Harrison - Themis

nHni MiiiiimiiiM

9NIW

SffllTllTflffillffMiliM ijIieBiii

gMnWWilnffM

ffHWwl

gflJHMillWiicrrn

ramHmSnn

BUSS&Qffl>

-*.-.

BMrawBt

HBnBSHifiDnBB

raffifiBBl Ht8)»8BI

lOHl

HHH|ffi JiKBiiiiiffBfl

KraBsHwoB

HR SSI ,...>•. yeveciv ai/rov yevicrdai

Discovery at Palaikastro

i]

But is

Palaikastro, as a glance at the

not Dikte

—not

even near Dikte.

map

1

3

in Fig. 1 will show,

All eastern Crete with

its

towns of Itanos and Praisos, where dwelt the Eteokretans, and the modern sites of Zakro and Palaikastro are cut off from the

mountain mass of Dikte by the low narrow isthmus 2 that joins

Map

Fig. 1.

of Crete.

the trading towns of Minoa (Gournia) and Hierapytna (Hierapetra).

How

Zeus

worshipped, that in Palaikastro the ruins of his temple

is

comes

have come to light

it

?

then that in remote Palaikastro Diktaean

This brings us to the question of chronology.

f Strabo 3 in discussing the origin of Cretan institutions makes an interesting remark. Among the Cretans/ he says, when their warlike cities, and especially that of Knossos, were ravaged, certain of their customs were kept up among the inhabitants of Lyttos and Gortyna and other of the lesser towns rather than by the Knossians.' Here we have much history in a nutshell. Conspicuous cities pay the toll of their splendour. Palaikastro is but a lesser town (ttoXl-^vlov) there we may hope to find customs surviving that had died down at Knossos. In the Hymn before us just such customs are enshrined. The actual stele was engraved in the second or third century after ,/

'

'

:

slight modifications from B.S.A. vin. p. 287, Fig. 1. Strabo, x. 475 irXarvTaTTf 8e kcltcl to fieaov eari, waXw 8' ivTevdev els (TTevuirepov tov wporepov avp.ir'iirTovaiv ladpbv ai yoves irepl e^rjKOVTa ffTadiwv, tov diro "Hivyas 1

Eeproduced with

2

AuttIuv

rrts 3

cis

lepdirvrvav Kai to AifivKOv iriXayos.

ttjs Kviocraiojv, twv TroXeptKwv wapd Avttiois Kai TopTvviois Kai aWois Ticri woXlxviois fidXXov rj irap eKeivois. Clement, citing as his authority the Nostoi of Antikleides, says that human sacrifice was offered by the Lyctii, a Cretan tribe (Book in. 4).

Strabo, X. 481 KaKwdeiauv twv wbXewv Kai paXiffTa

petvai

de

Tiva tQiv

vop.tp.iov

1—2

4 Christ 1

;

that

is

The

Hymn

clear

from the very cursive character of the

of the Kouretes

[ch. letters.

But the poem inscribed is much earlier, probably about 300 B.C. We have oddly enough two copies on the back and face of the same stone. It seems to have presented serious difficulties to the The first copy whether from another stone or from stone-mason. a MS. was so faulty that it had to be redone. This looks as if matter and language were unfamiliar. For some reason which now escapes us, an old ritual hymn was revived. How far it was Its material is, as will presently be rewritten we cannot now say. shown, primaeval we cannot date it, it is vofxifiov. The cave on Dikte where Zeus was born has been identifie d a nd thoroughly excavated 2 It is a large double cavern about 500 feet above the modern village of Psychro in the upland of ;

.

Lyttos, of which the ruins

Lasithi.

of the north-western is

the Psychro cave.

cave

is

still

remain,

peak of Dikte (Lasithi)

lies

on one spur

on the opposite spur

;

In the lowest stratum of the deposit in the

found Kamares ware, above that Mycenaean ware, and so

on in regular sequence to the geometric period, i.e. about the eighth century B.C. After that, save in quite sporadic cases the votive offerings cease.

It is impossible to avoid the conclusion

came

that the cult in the cave

to

an end.

Dikte

it is

probable was

In a treaty 3 between Lyttos and Olons, Zeus

superseded by Ida.

sworn by, but his

BiSdras Zeus of Ida,' not At/crcuo?. On his own mountain He of Dikte was superseded. Central Crete in her public documents swears by Zeus of Ida, but a little group of cities in the remote eastern district held to

is

title is

'

'

'

the earlier east coast,

cult.

Itanos, the northernmost of the towns on the

was said

to

have been founded by one of the Kouretes.

In an inscription 4 found on the modern

site

(Erimopolis)

the

by Zeus Diktaios and Hera and the gods At Eteokretan Praisos, Strabo 5 quoting Staphylos,

citizens swear first of all

in Dikte.

1

,

there was the sanctuary of Diktaean

says

Zeus.

Athenaeus 6

See Prof. Bosanquet, B.S.A. xv. 1908—1909, p. 347, and Prof. Gilbert Murray,

p. 364. 2

For

full description see

94 and especially

Mr

D. G. Hogarth, The Dictaean Cave, B.S.A.

vi.

115. 3 C.I.A. ii. 549, and see B. C. Bosanquet, op. cit. p. 349. 4 Blass (in Collitz-Bechtel, in 2 ), 5058 [Td]5e wfuxrav rot. 'lrdviot ird[vTes~i Aia Aiktolov Kai "Hpav Kai d[eo]vs tovs iv AUrai Kai.... 5 Strabo, x. 475 ...wv (tuiv 'Ereo/ipTjrwc) elvai iro\ix"iov llpacrov 6wov to tov Aiktcliov For an inscription of Praisos in which Diktaios may be with great Atbs iepbv. probability restored see Prof. Bosanquet, op. cit. p. 350. 6 Athen. ix. 375, quoting Agathocles, Mvdevov