My purpose in this paper is to demonstrate, if possible, the essential unity of many phenomena which are common throughout the field of human civilization. While the occurrences of these phenomena are widely separated in place and time, it would be best if we tried to explain them by ascribing them to a common origin. Where today we find similar elements in the folklore of races dwelling far apart, these were once the common property of peoples living in close contact with one another. After examining some of the most characteristic phenomena from the point of view of geography, anthropology, material and intellectual culture, I shall then try to demonstrate this point by means of archaeological evidence. For this purpose I shall isolate a single popular belief, namely that fertility may be ensured by means of the rite of swinging. This belief is well attested in classical Greece, as part of many religious rites and traditions, and is known as αỉώρα, the ‘swing’.
1 From Klute, F., Hdb. d. geogr. Wissenschaft, Vol. 2, p. 189,Google Scholarfig. 115. On pp. 205–6 and 209 one finds Eickstedt’s theory about the distribution of the races of mankind.
2 See Saller, Karl, Anthropologie, 2nd ed. (1964), p. 347.Google Scholar
3 Colour plate in Marinatos, and Hirmer, Crete and Mycenae (London, 1960), p. 105, pl. 41.Google Scholar
4 Buchner, E., Die alte Pinakothek München, pls 4–5.Google Scholar
5 Alcman, fr. I D, 68–70: 
It must be remembered that Alcman was an Ionian (if not a Lydian) poet: Lesky, A., A History of Greek Literature (Eng. trans., London, 1966), p. 149.Google ScholarHe lived in the period of wandering art and came to Sparta, as did so many other poets and artists (among whom the architect Bathycles of Amyclae was also an Ionian). Therefore Sparta claimed Alcman as her own citizen.
6 See ‘On the Track of Folklore Elements in Bronze Age Art and Literature’, 4th International Congress for Folk Narrative Research in Athens, published in Laographia xxii (1965), 262 ff., with pi. xvii; ‘Some Hints about Eastern Mediterranean Mythology’, Ephemeris 1964, 1 ff.; Makkay, J., ‘Early Near Eastern and South East European Gods,’ Acta Archaeol. Acad. Hung. 16 (1964), 24 ff.;Google Scholarand especially id., ‘Some ancient sources to the Shamanism’, Alba Regia vi-vii (1965-6), 27 ff.
7 Mahabharata (meaning ‘Great Story of the Sons of Bharata’) ‘has the unenviable distinction of being the longest poem in the world’ consisting of about 100,000 couplets (Rawlinson, H.G., India [1948], p. 32].Google ScholarFor my purpose in this paper when using this monumental epic, I have before me especially the books of two scholars. One is a good prose analysis by Rajagopalachari, C., Mahabharata (New Delhi, 1950):Google Scholarthe passages cited above are from p. 220. The other book has an interesting history especially connected with the University of Athens. A learned man of the then small town of Athens abandoned the slavery of the Turkish domination and emigrated to India in 1776. Already an excellent scholar of ancient Greek, he soon became so thoroughly versed in the language and literature of India that he became a brahman. His portrait, preserved in the Senate Room of the University of Athens, shows him in brahman dress. He died in 1833 in Benares and was buried in the British cemetery, leaving half of his property to the University of Athens. He translated into Greek many Indian works, some of which were published by the University Library. Among these works is Balabharata (that is ‘The Minor Bharata’). As the tide indicates, it is an epitome of Mahabharata, written ‘by Amara, or Amasandra, pupil of the sage Zenadata’. It is a big volume of 864 pages, and is dated Athens, 1847. As the Preface reveals, doubts arose as to the authenticity of this work. The most renowned Indologists of Europe took part in the controversy and stated that such a work was unknown in Europe, either in the original or in translation. The Greek version appeared to be the first translation in a European language. The question remained thus open. I have written about the matter to my friend Dr C. Sivaramamurti, Director of the National Museum of India in New Delhi. His answer, dated 3 March, 1967, states that there exists ‘the Balabharata, a shortened form of the Mahabharata, written by Amarasandra Suri, pupil of Jinadatta Suri, who flourished … in the first half of the 13th cent, A.D.’ He mentions two editions of this work, both later than Galanos’ translation: one in the Pandit old series, 4–6 (Benares, 1869–71), and another by Sivadatta and Parab (Bombay, 1894). My warm thanks are addressed to Dr Sivaramamurti for this information. Passages cited below are from Galanos’ Greek edition of the Balabharata.
8 Marinatos, , Ephemeris (1964), 13.Google ScholarExperts in Hebrew of the Jerusalem University told me that the name of this hero indicates a foreign origin.
9 See Frazer, , Pausanias, Vol. 2, pp. 140 f.Google ScholarThe battle-scene has been plausibly reconstructed by Robert, C., ‘Die Marathonschlacht in dcr Poekile,’ Hall. Winck. Progr. (1895);Google Scholar the figure of Echetlus, however, is not successful.
10 Eranos xv (1915), 181 ff. Cf. his Opuscula Selecta, Vol. i (Lund, 1951), pp. 153, 160, 425. See also his Gesch. gr. Rel., Vol. i, 2nd ed. (Munich, 1955), p. 586; Griechische Feste (Leipzig, 1906), pp. 233 f.; Minoan-Mycen. Religion, 2nd ed. (Lund, 1950), pp. 331–2.
11 Our picture is from Furtwängler-Reichhold, Gr. Vasenmalerei, pl. 125. Cf. 3, 28 f. (Hauser). See also Beazley, ARV2 1301, 7.
12 Cf. the clay Neolithic idol in Tsountas, Dimeni, pl. 35, 2 (text, p. 297), showing holes both in the shoulders and just above the neck.
13 From the artistically plausible reconstruction of Robert and Schenck, Nekyia, 16th Winck. Progr. (1892). Cf. Frazer, , Pausanias, Vol. 5, pl. opp. p. 372.Google Scholar
14 Paus. x 29.3 describes the scene thus (trans., or rather paraphrase, Frazer): ‘Ariadne … is seated on a rock and is looking at her sister Phaedra, who is in a swing and is grasping the rope on each side with her hands.’ The original runs thus: … 
15 Eranos xv (1915), 192–3.
16 Athen. xiv 618 e-f: 
17 ‘Phédre a la balançoire’, RA xxviii (1928), 47 ff.
18 Ch. Delvoye, ‘Rites de fécondité dans les religions prdhelléniques’, BCH lxx (1946), 120–31.
19 Op. cit., fig. I.
20 Minoan-Myc. Rel., 2nd ed., p. 332.
21 Op. cit., 331, n. 7.
22 See Delvoye, op. cit., 127, figs 3–4.
23 The passages are from Book i, chap. I, of the Balabharata of Galanos: p. 11, couplet 33, and p. 13, couplet 37.
24 Sivaramamurti, C., Indian Sculpture (1961), pl. 11.Google ScholarIt is a Yakshi talking to the parrot (2nd cent, A.D., Calcutta Museum).
25 Even today Greek folk-songs praise the wasp-waist.
26 Valmin, N., The Swedish Messenia Expedition (Lund, 1933), pl. 1.Google Scholar
27 Syria xxi (1940), pl. viii and pp. 15 f. It is interesting to note that the statuette was found in the layers of the temple of Ninhursag, goddess of fertility.
28 Schmidt, H., Cucuteni (Berlin, 1932), p. 64,Google Scholarobserves that in the idols of the second layer ‘durchlocht sind ferner in der Regel die Armstümpfe und Hüften’. He observes also that the figures seem all to be female.
29 See Delvoye, op. cit., for details of the literature. Kiev: JHS xlii (1922), 265, fig. 12. Dacia i, p. 100, pll. xxxiv-xxxvii. Kenyon, , Archaeology in the Holy Land (London, 1960), pl. 18Google Scholar (Neolithic from Sha-Golan).
30 Balabharata (trans. Galanos), Book i, chap. 7 (‘which treats of spring’), pp. 141 ff.
31 This bird (kokila) is held in great esteem in India and, according to Galanos’ learned commentary, is as highly regarded as the nightingale. It must be added that Hesiod likewise mentions the cuckoo not only as a sign of approaching spring, but also as the delight of all people on earth: Op. 486 f. (Rzach) 
32 Marinatos, , 
Proceedings of the Cambridge Colloquium on Mycenaean Studies (1966), pp. 265Google Scholar ff., esp. 269–70, and fig. 1.
33 Balabharata (trans. Galanos), couplet 52, pp. 151–2.
34 Couplet 56, p. 152.
35 Couplet 57, pp. 152–3.
36 Couplet 59, p. 153.
37 Couplets 60 and 62, p. 153.
38 Couplet 67, p. 154.
39 See Marinatos, , Crete and Mycenae (London, 1960), p. 134,Google Scholarand cf. Odyssey iv 567 f. In Ceos the ceremony took place during the rise of Sirius, i.e., in the hottest season of the year (Nilsson, Eranos xv (1915), 189). The Mycenaean tablets of Knossos mention a ‘priestess of the winds’ (a-ne-mo i-je-re-ja). See, among others, Stella, L., La Civiltà Micenea (Rome, 1965), p. 239.Google Scholar
40 For these details see couplets 69 f., 75 f. (pp. 154 f.).
41 SirFrazer, J., The Golden Bough (French trans.), pp. 243,Google Scholar 248, 249.
