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

6

Zeus the Sky

Zeus once signified the animate sky. It is interesting to observe
that the tenth-century scholar, who compiled the great Greek
lexikon known as the Etymologiciim Magmcm, seems to have had
an inkling of the truth; for in discussing the words eiidios and
eudia he suggests as a possible derivation—' or because Zeils
denotes "the sky" also1.'

When the pre-anthropomorphic conception of Zeus had de-
veloped into the anthropomorphic, the natural tendency would be
to forget the former in the latter. We can hardly expect, therefore,
to find in extant Greek literature the name Zeiis used as a simple
equivalent of ' the sky.' Still, there are occasional passages of a
more or less colloquial sort, in which the ancient usage may be
detected. Thus Aristophanes in his comedy Friends of the Frying-
pan makes one of the characters exclaim :

And how should Plouton bear the name he does bear,

Had he not got the best of it? I'll explain.

The things of earth surpass the things of Zeus.

When you are weighings 'tis the laden pan

Seeks earth, the empty one goes up towards Zeus2.

The remark gains in point, if we may suppose that 'towards Zeus'
was a popular expression for ' sky-wards3.' It certainly appears
to be used in that sense by Euripides : he has in his Kyklops the
following conversation between Polyphemos, who has returned
home unexpectedly, and the Chorus of Satyrs, who are caught
idling and so face their ferocious master with hanging heads :

Kyklops. Look up, not down.

Chorus. There ! We are staring up towards Zeus himself:
I see the stars ; I see Orion too4.

Plutarch, again, quotes a witty epigram on Lysippos' statue of
Alexander the Great with its characteristic upturned gaze:

The man of bronze who looks to Zeus
Says (so I should opine)—

1 Et. mag. p. 389, 35 r) otl 6 Zeus 0-rj/j.aivei /cat tov ovpavov, cp. ib. p. 409, 6 (Zeus
arjixaivei) tov debv 7} tov ovpavov. So Lyd. de mens. 4. 176 p. 183, 9 ff. Wiinsch Zeus yap
6 drip...ware 5ioo~rjfj.eia to tov depos arj/j.eiov, oicnrep ei)8iov to rrpdov /cat yaXrjvbv tov depos
/caXetrat <rxVP-a, Eustath. in II. p. 88 [, 9 'ivbioi. t'crws 8e /cat rrapd tov vypbv Ata, 0 iffTiv
depa, Tzetz. alleg. II. r. 375 /cat Zeus avTos ripe/uLrjcrev evdios avv aidtyi. On the equation of
Zetfs with dr)p see further infra p. 30.

2 Aristoph. Tagenistae frag. 1. 1—5 Meineke ap. Stob. fior. 121. 18 (ed. Gaisford iii.
417) : the last clause is orav yap terras, tov TaKdvTOV to pewov | /carw jSaStfet, to 8e nevbv
■wpbs tov Ata.

3 For a Latin parallel see Ap. met. 10. 21 (cod. Laur. 54. 24) dentes ad Iovem elevans
(of an ass looking up).

4 Eur. Cycl. 211 ff. KT. (3\eireT avw /cat jxr) /cdrw. | XO. Idov, irpbs avTov tov A/' dvaxe-
KV(pap.ev, I /cat Taarpa /cat tov 'Q/nWa depKOfxai.