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

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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14695#0059

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Zeus the Sky

7

' This earth I keep for my own use ;
The sky, Zeus, is for thine1.'

With these passages of comedy and quasi-comedy should be
compared certain others of more serious tone, in which the poet
says ' the rays of Zeus' or ' the light of Zeus' where we should
say 'the light of day.' The Iliad thus describes the crash of a
battle between Argives and Trojans:

The din of both
Rose to the upper sky and the rays of Zeus2.

Hekabe in the tragedy that Euripides named after her speaks of
her dead son Polydoros as—

No longer in the light of Zeus3.

In the same poet's Iphigeneia at Aulis the heroine, when she
departs to her death, bids adieu to the day-light:

O lamp of day
And light of Zeus,
Another life,
Another lot
Henceforth be mine.
Loved light, farewell4.

In such passages it is difficult to determine whether Zeus is
conceived as anthropomorphic, or not. Anthropomorphism is,
however, apparent in the Rkesos, where Euripides writes not only
'the light of the god5' but also 'Zeus god of Light6.'

1 Plout. de Alex. magn. i. 9, 2. 2 ( = Cougny Anth. Pal. Append. 3. 53) avdaaovvTi
5' 'ioiKev 6 xdA/ceos els At'a Xevaawv | ' ydv vir' ip.ol Tidepai, Zeu, av 6° "OXvfxirov l%e.'

2 //. 13. 837 7/X77 5' aiKpoTepwv Xkbt aidepa /cat Atos avy&s. Schol. B. Atds yap avyas
Xeyei tov ovpavbv. Schol. V. tov ovpavbv 6V aiOepos ovpavbv i}Kev {II. 2. 458). So schol. T.,
adding ot 8e "Atos" rod rfXiov, IrAarwi't/cws. Cp. Eustath. in II. p. 962, 64 f. Atos avy&s,
0 icTTLv TjXiov Kara tovs iraXaioiJs and et. mag. p. 409, 9 which quotes the line as proof that
Zetfs sometimes means 'the sun.' Hesych. Aibs avyds' ttjs rj/uepas to <pu>s. tov aidepa.
The phrase recurs in a Greek metrical inscription found at Ostia {Inscr. Gr. Sic. It.
no. 940 \ev alde]pi /cat Atds avyais).

3 Eur. Hec. 707 ou/cer' bvTa Atos iv cpdet.

4 Id. I.A. 1505 ff. lb) id), I Xa/x7ra§o0%os due" pa | Atos re <pe"yyos, k.t.X.

5 Id. Rhes. 331 tovitlov aeXas 6eov = i to-morrow.'

6 Id. ib. 355 Zeus 6 Qavalos. Perhaps we should rather render ' Pie that Appeareth' ;
cp. ib. 370 (pdvrjdi. The same title was borne by Apollon in Chios (Hesych. s.v. Qavaios),
and is thus explained by Macrob. Sat. 1. 17. 34: Qavalov (MSS. Qavebv) iiretdi) (paiverac
vkos, quia sol cotidie renovat sese. Cornut. theol. 32 p. 67, 3 f. Lang has ^k.trb\\wva)
§avaiov curb tov drjXovadai 6V avrov rd oVra /cat cpwTL^eadaL tov Kba/xov. But, as applied to
the Chian Apollon, and presumably also to Zeus, the epithet was at first a mere edviKov,
'the god of Phanai'; for Strab. 645 in describing Chios mentions ^d^at, Xi/at]v j3advs,
/cat pews 'A7t6X\wj/os /cat dXaos cpoiviKwv, though Steph. Byz. s.v. Qdvai says aKpoiT-qpiov ttjs
X£ou, d7ro tov ixeWev dva<pav7)vai rrj Atjtoi tt)v AijXov. oi olicTjTopes Qavaioi k.t.X. The
port and promontory are referred to by other writers (Aristoph. av. 1694 with schol.,
 
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