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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#0060

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8 Zeus the Sky

For fifteen hundred years and more, in fact till the decay of
paganism, the anthropomorphic conception of Zeus held the field.
Yet the older view was never very far below the surface, and from
time to time, as we shall see, it cropped up in a variety of ways.
Even in the extreme decadence of Greek letters there was a
scholastic resuscitation of it. Thus, the original Zeus was simply
the radiant day-light Sky. With the rise of anthropomorphism
this belief was obscured and overlaid. The Zeus of Hesiodic
mythology is described as grandson of an older god OnranSs, the
starry midnight ' Sky1.' In Hellenic times the two Spartan kings
were respectively priests of Zeus Lakedaimon and Zeus Onrdnios
('of the Sky2'). In the Hellenistic age the latter title was much
used by the poets3: it afforded a point of contact between the
Greek Zeus and the Semitic Bctal-samin, 'Lord of Heaven4.'
Finally, Byzantine learning spoke of Zeus ouranos, Zeus the
' sky5,' a title which in letter, though not in spirit, recalled the
primary idea of the animate Sky.

Thouk. 8. 24, Ptolem. 5. 2 p. 323, 19, Liv. 36. 43, 44. 28, 45. 10, Verg. georg. 2. 98 with
Serv. ad loc).

Orphic writers occasionally gave the name Zeus to their first-born deity ^dvrjs
(Damaskios qnaest. de primis principiis p. 380 = Ox\>\\. frag. 48 Abel Hpwrbyovov avvfxvel
/cat At'a KoCke? rcdvTwv dLaraKTopa, Euseb. praep. ev. 3. 9. 1 f. = Stob. eel. 1.1. 23 = Orph.
frag. 123 Abel Zeus irpQiTos yevero /c.r.A. : see O. Gruppe in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 2260),
whose own name was explained sometimes as referring to Light (Io. Malal. chron. 4 p. 74
Dindorf, Souid. s.v. 'Opcpevs 7 0u)s) or to Day (Theon Smyrn. expos, rerum mathemat. ad
legendum Platonem utilium p. io5 = Orph. frag. 171 Abel §avr\ re /xeyav /cat vuktcl
p,e\aivav), but usually as a description of the Sun (Macrob. Sat. 1. 18. 13, Diod. 1. 11,
Iambi, theol. arith. p. 60 : see E. Zeller A History of Greek Philosophy trans. S. F. Alleyne
London 1881 i. 106 n. 4, O. Gruppe in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 2255 f.). On a relief at
Modena representing Phanes with a thunderbolt in his right hand see R. Eisler Welten-
mantel und Himmelszelt Mvinchen 1910 ii. 399 ff. fig. 47.

1 The relation of Ouranos to Gaia, and of both to Zeus, will be considered later.

2 Hdt. 6. 56. Wide Lakon. Kulte p. 3 cites Corp. inscr. Gr. i no. 1241, 8 ff.
[ayco]vo6eT7]s | [rwv] fxeydXwv Ov\_pa\viw\v, no. 1258, 6 ff. [t]|epe!>s ye\ybfX€vos ?] | Aids
Ovp[aviov], no. 1276, 9 f. tepees | Ovpaviwv, Lebas-Foucart Peloponnese no. 179 a, 3 f.
veiKTjaavTa rpaywdovs 0vpav\id8a y { — Corp. inscr. Gr. i no. 1420, cp. nos. 1421, 11 f.,
1429, 4f., 1473, 1, 1719, 6), Corp. inscr. Gr. i no. 1424, 1 ff. tQv [xeylaTwv Ovpaviwv \ Se-
(3aaTelo)i> ?iepovavi5ei\wv.

3 Kallim. h. Zeus 55, ep. 52. 3 Wilamowitz, Anth. Pal. 9. 352. 4 (Leonidas Alex.),
Anth. Plan. 293. 3, Kaibel Epigr. Gr. no. 618. 21, Eratosth. epist. ad Ptolem. 15 Hiller,
Nonn. Dion. 21. 4, 24. 279, 25. 348, 27. 76, 31. 97, 43. 174 f., 47. 694 f. (cp. 46. 39 Zrjvbs
eirovpavloio)—collected by Bruchmann Epith. deor. p. 136. So Aristot. de mnndo 7.
401 a 25.

4 Infra ch. i § 6 (a). See also C. Clermont-Ganneau Recueil d'Archiologie Orientalc
Paris 1903 v. 66 ff.

5 Tzetz. antehom. 208 Zrjvbs cppabfxoavvricnv ev ovpauov dcrrepdevros, Horn. 171 f. Zeiis de
rbr1 ovpavbs dpyvepeas vecpeXas <TTV(pe\ifav \ fipbvra %w6ftecos, alleg. Od. 6. 198 eVet /cat Zei)s
6 ovpavbs /cat Zei)s airros rvyxdvec, 9. 81 Atos 6p:j3povs (leg. 6p.j3pos) de^et 5e, rod ovpavov vuv
Aeyet, 12. 25 f. at de IlXetdSes acpCov irarpi At/, rip ovpavtp de, | (ptpovaiv, 102 Zeus uicrev
ave/xov £wrjv, 6 ovpavbs evddde, cp. 9. 78 Att %etpas dveaxo^v, rep ovpav'np vxpei.
 
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