copper. Simonides may be referring to the moment when Talos was first shaped as a finished copper statue. Other sources explain this leap of Talos into the fire by his desire to become red-hot in order to better deal with his enemies.
e) Finally, the anthropomorphism of the mythology of Talos reflects the development of technology in the Athenian development of this myth.
The Athenian myth of Talos emphasizes his invention. He is the inventor of the compass, saw and potter's wheel (No. 17 a, b, d, g). In Crete, the potter's wheel appeared in the second early Minoan period. It is first mentioned in the Iliad (XVIII 600). Perhaps the invention of the potter's wheel was somehow associated with the solarity of Talos, and this circle itself, perhaps, is a reflection of the concept of the solar disk. What Servius calls the Circinus of Talos himself (No. 17 f) is also very characteristic. Further, the saw invented by Talos is considered by Roman authors (No. 17 d, f, g) to be a copy of a fish spine, and the Greeks - a copy of a snake's jaw (No. 17 a, b). Among the Athenians, Talos is somehow associated with a snake. In the myth of Diodorus (No. 17 b), Daedalus throws his relative into the pit, saying that he is falling asleep (catachönnymi), burying the snake. The meaning of a similar verb (sa-tachöneyö) may indicate that he is pouring molten metal into the shape of a snake. Moreover, this "snake" or this "boy", Daedalus' rival in trade, is none other than Talos (No. 17 a-g). The Pompeian wall painting depicts Daedalus and the dying Talos (explained by Pauly-Wissow "a IV 2006). The connection of Talos with the snake is also confirmed by its name Kalos; calos is in Greek "rope"; it is the snake that is allegorically called a rope in northern India ( Frazer). Latin authors say, in addition, that the boy thrown by Daedalus was still in the air turned into a partridge (No. 17 g). Talos (cf. Lact. Plac. VIII 3) is often called Perdix (perdix - "partridge") (No. 17 d-f).According to Apollo-

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lodor (No. 17 a and Epit. III 15, 9), the mother of Talos is Perdika, and in Svida (Suid. Perdicos hieron) Perdika is the mother of Kalos. On the way from the theater to the Acropolis was the tomb of Talos, or Kalos (No. 17 k). Pausanias writes about this (I 21, 4). Probably, there was both a grave and a sanctuary:
“If you walk along the Athenian streets from the theater to the Acropolis, then you meet the grave of Kalos. This Kalos, the son of his sister and his student in art, was killed by Daedalus and therefore had to flee to Crete ... "
The myth of Talos, turned by Athena into a partridge, was already very popular in Periclean Athens. When, during the construction of the Acropolis, one slave fell from the building, Athena, who appeared to Pericles in a dream, advised him to treat him with "partridge grass", after which the slave recovered and his statue was cast (Plut. Pericl. 13 and Plin. Nat. hist. XXII 43 and XXIV 81). On the connection between this grass and Talos, turned into a partridge, we will find in Ovid (Met. VIII 236, No. 17 g). Perhaps this connection should be understood in the sense that partridges are fertile and dedicated to Aphrodite (and Talos is also associated with the fertility-bringing Sun).
Thus, the Athenian myths about Talos make him not only a man, but also a talented artist, the inventor of a number of important tools and devices, and even a rival of Daedalus. All of Greece considered the latter the inventor of all fine arts and art industry in general. This is already an extreme development of anthropomorphism, far beyond the limits of mythology. Here is the history of real human technology. Along with this, it should be noted that even at this stage the myth of Talos still continued to retain its former chthonic features, somehow linking Talos now with the mythology of the snake, now with the mythology of birds.
However, the inventive activity of Talos, reflected in some myths, does not find confirmation in other sources. Critias (Athen. I 28) speaks of the first appearance of pottery among the Athenians without any mention of Talos. Pliny (Plin. Nat. hist. VII 198) and the scholiast to Pindar (Schol. Pind. Ol. XIII 27) attribute the invention of the potter's wheel to Hyperbius of Corinth or Anacharsis of Scythia (Plin. Ibid., Diog. L. I 105, and Suid. Anacharsis).

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Finally, the myths spoke about the death of Talos. Using (partially) Cook's material, four variants can be distinguished here. According to one version (No. 18), after the arrival of the Argonauts in Crete, Medea brought madness to Talos; according to another (No. 15 b), she, having promised him immortality, removed from him that copper nail that closed his only vein; according to the third (No. 15 b), the famous archer Peant hit him in the heel with an arrow (cf. Agafargid, Geogr. Gr. Min. I 115, ar. Phot. 443b, 24: “He kept his animate life in the heel”); according to the fourth option (No. 18), after the arrival of the Argonauts to Crete, Talos himself hit a sharp stone with his heel. Furtwängler (Furtwängler - Reichhold. Griech. Vasenmalerei. I 196-203. Pls. 38-39) has an interesting and richly developed picture of the death of Talos in connection with the arrival of the Argonauts in Crete. Here Pollux jumps off his horse, holds Talos by his right hand, and grabs his left under the armpits; Castor on horseback blocks Talos's path; Medea is holding a basket of herbs nearby. Despite the abundance of variants of the story about the death of Talos, there is a lot of obscurity in these myths (it is not clear how Medea poisoned Talos, where did his copper power go, where and in what place did his death occur - on the ship, on the shore or on the water, etc.) . The only lengthy story about the death of Talos is found in Apollonius of Rhodes (No. 18). This myth of the death of Talos has historical significance: it points to the end of the old mythology of chthonic monsters and giants.
The myth of Talos in its historical development, taking into account all the small variants, gives a vivid picture of the thousand-year evolution of the Cretan mythology of Zeus from gross material and animal chthonicism to heroic and plastic forms, moreover, with a transition to the field of the history of human technology and art.

Texts for Section III (No. 10-18)

Double ax - the oldest symbol of the Cretan Zeus

10. a) Kyramides. Mely F. de. Comptes rendus des inscriptions et belles-lettres. Par., 1904. 340ff. (The double ax in the hymn to the vine in a 5th-century CE Gnostic magical-medical compilation, poorly preserved and subject to varying interpretations.)
White grapes have both other cosmic energies and the most gracious in the sense that people not only remain sober in drinking, but also have a joyful mood of spirit. Still

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thus says Kiran. However, starting from this point, there is a disagreement between the two authors. Namely, Harpokration says as follows: “O blessed plant, leader of the gods, ruling over the earth, sky and air, resolving the mind with vine-bearing lust so as to free every song, creating sleep, a certain healer not in word, but in body, [perhaps , instead of sömati it is necessary to read pömati - by drinking]! No one will be able to resist you, but you expose that which in the souls of mortals secretly possesses mysterious thoughts, containing an inexpressible vineyard [text doubtful]. You can all reveal what comes only from writing or [a special kind of] drugs, or what is hidden under a knife or an ax.
(Cook - II 613, 1 - understands here the hidden meaning of a knife or a double ax.)
b) Anthol. Pal. XV 22 (the poem by Simmias of Rhodes "The Ax" was written in honor of the ax with which the Phocian Epey built the famous wooden horse near Troy. He depicts the figure of a double ax by a combination of his lines; read in the order of numbers placed on the left, it takes the form of a simple ax).

1. The courageous goddess Athena built a Phocian as a gift
in gratitude for her powerful wisdom,
3. Then, when he threw the holy city to dust with the help of
fire-breathing Kera,
5. Not being among the advanced Achaean fighters,
7. Now I have embarked on the path of Homer,
9. Thrice blessed, whom you soul -
11. He is happy
12. Always breathes -
10. Merciful, you surround on all sides
8. When by grace, pure multi-counseled Pallas.
6. But from pure springs he brought them moisture, inglorious,
4. He overthrew from the throne the leaders of the Dardanians weighed down with gold,
2. Epeus brought an ax that once destroyed the height of God-consciousness
tower data.

Bull - the oldest symbol of the Cretan Zeus

11.PLG. carm. Popul. 5, Ivan. (the ritual song of the Elean women to Dionysus the bull, an echo of the ancient mythology of Zeus the bull).

Hero Dionysus, come to us
To the temple with the Charites
On the Elean pure
Altar!
Ride a fierce bull to us,
The bull is worthy!
The bull is worthy!

Zeus - the bestower of laws to the Cretan king Minos

12. a) Hom. Od. XIX 178, Veres. (about the descent of Minos into the cave to Zeus to receive laws - evidence of the connection of the Cretan Zeus with human legislation).

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Knossos is among all the cities the greatest in Crete. The wise Minos, the interlocutor of Zeus, reigned in it for nine years.
b) Plat. Legg. I 624b-625d, Yegun.
Athenian. Do you really say, according to Homer, that Minos went every nine years to talk to his father and, in accordance with his revelations, established laws for your states?
c) Strab. XVI 2, 38, Mishch.
As Plato says, Minos entered the cave of Zeus every nine years, received orders there, which he brought to people. Wed X 4, 19.
d) diode. V 78, 3.
Minos gave the Cretans a lot of laws, pretending that he received them from his father Zeus, meeting with him for conversations in some cave.
e) Dion. hai. Ant. Rom. II 61 (the descent of Minos into the Dictean cave).
Minos said that in this he became the interlocutor of Zeus, ascending the Dicteian mountain, on which, according to the myths of the Cretans, Zeus was, while still a newborn, brought up by the Curetes. Visiting this sacred cave, Minos drew up laws and delivered them to the people. Those laws that he announced, he received from Zeus.
f) pause. III 2, 4, Condr.
The Cretans, on the other hand, believe that these laws were established for them by Minos and that Minos thought about these laws not without the participation of God. It seems to me that Homer also alludes to such legislation by Minos in the following verses of the Odyssey XIX 178, [cf. No. 12 a[.
g) Vat. Max. 12.
Minos, the king of Crete, used to retire every ninth year to some ancient cave sanctified by the ancient religion, and stayed in it to ask for the laws transmitted to him from Jupiter, from whom he led his origin.
h) Ps.-Plat. Min. 319b - 321b, Carp.
So about Minos, as Homer and Hesiod praise him, I will tell you so that you, being a man and from a man, do not sin with a word against the hero, the son of Zeus. Homer, speaking of Crete, that there are many people and ninety cities, adds, [Od. XIX 178 ff.]:
They have such a populous city Knossos, where Minos was every ninth year - the interlocutor of the great Zeus.
This praise of Homer to Minos, for all its brevity, is such as Homer did not express to any hero. That Zeus is a sophist and that this art is beautiful is evident both from many other places and from here. Here it is said that every ninth year Minos had verbal conversations with Zeus and went to study with him, as if Zeus were really a sophist. What advantage is it to be a disciple of Zeus - Homer does not give any of the heroes except Minos - this is the extraordinary praise of Minos. Yes, and in the Odyssey, he depicts not Rhadamanth, but Minos sitting and holding a golden rod. Of Rhadamantes, neither here nor elsewhere is it said that he judged or communicated with Zeus. That is why I say that Homer glorifies Minos more than anyone else, for there cannot be more glory than, being the son of Zeus, to learn from Zeus alone ...
In Crete, among the laws decreed by Minos, there is one such: not to drink with each other to the point of intoxication. But it is clear that Mi-

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the nose legitimized for its citizens what he himself considered good, for, probably, he could not, like insignificant people, believe one thing, and do another, contrary to his opinion. So this communication with Zeus, as I say, was a verbal instruction in virtue. That is why he gave his citizens such laws, according to which Crete prospers all the time, and then Lacedaemon also prospers - from the time he began to use those laws that have the power of divine. And Rhadamanthus, although he was also a valiant man, because he was brought up by Minos, however, he did not study all the royal art, but only one part of it, how to dispose of in the courts. That is why a good judge came out of him. And Minos used him as the guardian of the laws in his capital, and Talos used him as their guardian throughout Crete; so that Talos traveled all the villages three times a year and guarded the laws in them, which he carried inscribed on copper boards, which is why he was called copper.
Close to this said about Minos and Hesiod; mentioning his name, he says:
He was the most regal of all mortal rulers
And he owned most of the people living around.
With the Zeus scepter in his hands, he reigns over the cities.
Friend. Why, Socrates, did this rumor spread about Minos as an uneducated and heavy man?
Abbr. But why should you, most venerable one, if you are prudent, and anyone else who cares about preserving his good name, be careful not to arouse hostile feelings in any of the poets? After all, poets have a strong influence on the general Opinion about people - in one direction or another, when they praise them, they blame them. And in this regard, Minos sinned, deciding to fight with our city, where there is a lot of other wisdom, as well as various poets of every kind and in tragedy. Tragedy here is ancient, and began not only, as they think, with Thespis or Phrynichus, but, if you want to know, you will find that it is the oldest invention of this city. And tragedy is the kind of poetry that most delights the people and captivates souls. So by it we are intensified to take revenge on Minos for the fact that he forced us to pay that tribute. It was in this that Minos sinned, that he aroused our indignation, and that is why, as you ask, he was known among us as an evil man. And that he was good and lawful, about which we have already spoken, was a good lawyer, - the most important proof of this is the fact that his laws remain unchanged, since he really discovered the truth in what relates to the improvement of the city.

Zeus and his connection with the animal and cosmic world

13. a) Anecd. Beck. 344, 10 (Zeus, bull, Sun).
Adiunsky (Adioynios) bull - so the Cretans call the Sun. They argue that the Sun shows the way when changing residence in the form of a bull.
Ael. De nat. an. XII 34.
The Phrygians, when someone killed a plowing bull among them, punished him with death.
Nicol. Damask. frg. 123 (FHG III 461) - the same. Varr. De re rust. II 5, 4 - the same idea.

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plin. Nat. hist. VII 209. Prometheus was the first to kill the bull.
b) macrob. sat. I 15, 14. The Cretans call the day Zeus.
c) Serv. Verg. Ecl. VI 60 (on the site of the marriage of Zeus and Europe - the herd of Helios).
...Near Gortyn, the city of Crete, where the herds of the Sun once were...
d) Ps.-Erat. Catast. 14 (connection of the Cretan bull with the sky).
He is said to have been placed among the stars because he brought Europe from Phoenicia to Crete by sea, as Euripides tells in the Phrixus. For this deed, he was especially remarkably honored by Zeus. Others, on the contrary, say that the calf is a reproduction of Io and that for her sake he was honored by Zeus ...
Wed Nonn. I 355-361.
e) Ps.-Erat. Catast. 33, Radts. (connection of the Cretan dog with the sky). They say about him that this is the one that was given
as a guardian of Europe along with a serpent, [such is the reading of the manuscripts - dracontos; Kopp's amendment - acontos - "dart", is completely optional]. Both Minos took to himself, and later, when he was healed of the disease by Procris, he gave this dog to her; after some time, Cephalus, as the husband of Procris, took possession of both of them. He came to Thebes with this dog to hunt for a fox, about which there was a prophecy that no one could kill her. Not knowing what to do, Zeus turned the fox to stone, and raised the dog to the stars, recognizing him as worthy of it.

Zeus Asterius. Minotaur

14. a) Apollodorus, Diodorus, schol. to Gom. about Asteria, see below, No. 29, 31 (basic information about Asteria).
b) Tzetz. Chil. I 473 (Zeus of the Stars).
The Cretan Minos was the son of Zeus Asterius, [the Star].
c) Tzetz. Antehom. 99-101.
Having received these brilliant gifts [from Paris], King Menelaus himself sailed to Crete in order to offer a sacrifice to the ancestor Zeus There to bring that Asterius was the Cretan ruler.
d) Lycophr. 1301 (euhemeristic understanding of Asterius as a commander under Minos).

Aster, commander of Crete... Schol. to this place:

Aster, whom some call Asterius, king of Crete, who took Europe [as a wife]...

e) Nonn. I 354 et seq.
He left Asterion, a wife with much wealth, Zeus [Europe] husband ...
Nonn. II 693-695.

cyprides
Marriage bonds with your relatives combined
Asterion, dictaean leader of the Corybantes.

f) Nonn. XIII 222-252 (a more detailed biography of Asterius).

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XIII 546 (about the sons of Asterius Miletus and Cavne, accompanying their father, the commander of Dionysus, to India).
XXXV 381-391 (about the wounding of Asterius - the words of Dionysus, seeking to help Asterius).
XXXVII 47 (Asterius near the corpse of Ofelt, 81-84, 92, libation, etc. on the grave of Ofelt).
XXXVII 722-753 (contest of Asterius with Hymen, and then with Aeacus).
X 285-291 (settlement of Asteria in "Scythia" near the "Bears" in seclusion, away from Minos and Pasiphae).
g) pause. II 31, 1, Condr. (Star Minotaur).
On Troezen Square there is a temple with a statue of Artemis the Savior. They say that Theseus built it and called the goddess the Savior, after he, having defeated Asterion, the son of Minos, returned from Crete. This feat is considered for him the most remarkable of all that he accomplished, not so much because, as it seems to me personally, that Asterion surpassed in courage all the opponents killed by Theseus, but because, having managed to find a way out of the Labyrinth and run unnoticed after such a feat he had accomplished , Theseus proved quite convincingly that, guided only by God's providence, he himself and his companions were saved.

Talos - a copper giant in Crete

15. a) Hesych. Talaios.
Talley - Zeus in Crete (Talley).
Hesych. Talos.
Talos is the Sun.
b) Apollod. I 9, ​​26, 3-5 (general meaning of Talos).
When they moved from here, [the Argonauts after the Phaeacians], they were prevented from approaching Crete by Talos. This latter was said by some to belong to the copper generation; others - that he was a gift from Hephaestus to Minos. According to one - he is a copper man, and according to others - he is a bull. He had a single vein that ran from the neck to the heels, and the end of this vein was closed with a copper nail. This Talos guarded the island, running around it three times a day. Therefore, this time, seeing the Argo ship approaching the island, he began to throw stones at it. He died, having been deceived by Medea, as some say, from madness brought on him by Medea with the help of some kind of potion, and according to others, after Medea promised him immortality and removed the nail mentioned above from him, when all his ichor, [what the immortals replace blood]. Some say that he died after Peant, [the famous archer,] hit him with an arrow in the heel.
c) Orph. Argon. 1350-1352 (Talos - "copper thrice giant").
The calamities that we endured in Crete, the eternal sufferers, of the Copper Thrice Giant (Trisgiganta), which threatened us
upon arrival.
He prevented the Minyans from entering the harbors of Crete. catul. Lv 93.
...Even if I pretend to be that guardian of Crete... Luc. Philops. nineteen.
... Talos was the copper lineman of Crete.

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Wed Luc. De salt. 49 (of Talos, the bronze guard who circled Crete).
d) pause. VIII 53, 5, Condr. (Talos is the son of Crete, the father of Hephaestus).
And Kinephon in his songs said that Rhadamanthus was the son of Hephaestus, Hephaestus was Talos, and Talos was the son of Crete. But the legends of the Hellenes in many cases are contradictory, and especially in matters of genealogy.
e) pause. VII 4, 9, Condr. (the son of Enopion, that is, the son of Wine, and his other sons related to the culture of grapes).
Over time, Enopion landed on Chios with his ships, accompanied by his sons: Talos, Evanth, Melanus, Salaga and Athamant.
f) Schot. Plat. Legg. 624b (to the words of Plato: "... the brother of Minos is Rhadamanthus").
There was also a third brother, Talos, who was said to guard the island of Crete, bypassing it armed.
g) Ibyc. are. Athens. XIII, r. 603d.
Ivik says that Talos was the lover of the just Rhadamanthus.

Talos and his chthonic features. Sardanian laughter

16 a) Od. XX 302 (Sardanian smile of Odysseus).
... He smiled sharply in his heart in a Sardanian way.
Apollon. Lex. hom. 140, 12.
This is from snarling teeth (seserenai).
Schol. to this passage: "Snarling, sarcastically (sarcasticon), deliberately (epiplaston), through a simple snarling of the lips, but not in the sense of laughter."
Eustath. 1893, 5.
This is the snarling of the corners of the lips when internally stung by anger or suffering.
Schol. Od. XX 302.
It is said that Hephaestoteucton, [created by Hephaestus], given by Zeus to Europe as a guardian, punished those who attacked Crete in a special way. Namely, he jumped into the fire and, hot, strangled them in his arms, while they, burning, bared their teeth at him. Some say that on the island of Sardinia grows such a celery, having eaten of which strangers perish, baring their teeth with convulsions. Timaeus says that the aged parents were led to the pit and thrown into it, and they, dying, laughed as if from bliss. Others are still different. [Rather, here one should have in mind the feigned laughter at the moment of mockery with the opening of the lips inward from grinning.]
Il. XV 102, Gned. (an example of Sardanian laughter at Hera at the feast of the gods, who knows about the angry moods of Zeus).

She smiled with her lips
But between her black brows her brow did not lighten.

Schol. to this place: "This laughter is called Sardanian - when someone laughs out of their inner mood."
Od. XX 345-349, Beetle. (another Homeric example of Sardanian laughter is about Telemachus' words about Penelope's possible marriage).

159

Thus spoke Telemachus. In suitors the untold Athena
Laughter awakened, confusing their hearts and upsetting their minds.
They laughed wildly and, suddenly changing their faces,
They ate raw, bloody meat; their eyes with tears
Everyone is clouded; their hearts ached with heavy longing.

Ael. Var. hist. III 40.
Satyrs - from the word seserenai, [sneer].
b) Schol. Plat. R. R. I 337.
According to Timaeus, the inhabitants of Sardinia, when their parents grow old and begin to think that they have already lived enough, take them to the place where they intend to bury them, and, having dug a hole there, plant those who are about to die on its edge, and then each of them hits his father with a log and pushes him into the pit. At the same time, the old people rejoiced that they were going to their death, like the blessed, and died with laughter and complacency. Therefore, when it happened to laugh, but this laughter occurred in relation to not entirely plausible objects, then the Greeks cited the aforementioned saying.
Cleitarch says that the Phoenicians, and especially the Carthaginians, in order to honor Kronos, when they sought to achieve some important subject, made a vow, if the plan was fulfilled, to dedicate one of the boys to the god. They burned this child, while the copper Kronos stood by them with his hands turned palms to the copper brazier. When the flame engulfed the mouth of the burned one, the limbs of the body began to tremble and the mouth was opened like laughter, until what was stretched out on the brazier passed into nothing. Hence this grinning (seserota) laughter is called Sardanian when people die laughing. Sairein, [smirk, grin] - this is what it means to open and stretch your mouth.
Simonides [cf. frg. 202 a] says that the copper Talos, which Hephaestus built to Minos to guard the island, being also animated, destroyed those pursued by him by burning, on what basis, in his opinion, Sardanian laughter got its name: from seserenai, [grin, snarl]. Sophocles argues in the same way in Daedalus (frg. 163).
I heard, says [further] Tarrey, the stories of the natives that in Sardinia there grows a certain plant close to celery, after tasting which people, on the one hand, burst into laughter, and on the other, begin to die from convulsions. From this point of view, such laughter should be called Sardinian, and not Sardanian. Here, therefore, the Homeric expression does not apply, from which, perhaps, this proverb originates: “He [Odysseus] smiled sharply in Sardanian (sardanian) ... [Od. XX 302], which means laughter in the form of stretched [only] lips themselves to the point of weakening (seserenai)”.
Wed Schol. Plat. 926a (of Simonides in the same terms as in the previous scholion, but with an addition):

Likewise, Sophocles in Daedalus, .

c) Suid. Sardanios gelos.
This is a saying for those who laugh at the moment of their own destruction. According to the Demon, it is transmitted because the inhabitants of Sardinia sacrificed the most beautiful captives to Kronos, as well as old people who had passed the age of 70, and

160

[victims] these laughed for the sake of expressing their male virtue, that is, courage. Timaeus, on the other hand, claims that those in Sardinia who lived long enough, when their sons pushed them to the place where they were going to be buried, laughed. Others [produce this expression] from seserenai, [snarl] during suffering. Others, and especially Clytarchus, say that the Carthaginians, during their great prayers, put the child into the hands of Kronos, that a copper Kronos was built with arms outstretched forward, under which there was a brazier, where they then roasted [the baby], and from the convulsions of the mouth this last seemed to be laughing. Simonides, however, says that Talos, made by Hephaestus, being copper and jumping into the fire, destroyed the Sardinians who did not want to go to Minos, and he pressed them to his chest, and they grinned. Silenus, in the fourth book on Syracuse, says that in Sardinia there was a pleasant green, similar to celery, after eating which people bit their lips and body. Some mean those who laugh at evil things. So, about the Odyssey, Homer says, [follows the above text, Od. XX 302, and also about Hera, Il. LXV 102].
Suid. Sardanios gelos.
Sardanian laughter is a pretense. It is said that it is called from seserenai, [snarling,] teeth.
d) Tzetz. Lycophr. 796.
Timaeus says that there they sacrificed old people who had reached 70 years of age to Kronos, laughing and hitting them with a log and pushing them into an open pit. Hence, they began to talk about Sardanian laughter. Others say that the old people dying there did not smile voluntarily, [variation - “voluntarily”,] about their inhuman death, [variance - “sacraments”], which the children looked at - from where did the saying about Sardanian laughter come from.
On the island of Sardinia, a plant similar to celery grows, eating which people are seized with convulsions and laugh against their will, and die in this form.
pause. X 17, 13, Condr.
On the island [Sardinia] there are no poisonous plants that cause death to a person, except for one - its harmful greens are very similar to parsley (celery), and it is said that whoever eats it dies of laughter. Therefore Homer, [Od. XX 300,] and all subsequent people call laughter that does not benefit anyone, sardonic. Mostly this herb grows near springs, but it does not transfer its poisonousness to water.
e) Verg. Ecl. VII 41 (to the myth of the Sardinian plant).

Serv. Verg. Ecl. VII 41.
Sardinian grass grows in Sardinia. This herb, says Sallust (Hist. II 2), is similar to lemon balm, [the modern scientific name is melissa officinalis, "lemon mint"]. If you eat it, then it reduces the mouths of people in pain and leads them to death, and at that moment they laugh. Hence the saying about Sardanian laughter.
Philarg. to the same place Ecl.
Sardinian grass, similar to celery, grows off the coast of the island of Sardinia. If anyone eats it, they die of laughter.
f) Zenob. V 85.
Simonides says that Talos, before leaving for Crete, lived in Sardinia and killed many of the inhabitants of this island, who.

161

dying, grinned, and that from here went sardonic laughter. The inhabitants of Sardinia, being immigrants from Carthage, sacrificed to Kronos those who exceeded the age of 70, while they [the sacrifices] laughed and smiled at each other, because they considered it shameful to cry and lament.

Talos, a skilled craftsman in Athens, and Daedalus

17. a) Apollod. III 15, 9 (Athenian Talos).
Daedalus was the best architect and the first inventor of statues. He fled from Athens after he pushed his sister's son [Perdika], his disciple, from the Acropolis, for fear that he would surpass him with his natural abilities, since he, having found a snake's jaw, began to saw with it a thin board [and thereby laid the foundation for the use of the saw]. After the discovery of the corpse of Talos, Daedalus was judged in the Areopagus and, after being condemned, fled to Minos.
Wed Tzetz. Chil. I 494.
b) diode. IV 76, 4-77, 1.
As we know, this Daedalus, being an object of wonder because of his inclination to art, fled from his fatherland after being condemned for murder, for the following reason. The son Talos, who appeared at the sister of Daedalus, was brought up by Daedalus, being a boy by age. Surpassing his teacher with his natural ability, he invented the potter's wheel. And having accidentally come across a snake's jaw and sawing a small piece of wood with it, he made a semblance of a jagged shape of this jaw. Because of this, he built a saw out of iron; and, having begun with her help to saw the wooden materials of things, he proved to be the inventor of a very useful and large tool for the art of building. In the same way, by inventing the compass and some other technical devices, he achieved great fame. However, Daedalus was jealous of the boy; and, believing that he would far surpass the teacher with his glory, he insidiously destroyed the boy. When he buried him and was captured at the scene of the crime, when asked who he was burying, he replied that he was sleeping a snake. Perhaps it may be considered strange that through the very animal through which he conceived the device of the saw, the identity of the murder committed also took place through him. He was charged and convicted by members of the Areopagus for murder. First he fled to one of the Attic demes, whose inhabitants were called Daedalides after him; and after that he fled to Crete, and, having become an object of wonder in his fame in the field of art, he became a friend of king Minos.
c) pause. VII 4, 5-6, Condr.
Daedalus, by origin, was from Athens, the royal family of the so-called Metionides, and was famous throughout the world as much for his art as for his wanderings and the misfortunes that befell him. Having killed his sister's son and knowing the laws of his homeland, he voluntarily went into exile in Crete.
Wed pause. I 26, 4, see below, i.
d) Hyg. Fab. 39.
Daedalus, the son of Eupalamus, who is said to have learned from Minerva the skill, threw his sister's son, Perdix, from the roof of the house, out of envy of his skill, since he was the first to invent the saw. In view of this crime, he went into exile from Athens to Crete, to King Minos.

162

Hyg. Fab. 244.
Daedalus, the son of Eupalamus, killed his sister's son, Perdix, out of envy of his art. Hyg. Fab. 274.
Perdix, the son of Daedalus' sister, invented the compasses and the fishbone saw.
e) Serv. Verg. Georg. I 143.
...As they say, Perdix, the son of Daedalus' sister, invented the compass and the saw.
Suid. Perdicos hieron.
Sophocles, in "Kamiki", says that the name of the one killed by Daedalus was Perdix.
f) Serv. Verg. aen. VI 14.
... This Daedalus, the son of Eupalamus, famous in craftsmanship, after the murder of Perdix, the son of his sister, whom he alone had as his rival in his art - for he invented a saw after the model of the back bone of a fish and compasses due to his name, since he himself was called Circinus, according to some, or, as they say, he invented the Organ (Organum), - avoiding hatred,
g) Ovid. Met. VIII 236-259, Sherv.

But then I saw how the remains of the unfortunate son
The mournful father buried, the partridge babbler from the hole
Wings began to beat, expressing clucking joy -
Bird, - at that time one of this unprecedented breed -
240 Barely a bird, a constant reproach to you, Daedalus!
Not knowing the fate, his sister once instructed him
To teach the son of sciences - twelve turned only
The boy was old, and his mind was capable of learning.
Once, having noticed the backbone of a fish,
245 He took it as a sample and cut it on a sharp iron
A series of continuous teeth: opened the saw application.
He connected the first single knot two iron ends,
So that when they are at an equal distance from each other,
One part stood alone, the other circle circled.
250 Daedalus became jealous; from the holy citadel
Minerva Dropped pet headlong and lied that he fell.
But boy
He was accepted by Pallas, favorable to talents,
he is a bird
He was converted and flew through the air, dressed in feathers.
The strength, however, of the mind, so fast, in the wings and paws
255 All passed; and the nickname remains with him.
Still, a partridge cannot fly high into the air,
He does not make nests for himself on branches and in high peaks;
She flies low and lays eggs in the bushes:
Everyone is afraid of heights, remembering a long-standing fall.

h) Schol. soph. O. S. 1320 (Talos - Kalos).
... Talos, whom some call Calaos (Calaon), as Aristarchus of Tegey and Philoctetes narrate; Hecateus of Miletus writes the same.
i) pause. I 26, 4, Condr.
Endopus was an Athenian by birth, a disciple of Daedalus, he followed him to Crete when Daedalus fled there as a result of the murder of Kalos.

163

Anthol. Pal. XV 26, 5-8
... The lover of husbands [Medea] crushed the copper-membered guard [Crete], which was skillfully made by the two-married [husband of Charita and Aphrodite] deprived of his father [from Hera to Zeus] and thrown down by his mother [Hephaestus, thrown by Hera from Olympus].
Schol. Apollo. Rhod. 4, 1638.
Talos had a skin-covered tube (syringa) on the heel. Sophocles, says in Talos, that he was predestined to die [from damage to this tube].
k) Luc. Pisc. 42.
...And from the tomb of Talos, some climb... [to the Acropolis].
Wed Schol. to this place: "Talos was an ancient hero buried in the Acropolis."
18. Apollo. Rhod. IV 1636-1688, Tseret. (the death of Talos from the machinations of Medea after the arrival of the Argonauts to Crete).

And then they were going to approach Crete,
What among other islands was clearly visible in the sea.
But Talos did not give them copper, throwing pieces at them
A strong rock, approach the earth and, throwing a pier,
1640 Under the protection of the ship's anchorage Dikteyskaya.
In the host of the demigods, he was the last of all.
Genus from the copper root of people leading ash-bearing.
And Kronid himself gave Europe to guard the island of Crete
So that three times a day he walked around his copper foot.
1645 Copper was he and his body, and the members of the body
And unbreakable. And only at the ankle, at the bottom of the tendon.
There was a full vein of blood, covered with a thin
Peel and hold the ends of life and death.
Immediately the ship from the earth, yielding to need, heroes,
1650 Full of fear, they rowed back hastily.
Here they would sail away from Crete on their mountain,
Thirst languishing great and with it, suffering from disasters,
If Medea, in a hurry to leave, had not said to them:
"Listen to me! Only I, it seems to me, to tame the state
1655 This husband, whoever he is, even if his body is entirely copper
He possesses, since he has his own limit.
Here you keep the ship calmly away from flight
A block of rock until he allows himself to be tamed by me ... "
Said so. They are a ship from throws in the distance
1660 They took the oar away, in anticipation, what plan, having thought up,
She will get to work. She, cheeks with a fold
Dresses covered with purple on both sides, on the flooring
The deck went quietly, but he led her between the benches
Walking, Aesonides himself, taking her by the hand with his hand. songs
1665 She began to enchant Ker, soul-devouring, Aida,
Calling fast dogs to yourself, which, through the air,
Everywhere among the living they find their sojourn.
To them, bending her knees, she fell three times with a song,
Three times with prayer. Holding evil in her soul, she gazed
hostile
1670 She glared at Talos with copper eyes, enchanting them, and anger
Deadly poison instantly poured into him and terrible visions

164

She sent a whole swarm before her eyes, seething with fierce anger
Father Zeus, great fear rises in my heart
Whenever death is not only to disease and wounds
1675 The meeting is on, but when someone harms us from afar,
So, although he was copper, but Medea the sorceress
He let himself be tamed. Throwing huge stones down
To prevent the heroes from entering the harbor together with the ship,
He touched, and, moreover, the fifth, a sharp stone, and immediately
1680 Blood flowed - ichor - similar to liquid lead.
Not for long,
Climbing up a steep cliff, he remained on it.
He stood like a big pine tree on a mountain peak:
The woodcutters have already chopped it with a sharp ax,
But not quite, and, leaving, they left the thicket, and in the middle of the night
1685 Winds at first gusts shook it, then
She collapses with a root to the ground - just like Talos,
Standing, at first on his indefatigable feet, he swayed for the time being,
Thereupon the lifeless fell into the sea with a noise
huge.

A word of 6 letters, the first letter is "L", the second letter is "A", the third letter is "B", the fourth letter is "R", the fifth letter is "I", the sixth letter is "C", the word for the letter "L", the last "S". If you do not know a word from a crossword puzzle or a crossword puzzle, then our site will help you find the most difficult and unfamiliar words.

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please characterize Zeus as a god of ancient Greek mythology and got the best answer

Answer from Viktor Nemec[guru]

Zeus - in ancient Greek mythology, the god of the sky, thunder and lightning, in charge of the whole world. The chief of the Olympian gods, the third son of the titan Kronos and Rhea, Brother of Hades, Hestia, Demeter, Hera and Poseidon. The attributes of Zeus were: a shield and a double ax, sometimes an eagle; Olympus was considered the seat. He belongs to the third generation of gods who overthrew the second generation - the titans. The father of Zeus Kronos was predicted that he was destined to be defeated by his own son, and in order not to be deposed by his children, he each time swallowed the child just born to Rhea.
In addition, he distributes good and evil on earth, sometimes he is associated with fate, sometimes he himself acts as a creature subject to Moira - fate, fate. He can foresee the future. He proclaims the fate of fate through dreams, as well as thunder and lightning. The whole social order was built by Zeus, he gave people laws, established the power of kings, also protects the family and home, monitors the observance of traditions and customs.
Equitable.
Reasonable.
Large family - ☻-
An unimportant family man - ☻ - had many lovers:
Eurynome
Demeter
Mnemosyne
Summer (Latona)
And about
Europe
and many others
Polygamist.. ☻- The wives of Zeus were: -
- Metis (swallowed by Zeus)
Themis
Hera (the last "official" wife of Zeus).

Answer from 3 answers[guru]

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