The name Yassa appears both in the context of light (jasny) as also in the context of fertility concept (e.g., the English year or Slavic yar). Both these meanings appear in the names for Fall and Spring (jesien and wiosna), in addition to appearing in the names of certain local Deities such as Gerovit (pronounced Yerovit). What’s more this Deity is frequently mentioned in the fertility rites descriptions associated with spring/summer – a role similar to Dionyssus (Dio-nyssus or “our God”?). In fact, the concept of the wondering Johnny was preserved in Polish folklore for many years as (Jaś Wędrowniczek) and in 1893 Johnny Walker became the Hero of Maria Konopnicka’s children’s poem “Of the Wondering Johnny” (O Janku Wędrowniczku):
What’s even more remarkable about the Slavic Yassa God is the similarity to the Greek Jasion (there are several persons named that in Greek Mythology in addition to the other (?) “J” – Jason but here we talk about the Jasion of Demeter fame).
In light of that we decided to list the appearances of Jasion in ancient sources. Thankfully most of our work was already done by this excellent website.
Homer, Odyssey
5.125 ff (trans. Shewring) (Greek epic C8th B.C.)
“[Hermes commands Kalypso (Calypso) to release Odysseus:] Kalypso shuddered, and her words came forth in rapid flight : ‘You are merciless, you gods, resentful beyond all other beings; you are jealous if without disguise a goddess makes a man her bedfellow, her beloved husband . . . So it was when Demeter of the braided tresses followed her heart and lay in love with Iasion in the triple-furrowed field; Zeus was aware of it soon enough and hurled the bright thunderbolt and killed him.’” [N.B. the cutting of three furrows was part of fertility rites performed to inaugurate the new agricultural year.]
Hesiod, Theogony
969 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.)
“Demeter, bright goddess, was joined in sweet love with the hero Iasion in a thrice-ploughed fallow in the rich land of Krete (Crete), and bare Ploutos (Plutus, Wealth), a kindly god who goes everywhere over land and the sea’s wide back, and him who finds him and into whose hands he comes he makes rich, bestowing great wealth upon him.”
Hesiod, Catalogues of Women Fragment
102 (from Oxyrhynchus Papyri 1359 fr. 2)
“Elektra (Electra) was subject to the dark-clouded Son of Kronos (Cronus) [Zeus] and bare Dardanos . . ((lacuna)) and Eetion . . ((lacuna)) who once greatly loved rich-haired Demeter. And cloud-gathering Zeus was wroth and smote him, Eetion, and laid him low with a flaming thunderbolt, because he sought to lay hands upon rich-haired Demeter.” [N.B. Eetion is an alternate name for Iasion.]
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca
3.138 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.)
“Elektra (Electra), the daughter of Atlas, and Zeus were the parents of Iasion and Dardanos (Dardanus). Now Iasion had a lust for Demeter and was hit by a thunderbolt as he was about to attack her.”
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History
5.48.2 ff (trans. Oldfather) (Greek historian C1st B.C.)
“There were born in that land [of Samothrake (Samothrace)] to Zeus and Elektra (Electra), who was one of the Atlantides, Dardanos and Iasion and Harmonia . . . Zeus desired that the other of his two sons [Iasion] might also attain honour, and so he instructed him in the initiatory rites of the mysteries [of Samothrake], which had existed on the island since ancient times but was at that time, so to speak, put in his hands; it is not lawful, however, for any but the initiated to hear about the mysteries. And Iasion is reputed to have been the first to initiate strangers into them and by this means to bring the initiatory rite to high esteem. After this Kadmos (Cadmus), the son of Agenor, came in the course of his quest for Europe [i.e. his sister who had been abducted by Zeus] to the Samothrakians, and after participating in the initiation [into the Mysteries of Samothrake] he married Harmonia, who was the sister of Iasion and not, as the Greeks recount in their mythologies, the daughter of Ares. [N.B. The usual account was that Harmonia was given to Elektra mother of Iasion to raise as her own.] This wedding of Kadmos and Harmonia was the first, we are told, for which the gods provided the marriage-feast, and Demeter, becoming enamoured of Iasion, presented him with the fruit of the corn, Hermes gave a lyre, Athene the renowned necklace and a robe and a flute, and Elektra the sacred rites of the Great Mother of the Gods [Rhea-Kyebele], as she is called, together with cymbals and kettledrums and the instruments of the ritual; and Apollon played upon the lure and the Mousai (Muses) upon their flutes, and the rest of the gods spoke them fair and gave the pair their aid in the celebration of the weding. After this Kadmos, they say, in accordance with the oracle he had received, founded Thebes in Boiotia, while Iasion married Kybele (Cybele) [here identified with Demeter] and begat Korybas (Corybas) [leader of the Korybantes]. And after Iasion had been removed into the circle of the gods, Dardanos and Kybele [Demeter] and Korybas conveyed to Asia the sacred rites of the Mother of the Gods and removed with them to Phrygia . . . To Iasion and Demter, according to the story the myths relate, was born Ploutos (Plutus, Wealth), but the reference is, as a matter of fact, to the wealth of the corn, which was presented to Iasion because of Demeter’s association with him at the time of the wedding of Harmonia.
Now the details of the initiatory rite are guarded among the matters not to be divulged and are communicated to the initiates alone; but the fame has travelled wide of how these gods [the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri)] appear to mankind and bring unexpected aid to those initiates of their who call upon them in the midst of perils. The claim is also made that men who have taken part in the mysteries become both more pious and more just and better in every respect than they were before. And this is the reason, we are told, why the most famous both of the ancient heroes and of the demi-gods were eagerly desirous to taking part in the initiatory rite; and in fact Jason and the Dioskouroi (Dioscuri), and Herakles and Orpheus as well, after their initiation attained success in all the campaigns they undertook, because these gods appeared to them.”
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History
5.48.1
“One of the inhabitants of the island [of Samothrake (Samothrace)], a certain Saon [probably the same as Iasion], who was a son, as some say, of Zeus and a Nymphe, but, according to others, of Hermes and Rhene, gathered into one body the peoples who were dwelling in scattered habitations and established laws for them.”
Strabo, Geography 7
Fragment 49 (trans. Jones) (Greek geographer C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.):
“Iasion and Dardanos, two brothers [sons of Elektra (Electra)], used to live in Samothrake (Samothrace). But when Iasion was struck by a thunderbolt because of his sin against Demeter, Dardanos sailed away from Samothrake, went and took up his abode at the foot of Mount Ida, calling the city Dardania.”
Clement, Exhortation to the Greeks
2.12 (trans. Butterworth) (Greek Christian writer C2nd A.D.)
“[An early Christian critique of the pagan Mysteries:] A curse then upon the man who started this deception for mankind, whether it be Dardanos, who introduced the Mysteria for of the Meter Theon (Mother of the Gods); or Eetion [i.e. Iasion], who founded the Samothracian orgies and rites (orgia, teletas).”
Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae
250 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.)
“Teams [of horses] which destroyed their drivers . . . Horses destroyed Iasion, son of Jove [Zeus] by Electra, daughter of Atlas.” [N.B. Presumably Iasion was killed when Zeus cast his lightning bolt, causing his horses to bolt in panic and throwing him from the chariot.]
Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae
270
“Those who were most handsome. Iasion, son of Ilithius, whom Ceres [Demeter] is said to have loved.”
Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica
2.4
“Hermippus [Greek writer C3rd B.C.?], who wrote about the stars, says that Ceres [Demeter] lay with Iasion, son of Thuscus. Many agree with Homer that for his he was struck with a thunderbolt. From them, as Petellides, Cretan writer of histories, shows, two sons were born, Philomelus and Plutus, who had but little Favour for one another. The latter, who was extremely rich, imparted no share of his substance to his brother, who being fore reduced, sold the small estate he had, bought two oxen with the price, and set about the cultivating of the ground, and was the first that applied himself to agriculture. His Mother Ceres, after having admired the Art which her son had invented, placed him among the stars, where he forms the Boötes, or the Artophylax.”
Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica
2.22
“[Constellation Gemini the Twins:] Others have called them Triptolemus, whom we mentioned before [i.e. as the constellation Ophiochus], and Iasion, beloved of Ceres [Demeter]–both carried to the stars.”
Ovid, Metamorphoses
9.421 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.)
“A rumbling argument arose in heaven, the gods all grumbling why others should not be able to grant such gifts [the restoration of youth to the elderly, the sole prerogative of the goddess Hebe]. Aurora [Eos] grumbled at her husband’s [Tithonos’] age, and gentle Ceres [Demeter] that Iasion was going grey.”
Ovid, Amores
(trans. A. S. Kline)
3.10
“Here comes the annual festival of Ceres: my girl lies alone in an empty bed. Golden Ceres, fine hair wreathed with ears of wheat, why must your rituals spoil our pleasure All peoples, wherever, speak of your bounty, Goddess, no other begrudges good to humanity less. Before you, the bearded farmers parched no corn, the word threshing-floor was unknown on the Earth, but oak-trees, the first oracles, carried acorns: these and tender herbs in the grass were our food. Ceres first taught the seeds to swell in the fields, and first with sickles cut the ripened sheaves: first bowed the necks of oxen under the yoke, and scarred the ancient earth with curved blade. Can anyone believe she delights in lovers’ tears that right worship lies in torment and lonely beds? Still, though she loves fertile fields, she’s no rustic, nor does she have a heart bereft of love. The Cretans are witness – Cretans’ don’t always lie. Crete was proud to nurse the infant Jove. There, he who steers the world’s starry courses, sucked milk, with tender mouth as a little child. Proof from a mighty witness: witnessed by his praise. I think Ceres might confess to the charge I make. She saw Iasus on the slopes of Cretan Mount Ida [Viderat Iasium Cretaea diva sub Ida], slaughtering the game with unerring hand. She saw him, and flames pierced her to the marrow, from there, love, partly drove out her shame. Shame quelled by love: you could see parched furrows and the sowing itself gave the least of returns. Though the fields were struck with well-aimed mattocks, and the soil was broken with the curving plough, and the seed scattered evenly over wide acres, the farmers were cheated of their useless prayers. Deep in the woods the goddess of fertility lingered: the garland of wheat-ears slipping from her long hair. Only Crete was enriched by a fruitful year: Wherever the goddess showed herself, there was harvest: Ida itself, home of forests, was white with crops, and the wild boars reaped corn in the woods. Minos the law-giver prayed for more such years: he should have wished for Ceres’s love to last forever. Because you were sad on lonely nights, golden goddess, why should I be forced now to endure your rites?Why should I be sad, when your daughter’s found again, her fate to rule a kingdom second only to Juno’s? This festive day calls for loving, and poetry, and wine: these are the gifts it’s right to carry to the gods.”
Ovid, Sorrows of an Exile (Tristia)
(Trans. E. J. Kenney)
2.1
“Outside, and Venus with the avenger placed.
Sitting in Isis’ fane she’ll ask why Juno
Drove her so far across the Ionian sea.
Endymion to the Moon, Venus to Anchises,
Iasion to Ceres linked will be.”
Conon, Narrations
21
“Dardanus and Jasion, both sons of Jupiter and Electra, daughter of Atlas, lived on the island of Samothrace. Jasion, having tried to search the ghost of Ceres, was killed by a thunderbolt. Dardanus, terrified at what had just happened to his brother, put himself on a raft, for there were no ships yet, and passed through the country which is opposite to Samothrace, a bountiful and fertile land famous for Mount Ida which forms part of it. There lived Teucer, son of the river Scamander and a Nymph. The inhabitants were named Teucriens and land was called Teucrie. Teucer, after some conversation with Dardanus, gave him half his kingdom. The new Sovereign built a city in the very place where he had landed on his raft. After Teucer died, Dardanus united the whole country under his dominion.”
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Roman Antiquities 1.61 (Trans. Cary/Spelman)
“That the Trojans, too, were a nation as truly Greek as any and formerly came from the Peloponnesus has long since been asserted by some authors and shall be briefly related by me also. The account concerning them is as follows. Atlas was the first king of the country now called Arcadia, and he lived near the mountain called Thaumasius. He had seven daughters, who are said to be numbered now among the constellations under the names of the Pleiades; Zeus married one of these, Electra, and had by her two sons, Iasus and Dardanus. Iasus remained unmarried, but Dardanus married Chryse, the daughter of Pallas, by whom he had two sons, Idaeus and Deimas; and these, succeeding Atlas in the kingdom, reigned for some time in Arcadia. Afterwards, a great deluge occurring throughout Arcadia, the plains were overflowed and for a long time could not be tilled; and the inhabitants, living upon the mountains and eking out a sorry livelihood, decided that the land remaining would not be sufficient for the support of them all, and so divided themselves into two groups, one of which remained in Arcadia, after making Deimas, the son of Dardanus, their king, while the other left the Peloponnesus on board a large fleet. And sailing along the coast of Europe, they came to a gulf called Melas and chanced to land on a certain island of Thrace, as to which I am unable to say whether it was previously inhabited or not. They ca;led the island Samothrace, a name compounded of the name of a man and the name of a place. For it belongs to Thrace and its first settler was Samon, the son of Hermes and a nymph of Cylene, named Rhene. Here they remained but a short time, since the life proved to be no easy one for them, forced to contend, as they were, with both a poor soil and a boisterous sea; but leaving some few of their people in the island, the greater part of them removed once more and went to Asia under Dardanus as leader of their colony (for Iasus had died in the island, being struck with a thunderbolt for desiring to have intercourse with Demeter), and disembarking win the strait now called the Hellespont, they settled in the region which was afterwards called Phrygia. Idaeus, the son of Dardanus, with part of the company occupied the mountains which are now called after him the Idaean mountains, and there built a temple to the Mother of the Gods and instituted mysteries and ceremonies which are observed to this day throughout all of Phrygia. And Dardanaus built a city named after himself in the region now called the Troad; the land was given to him by Teucer, the king, after whom the country was anciently called Teucris. Many authors, and particularly Phanodemus, who wrote about the ancient lore of Attica, say that Teucer had come into Asia from Attica, where he had been chief of the deme called Xypete, and of this tale they offers many proofs. They add that, having possessed himself of a large and fertile country with but a small native population, he was glad to see Dardanus and the Greeks who came with him, both because he hoped for their assistance in his wars against the barbarians and because he desired that the land should not remain unoccupied.”
in Venerem Anchises, in Lunam Latmius heros,
in Cererem Iasion, qui referatur, erit.
omnia perversae possunt corrumpere mentes;
According to Theoi.com here are some other sources:
OTHER SOURCES
Other references not currently quoted here: Servius ad Aeneid 1.384 & 3.15 & 3.167, Ovid Amores 3.25 [?], Scholiast ad Theocritus 3.30, Eustathius ad Homer 1528, Tzetzes ad Lycophron 29, Stephanus Byzantium s.v. Dardanos.
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