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

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Zeus the Sky

god Zeus.' Thus, on the assumption that Zeus began life as the
Zeus, both Homeric and Attic usages are satisfactorily explained1.
We note in passing that in north-eastern Phrygia Zeus was
worshipped as Zeus Dzos2, a double appellation which recalls the
Dea Dia of the Romans, and very possibly attests the survival
among the Thraco-Phrygian folk of an early, not to say primitive,
Zeus.

Another adjective endios occurs in epic verse with the meaning
'in broad day-light' or 'at mid-day3.' For example, Nestor in
the Iliad describes an expedition in which he had once taken part:

At mid-day {endioi) came we to the sacred stream
Alpheios4.

Eidothea too in the Odyssey tells Menelaos the habits of her father
Proteus:

What time the Sun bestrides mid heaven, there comes
Shoreward the unerring Ancient of the Sea5.

And fifty lines further on her word is made good :

At mid-day {endios) came the Ancient from the seae.

1 Another possible, but—as it seems to me—less probable, explanation would be to
say that Atos meant originally 'of Zeus,' i.e. of the personal Zeus, and that its meaning
had been widened and weakened by epic usage till 8ios came to signify merely 'divine,'
while yet Attic poetry retained the primary force of the word Atos, 'of Zeus.' That
different dialects should be at different stages in the evolution of the meaning of a given
word, and even that the early poetry of one dialect should give only the later meaning
while the later poetry of another dialect gave only the early meaning, is certainly thinkable.
But the hypothesis set forth in the text involves fewer assumptions.

2 A. Korte in the Gott. Gel. Anz. 1897 clix. 409 f. publishes (after G. Radet 'En
Phrygie' in the Nouvelles Archives des Missions Scientifiques Paris 1895 vi. 425—594) a
limestone altar at Eskischehir in the Kutschiik-Han inscribed 'Ayadr] t6xv \ SoAwj' iepbs
k<x I Tot eiura-yriv A[t]|t Atw evxv"- <¥ \ eavrQ £G>v. On the upper part of the altar are
two bunches of grapes; on the base, a plough of a kind still much used in Anatolia.
Korte observes that the quantity of t in Atos is doubtful, and suggests that we have here
perhaps 'den uralten Himmelsgott Atos' (an ancient nominative assumed by H. Usener
Gotternamen Bonn 1896 pp. 43, 70 f. to account for Aiocrdvos, Atos Kdpivdos, mx-dius
tertius, Dius fidius, AtuMos). This, however, is highly precarious. I prefer to write
Atos with Sir W. M. Ramsay Studies in the History and Art of the Eastern Provinces
of the Roman Empire Aberdeen 1906 p. 275, who notes that Solon, servitor of Zeus
Atos, discharged a vow to his god and by the same act of devotion made a tomb for
himself.

3 So Souid. s.v. £V5tos, Hesych. s.vv. 'ivdia, eVStos, evUots, et. mag. p. 339, I, el. Gtid.
p. 186, 39, Orion p. 60, 4, Apollon. lex. Horn. s.v. gvdetos, Cramer anecd. Oxon. ii.
200, 7 f.

4 //. 11. 726 with Eustath. in II. p. 881, 5 /caret [xearnxfipiav. schol. V. ad loc. says
Stct deiXLav.

5 Od. 4. 400 f.

6 lb. 450 with scholl. V.B.E. frdios' /xearjfx^pLvds.