The misgiving is emphasized by the modern philologist. The derivation of Diasia with its long from Διός with its short _i_ is scientifically improbable if not impossible. Happily another derivation that at least satisfies scientific conditions has been suggested by Mr R. A. Neil. Not only does it satisfy scientific conditions but it also confirms the view arrived at by independent investigation of the ritual and art representations of Zeus Meilichios. Mr Neil[42] suggests that in several Greek words showing the stem δῑο this stem may stand by the regular falling away of the medial σ for δῑσο and is identical with the Latin _dīro_[43]. _dirus_, he notes, was originally a purely religious word. Such words would be the Dīasia, whatever the termination may be, the Δῖα of Teos (p. 143) and perhaps the Πάνδια of Athens. Seen in the light of this new etymology the Diasia becomes intelligible: it is the festival of curses, imprecations; it is nocturnal and associated with rites of placation and purgation, two notions inextricably linked in the mind of the ancients. We further understand why Meilichios seems the male double of Erinys and why his rites are associated with ‘chilly gloom.’ The Diasia has primarily and necessarily nothing to do with Διός, with Zeus; it has everything to do with ‘dirae,’ magical curses, exorcisms and the like. The keynote of primitive ritual, it will become increasingly clear, is exorcism. In the light of this new derivation it is possible further to explain another element in the cult of Zeus Meilichios hitherto purposely left unnoticed, the famous Διὸς κώδιον, the supposed ‘fleece of Zeus.’ The Διὸς κώδιον is, I think, no more the fleece of Zeus than the Diasia is his festival. Polemon, writing at the beginning of the second century B.C., undoubtedly accepted the current derivation, and on the statement of Polemon most of our notices of ‘the fleece of Zeus’ appear to be based. Hesychius[44] writes thus: ‘The fleece of Zeus: they use this expression when the victim has been sacrificed to Zeus, and those who were being purified stood on it with their left foot. Some say it means a great and perfect fleece. But Polemon says it is the fleece of the victim sacrificed to Zeus.’