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Full text of "Zeus : a study in ancient religion"

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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from Brigham Young University

http://www.archive.org/details/zeusstudyinancie03cook

ZEUS

A STUDY IN ANCIENT RELIGION

VOLUME III PART I

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

LONDON: BENTLEY HOUSE

NEW YORK, TORONTO, BOMBAY CALCUTTA, MADRAS: MACMILLAN

TOKYO: MARUZEN COMPANY LTD All rights reiewed

'''Jl ZEUS

' A STUDY IN ANCIENT RELIGION

BY

ARTHUR BERNARD COOK, Litt.D.

VICE-PRESIDENT OF QUEENs' COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF CLASSICAL ARCHAEOLOGY

VOLUME III

ZEUS GOD OF THE DARK SKY

(EARTHQUAKES, CLOUDS, WIND,

DEW, RAIN, METEORITES)

yjii ZU5 aWoKa fxev TreXet aWpcos, aXXo/ca S' vei

Theokritos 4. 43

PART I

TEXT AND NOTES

Cambridge

at the University Press

1940

LIBRARY PROVO. UTAH

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

HAROLD B. LEE LIBRARY aftlQHAM YOUNC UWVBRtfnf PROVO, UTAH .J

KAi d 4>epeKYAHC eAereN eic "EpcoTA MerABeBAHcGAi ton Ai'a MeAAoNTA AHMioypreiN, OTi Ah ton kocmon ek toon cnantioon cynictac eic omoAohan

Ka'i 4)|A|'aN HfAre KAI TAyTOTHTA HACIN NCn6ip6 KAI ENOaCIN THN Al' OACjON AlHKOyCAN.

Pherekydes of Syros fra^. 3 Diels ap. Prokl. m Plat. Tzm.

ii. 54, 28 ff. Diehl.

Ae HMeTepoc eipHNiKOC kai hantaxoy npAOc, oToc actaciactoy kai

OMONOOYCHC THC 'EAAaAOC CniCKOnOC* ON erOO MeTA THC eMAYTOf Te'XNHC KAI Thlc 'HAei'oON noAeOOC C0(J)HC kai ArAB^C BOYAeYCAMCNOC lApYCAMHN, HMGpON KAI CeMNON eN AAYHCO C)(HMATI, TON Bl'oY KAI ZOOHC KAI CYMHANTOON AOTHpA TOON Ar ^dirwi' aTrodaveiv rives \4yovTai irepl t6 ^Xolov /cat rd ocra deiKwrai avrCbv' tlv^s 5e Xiyovcri kuI to ^Xotbv e7r' iKeiviav payijvai, (pdeyyo/xivuv ixiya. tl Kai didropop (see further Halliday ad loc. p. 207 fF.). S. Reinach in the Rev. Arch. 1928 ii. 161 quotes with approval Sir A. Evans The Palace of Minos London 1928 ii. i. 324: 'The delight of the Earth-shaker in bulls, referred to in the Homeric passage [//. 20. 403 ff.], may itself find a reasonable explanation in the widespread idea... that earth- quakes are produced by some huge beast beneath the Earth. Sometimes, as in Japan, it is a monstrous fish, sometimes an elephant or other animal of prodigious size, but, amongst all of these, the bull is the most natural agent. According to the Moslems of Tashkend [J. Troll in the Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie 1892 xxiv. 537 f.], Almighty God set to support the Earth a bull of such monstrous size that from his head to the end of his tail was five hundred years' journey, and the space between his two horns another two hundred [and fifty]. The bull, thus heavily laden, prompted by the Devil, shook his head and tried to throw the Earth off him with his horns. Thereat, a midge was sent to sting him in the nostril, and he set up a mighty bellowing, so that he is known unto this day as "the bellower".'

Again, there is an earthquake when the giant Briareus under Mt Aitne shifts to his other shoulder (Kallim. h. Del. 141 ff.), or when Enkelados beneath the same burden changes his weary side (Verg. Aen. 3. 578 ff.). All Sicily trembles when Typhoeus, crushed by its weight, struggles to thrust it from him (Ov. met. 5. 346 ff., Val. Flacc. 2. 23 ff.). A like commotion was caused when Kaineus, buried beneath a huge mound of stocks and stones, tried in vain to lift his head (Ov. met. 12. 514 ff.). Giants laid low by Herakles Mimas beneath Prochyte, lapetos beneath Inarime made the earth shake above them and blasted the soil of Campania (Sil. It. 12. 143 ff., cp. ib. 529). In parti- cular, Alkyoneus (Claud, de rapt. Pros. 3. i84f.) and other giants with him were thought to lie beneath Mt Vesuvius (Philostr. her. 2. 7), and during the eruption of 79 a.d. many gigantic phantoms appeared by day and night on the mountain, in the neighbouring towns, and in the sky a prelude to periods of severe drought and appalling earthquakes (Dion Cass. ^d. 22). We may venture to compare the happenings described in Matthew 27. 51 53. Analogous beliefs still linger in Greek lands: a short, sharp earthquake accompanied by a peculiar crash occurred in Zakynthos on Aug. 4/16, 1862, and the next day a peasant employed over the currant-crop in the village of Hagios Kyrikos observed with regard to it 'Some building of the giants must have collapsed' (B. Schmidt Das Volksleben der Neugriechen Leipzig 1871 i. 33, 201 ko-tl xti/sio tov yiyaLVToive da iireae. Cp. supra ii. 505 f.). It should, however, be recognised that the express con- nexion of earthquakes with buried giants or the like is Hellenistic, not Hellenic. Earlier sources {e.g. Hes. theog. 859 ff., Pind. Pyth. i. 29 ff., Pherekyd. /ra^. 14 {Frag. hist. Gr. i. 72 Miiller) = />-^. 54 {Frag. gr. Hist. i. 76 Jacoby) ap. schol. Ap. Rhod. 2. 1210 ff.) emphasise volcanic rather than seismic effects.

Other gods could on occasion produce a quake. Athena did so at Troy when

4- Zeus and the Earthquakes

wroth with Laokoon (Quint. Smyrn. 12. 395 ff.)- Dionysos in Soph. Ant. 153 f. 6 Orj^as 5' eXeXix^oju (eXeXi^ojv cod. L with yp. iXeXixdojv written above by scholiast) I Bd/cxtos apxoi bears the title of an earthquake-god (the schol. vet. ad /oc, followed by Sir K. C. Jebb, is inadequate 6 9^/3as 5' eXeXi^oju BaKX^^os : 6 KLvrjaLxdoju- eXeXt'x^ova 8e rbv At6vvff6v (priai 5id rds ev rats BaKx^iats Kip-^aeis- r) rbu ttjv yrjv adovra Kal dva^aK- Xevovra rats xopeiats) and in Eur. Bacch. 586 ff., 605 f., 622 f. , 632 f. shatters, or at least is believed to shatter, the house of Pentheus (G. Norwood The Riddle of the Bacchae Manchester 1908 p. 37 ff., id. Greek Tragedy London 1920 p. 281 f., A. W. Verrall The Bacchants of Euripides and other Essays Cambridge 19 10 pp. 26 ff., 64 ff.) an exploit compatible with Orphic belief (Orph. h. Perikiott. 47. i ff. KtKXr)