such stories, and in particular the myth of Periphas, furnish an important clue to a problem left unsolved by Dr. Frazer, viz. the question—How precisely was the soul of the slain king transmitted to his successor?[1] We have seen more than once that the man-god, instead of dying, was changed by Zeus into a bird (Ceyx the sea-fowl, Polytechnus the wood-pecker, Periphas the eagle); and other analogous cases could be quoted. For instance, the tomb of Zeus, alias Minos,[2] in Crete was, according to Suidas,[3] inscribed—
ἐνθάδε κεῖται θανὼν Πῆκος ὁ καὶ Ζεύς
"Here lies dead the Wood-pecker, who is also Zeus."
But indeed it would be tedious to collect all the examples of Zeus transforming kings and heroes into birds of one sort or another. A hexameter poem called Ὀρνιθογονία, which dealt expressly with such transformations, was written in Alexandrine times and falsely ascribed to Boio an
- ↑ Frazer, Golden Bough,² ii., 56, "Of this transmission I have no direct proof; and so far a link in the chain of evidence is wanting. But if I cannot prove by actual examples this succession to the soul of the slain god, it can at least be made probable that such a succession was supposed to take place." &c.
- ↑ Folk-Lore, xv., 304 n. 275 ff.
- ↑ Suid. s.v. Πῆκος. Cp. the historian Bruttius frag., 1, Peter ὁ αὐτὸς Πῖκος ὁ καὶ Ζεὺς οὖσαν ταύτην (sc. Danae) ἐν κουβουκλείῳ παρακειμένῳ τῇ θαλάσσῃ πολλῷ χρυσῷ πείσας κ.τ.λ. Creuzer Symbolik,³ iv., 364, cites from Nicetas epithet. deor. (Creuzer Meletem., i., 18) a description of Jupiter as ἤπιος πῖκος; and rightly brings him into connection with the Italian Picus, of whom I shall have more to say. See Class. Rev., xvii., 412.
Callim. frag., 283, Schneider, Strab., 221, 397, Dion Hal. ant. Rom., 1.28. Hesych. s. v Πελαργικόν, Et. magn., 659, 12 ff., alib.), and Attic inscriptions of the fifth century b.c. use Πελαργικός for Πελασγικός (K. Meisterhans Gram. d. Att. Inschr.,³ p. 83n.-711, p. 227 n. 1799). (b) The Greeks believed that the soul left the body in the form of a bird: for literary evidence see e.g. the myths of Cæneus (Ov. met., 12.514 ff.) and Ctesylla (Ant. Lib., 1); for monumental evidence, G. Weicker, Der Seelenvogel, and J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, p. 197 ff.
