DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52552#0030
14
THE THUNDERWEAPON
[107, 108]. In various parts of Greece places that had been
struck by lightning were enclosed, and it was forbidden to set
foot upon them ; they were shown by an inscription to be
consecrated to the “descending Zeus” [115 e], The consecration
of the place was said to be due to the idea that the god who had
come down from the heavens had himself chosen it for his abode;
but originally, no doubt, there was also the underlying feeling
that it was dangerous to set foot upon the spot. Human beings
who had been struck by lightning were similarly sanctified, i.e. it
was forbidden to touch them ; the body was not to be treated like
other dead bodies, and, in particular, was not to be burnt, but
simply covered with earth in the place where it had been found.
Even if these customs were not in historical times associated
with a stone fallen from the sky, still the idea evidently pre-
served in them is that a god descends to the earth in the form
of lightning; this belief, as has been said already, is an essential
part of the group of ideas under consideration. Sam Wide has
collected some of the traditions on the subject, but they are
more fully treated by Usener in his essay on the “Keraunos”
{Rhein. Mus. 1905, pp. 1-30), in which a large part of the
material derived from Greece and Italy is brought together.
Usener, in his analysis of the ideas which were associated
with lightning in Greek religion, draws a distinction between
three phases of the cult.
1. The lightning is worshipped in each separate case as a
god that has descended from heaven to earth {Augenblicksgotf).
2. The lightning is worshipped as a particular god whose
activity is restricted to thunder and lightning {Sondergott}.
3. The lightning is transferred to Zeus as part of the
activity of the God of the Heavens (Zeus Keraunios, etc.).
These three phases, according to Usener, represent three
successive stages in the evolution of the cult; the later ideas, how-
.ever, did not entirely obliterate the earlier ones, of which many
evident traces remained in various places, especially in the cults
of remote districts. Thus Usener assumes that the worship of
the lightning itself as a god was preserved in Macedonia, whence
it was transferred to the Hellenistic countries of Asia. That the
lightning was worshipped as a god in several of the Greek or
THE THUNDERWEAPON
[107, 108]. In various parts of Greece places that had been
struck by lightning were enclosed, and it was forbidden to set
foot upon them ; they were shown by an inscription to be
consecrated to the “descending Zeus” [115 e], The consecration
of the place was said to be due to the idea that the god who had
come down from the heavens had himself chosen it for his abode;
but originally, no doubt, there was also the underlying feeling
that it was dangerous to set foot upon the spot. Human beings
who had been struck by lightning were similarly sanctified, i.e. it
was forbidden to touch them ; the body was not to be treated like
other dead bodies, and, in particular, was not to be burnt, but
simply covered with earth in the place where it had been found.
Even if these customs were not in historical times associated
with a stone fallen from the sky, still the idea evidently pre-
served in them is that a god descends to the earth in the form
of lightning; this belief, as has been said already, is an essential
part of the group of ideas under consideration. Sam Wide has
collected some of the traditions on the subject, but they are
more fully treated by Usener in his essay on the “Keraunos”
{Rhein. Mus. 1905, pp. 1-30), in which a large part of the
material derived from Greece and Italy is brought together.
Usener, in his analysis of the ideas which were associated
with lightning in Greek religion, draws a distinction between
three phases of the cult.
1. The lightning is worshipped in each separate case as a
god that has descended from heaven to earth {Augenblicksgotf).
2. The lightning is worshipped as a particular god whose
activity is restricted to thunder and lightning {Sondergott}.
3. The lightning is transferred to Zeus as part of the
activity of the God of the Heavens (Zeus Keraunios, etc.).
These three phases, according to Usener, represent three
successive stages in the evolution of the cult; the later ideas, how-
.ever, did not entirely obliterate the earlier ones, of which many
evident traces remained in various places, especially in the cults
of remote districts. Thus Usener assumes that the worship of
the lightning itself as a god was preserved in Macedonia, whence
it was transferred to the Hellenistic countries of Asia. That the
lightning was worshipped as a god in several of the Greek or