DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52552#0031
ANCIENT GREECE
15
semi-Greek cities of Asia is quite evident ; it is shown very
clearly by the coins given by Usener in his Gotternamen, p. 286,
and by other evidence from Seleukeia Pieria in Syria and
Diokaisareia in Cilicia. Whether it was really an ancient
Macedonian cult which was introduced here is more doubtful.
It seems more natural to suppose, especially when the other
evidence of lightning-worship in this and neighbouring districts
is considered, that it is a local tradition called forth to new life
under fresh political and religious condi-
tions. The worship of the classical Greek
thunderweapon placed on an altar or
throne (see fig. 4) has indeed the appear-
ance of being the Hellenized form of
an older and more primitive cult (cf.
pp. 26 and 46) similar to the worship of
stone axes on an altar in southern India,
as described above, or to the worship of
Fig. 4.
bronze axes in Mycenaean Greece and Asia Minor, to which
reference will shortly be made.
The classical Greek thunderweapon (keraunos) which repre-
sents the lightning in this cult is practically the only figure
used to express the lightning in ancient Greece and Italy in
historical times (see Chap. Vi). Yet the more primitive notion
of the thunderstone has survived on Greek soil even up to the
present day. A stroke of lightning is in modern Greek called
astropeldki (sky-axe), and the same word is used as the
popular name for the small axes of the stone age which are
occasionally found. The modern Greek name and the idea
attaching to it have also come down to us in mediaeval Byzan-
tine literature [114].
Though the thunderstone belief scarcely appears in either
the religion, the art, or the literature of classical Greece, still we
must suppose it to have lingered on secretly, amongst certain
classes, or in certain districts, throughout the whole of the early
periods of history. How often, indeed, is the thunderstone
mentioned in the whole of the Danish literature of the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries, in spite of the fact that the whole
peasantry believed every stroke of lightning to be due to such
15
semi-Greek cities of Asia is quite evident ; it is shown very
clearly by the coins given by Usener in his Gotternamen, p. 286,
and by other evidence from Seleukeia Pieria in Syria and
Diokaisareia in Cilicia. Whether it was really an ancient
Macedonian cult which was introduced here is more doubtful.
It seems more natural to suppose, especially when the other
evidence of lightning-worship in this and neighbouring districts
is considered, that it is a local tradition called forth to new life
under fresh political and religious condi-
tions. The worship of the classical Greek
thunderweapon placed on an altar or
throne (see fig. 4) has indeed the appear-
ance of being the Hellenized form of
an older and more primitive cult (cf.
pp. 26 and 46) similar to the worship of
stone axes on an altar in southern India,
as described above, or to the worship of
Fig. 4.
bronze axes in Mycenaean Greece and Asia Minor, to which
reference will shortly be made.
The classical Greek thunderweapon (keraunos) which repre-
sents the lightning in this cult is practically the only figure
used to express the lightning in ancient Greece and Italy in
historical times (see Chap. Vi). Yet the more primitive notion
of the thunderstone has survived on Greek soil even up to the
present day. A stroke of lightning is in modern Greek called
astropeldki (sky-axe), and the same word is used as the
popular name for the small axes of the stone age which are
occasionally found. The modern Greek name and the idea
attaching to it have also come down to us in mediaeval Byzan-
tine literature [114].
Though the thunderstone belief scarcely appears in either
the religion, the art, or the literature of classical Greece, still we
must suppose it to have lingered on secretly, amongst certain
classes, or in certain districts, throughout the whole of the early
periods of history. How often, indeed, is the thunderstone
mentioned in the whole of the Danish literature of the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries, in spite of the fact that the whole
peasantry believed every stroke of lightning to be due to such