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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#0068

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Zeus Amarios

A possible but by no means certain parallel to this survival occurs
in the Tabula Edaliensis, a Cypriote inscription, which thrice uses
the word zdn in the sense of ' time1.' Dr Hoffmann suggests that
this word is related to the Sanskrit dyaus, ' day,' and to the Latin
dies, ' day,'—in fact is akin to the name Zeiis'2. Some such
primitive usage, we may suppose, underlies and explains the
Homeric and Hesiodic belief that ' days are from Zeus3.'

Far more advanced was the cult of Zeus Amarios, whose name
appears to denote Zeus ' of the Day-light' (amdray. According
to Strabon, the Achaeans of the northern Peloponnese, like the
Ionians before them, were wont to assemble for deliberation and
the transaction of common business at a place called the Amdrionr°:
this wras a grove sacred to Zeus in the territory of Aigion6. Hence,
when about the year 230 B.C. the town of Orchomenos in Arkadia
joined the Achaean League, it was agreed that the Achaean
magistrates at Aigion and the Orchomenian magistrates at Orcho-
menos should swear to the terms of a treaty by Zeus Amarios,
Athena Amarta, Aphrodite and all the gods7. And, when in
217 B.C. Aratos the Achaean general had settled certain serious
disputes at Megalopolis, the terms of the settlement were engraved

1 W. Deecke 'Die griechisch-kyprischen Inschriften' in Collitz-Bechtel Gr. Dial.-
Inschr. i. 27 fF. no. 60, 10, 23, 28 u/cus %dv.

2 O. Hoffmann Die griechischen Dialekte Gottingen 1891 i. 68 ff. no. 135, 10, 23, 28
vfais $dv. Id. id. i. 71 f. rejects Meister's view that ^dv — epic drjp and translates 'fiir alle
Zeit,' taking vf-cus^eirl deL (ah accus. for *at/s cp. Indian dyus 'life-time') and i;dv as
akin to djdus, dies, dm. But all this is very doubtful, as Hoffmann himself (id. p. 228)
admits. C. D. Buck Introduction to the Study of the Greek Dialects Boston etc. 1910
p. 182 n. says: '£ai> is possibly connected with fflw and fu>w, live, on the basis of a third
by-form fa-.'

9 Od. 14. 93 pvKres re koL rifxepai £k Aids eiaiv, Hes. 0. d. 765 ij/xara 5' en Aiodev,
ib. 769 atde yap i)p:epai eiai Aids irdpa pLTjTioevros. Cp. //. 2. 134 £vv£a drj j3e(3daot. Atos
p,eya\ov eviavroi. This last line supports the contention of W. Prellwitz Eine griechische
und eine lateinischc Etyinologie Bartenstein 1895 p. 1 ff. that eviavros is strictly the day
on which the year starts again ' in the same' (evl aury) position as before, and that it was
originally an appellation of Zevs — dies (id. p. 8).

4 P. Foucart 'Fragment inedit d'un decret de la ligue acheenne' in the Rev. Arch.
1876 N.S. xxxii. 2. 96—103 first propounded the explanation, now commonly accepted,
of 'Ap,dpLos as 'le dieu de l'atmosphere lumineuse' (ib. p. 100). 'Apcdpa = r}p.£pa is found
in Locrian inscriptions (Collitz-Bechtel op. cit. nos. 1478, 42, 1479, 5, cp. 1478, 33),
and ■KtvTap.apiTevwv in a Delphian inscription (ib. no. 2561, D 16, = Dittenberger Syll.
inscr. Gr.'2 no. 438, 183). ''kp,dpios — 7]p.epio$ may well have been in use on the other side
of the Corinthian Gulf also.

G. Kramer on Strab. 389 and F. Hultsch on Polyb. 2. 39. 6 (praef. p. Iv) hold that
the name was 'Ap.dpios = 'Qp:dpios, cp. dp.apT7j = bp.apTri. Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 1116
n. 3, following Collitz and Schulze Quaestiones epicae p. 500 n. 1, takes 'ApLdpios—'Opi.dpi.os.

5 Strab. 385. MSS. Aivdpiov or 'Apvdpiov. Koraes cj. 'Op.dpiov, Kramer 'Ap.dpiov,
Foucart 'Apvdpiov.

6 Strab. 387. MSS. and cjj. as before.

7 Dittenberger Syll. inscr. Gr.2 no. 2 29 = Michel Recueil (TInscr.gr. no. 199.
 
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