Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 1): Zeus god of the bright sky (Cambridge, 1914)

Preface

Chrysostomos in a memorable sentence declared Zeus to be 'the
giver of all good things, the Father, the Saviour, the Keeper of
mankind.' On the lower levels and slopes of this splendid spiritual
ascent the Greeks found themselves at one with the beliefs of many
surrounding peoples, so that a fusion of the Hellenic Zeus with this
or that barbaric counterpart often came about. On the higher
ground of philosophy and poetry they joined hands with a later
age and pressed on towards our own conceptions of Deity. I have
therefore felt bound to take into account not only the numerous
adaptations of Levantine syncretism but also sundry points of
contact between Hellenism and Christianity. It is obvious that
the limits of such an enquiry are to a certain extent arbitrary.
I shall expect to be told by some that I have gone too far afield,
by others that I have failed to note many side-lights from adjacent
regions. Very possibly both criticisms are true.

Indeed, given the subject, it is not altogether easy to determine
the best method of handling it. As a matter of fact I have tried
more ways than one. In the Classical Review for 1903 and 1904
I published a series of six papers on ' Zeus, Jupiter and the Oak/
which aimed at summarising the Greek and Roman evidence that
might be adduced in support of Sir James G. Frazer's Arician
hypothesis. Satisfied that the evidence was much stronger than I
had at first supposed, I next attempted, rashly enough, to pursue
the same theme into the Celtic, the Germanic, and the Letto-
Slavonic areas. With that intent I wrote another series of eight
articles on 1 The European Sky-God,' which appeared in Folk-Lore
between the years 1904 and 1907. Of these articles the first three
restated, with some modifications, the results obtained on Graeco-
Italic ground ; and the remaining five were devoted to a survey of
analogous phenomena among the Insular Celts. I had meant to
go further along the same road. But at this point Dr Farnell
in the friendliest fashion put a spoke in my wheel by convincing
me that the unity of an ancient god consisted less in his nature
than in his name. Thereupon I decided to abandon my search for
'The European Sky-God'; and I did so the more readily because
I had felt with increasing pressure the difficulty of discussing
customs and myths without a real knowledge of the languages in
which they were recorded. After some hesitation I resolved to
start afresh on narrower lines, restricting enquiry to the single case
of Zeus and marking out my province as explained in the previous
paragraph. Even so the subject has proved to be almost too wide.