M67 This theory confirmed by the astronomical symbols carried by the Laurel-bearer at the octennial festival of Laurel-bearing. The Olympic festival seems to have been based on the octennial cycle. Mythical marriage of the sun and moon at Olympia. 255 Proclus, quoted by Photius, _Bibliotheca_, p. 321, ed. Bekker. 256 Proclus, _l.c._ 257 Pindar, _Pyth._ iii. 155 _sqq._; Diodorus Siculus, v. 49. 1; Pausanias, ix. 12. 3; Schol. on Homer, _Iliad_, ii. 494. 258 Schol. on Euripides, _Phoenissae_, 7 καὶ νῦν ἔτι ἐν τῇ Σαμοθρᾴκῃ ζητοῦσιν αὐτὴν [scil. Ἁρμονίαν] ἐν ταῖς ἑορταῖς. According to the Samothracian account, Cadmus in seeking Europa came to Samothrace, and there, having been initiated into the mysteries, married Harmonia (Diodorus Siculus, v. 48 _sq._). It is probable, though it cannot be proved, that the legend was acted in the mystic rites. 259 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 133. Mr. A. B. Cook has suggested that the central scene on the eastern frieze of the Parthenon represents the king and queen of Athens about to take their places among the enthroned deities. See his article “Zeus, Jupiter, and the Oak,” _Classical Review_, xviii. (1904) p. 371. As the scenes on the frieze appear to have been copied from the Panathenaiac festival, it would seem, on Mr. Cook’s hypothesis, that the sacred marriage of the King and Queen was celebrated on that occasion in presence of actors who played the parts of gods and goddesses. In this connexion it may not be amiss to remember that in the eastern gable of the Parthenon the pursuit of the moon by the sun was mythically represented by the horses of the sun emerging from the sea on the one side, and the horses of the moon plunging into it on the other. 260 Schol. on Pindar, _Olymp._ iii. 35 (20). 261 Compare Aug. Boeckh, on Pindar, _l.c._, _Explicationes_, p. 138; L. Ideler, _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie_, i. 366 _sq._; G. F. Unger, “Zeitrechnung der Griechen und Römer,” in Iwan Müller’s _Handbuch der classischen Altertumswissenschaft_, i. 605 _sq._ All these writers recognise the octennial cycle at Olympia. 262 K. O. Müller, _Die Dorier_,2 ii. 483; compare _id._ i. 254 _sq._ 263 Pausanias, v. 1. 4. 264 Aug. Boeckh, _l.c._; A. Schmidt, _Handbuch der griechischen Chronologie_ (Jena, 1888), pp. 50 _sqq._; K. O. Müller, _Die Dorier_,2 i. 438; W. H. Roscher, _Selene und Verwandtes_, pp. 2 _sq._, 80 _sq._, 101.