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

Aither as the abode of Zeus 25

tends to confirm our conjecture that the Komyria was the
marriage-feast of Zeus1.

It is probable that the crowds which in Roman times thronged
the precinct looked upon the Komyria as the 1 Hair '-festival; for
the published dedications, sixty or so in number, regularly describe
the votive hair as kome or komai. This appears to be another
case of an obvious Greek meaning thrust upon an unobvious
Carian term. It is thus comparable with the name of Zeus
Pandmaros himself2.

§ 2. Zeus and the Burning Sky.

(a) Aither as the abode of Zeus.

As a bright sky-god Zeus lived in the aither or * burning sky3.'
Homer'and Theognis speak of him as 'dwelling in aither4'! And
a notable line in the Iliad says:

Zeus' portion was
Broad heaven in the aither and the clouds5.

Hence, when he punished Hera, he hung her up ' in the aither and

upright tongue attached to a fillet (cp. a stele in the Naples collection figured by Collignon
Hist, de la Sculpt, gr. i. 256, the Lapiths on a vase published by II. Heydemann Mittheil-
ungen aus den Antikensammlungen in Ober- und Mittelitalien Halle 1879 pi. 3, 1, etc.),
but admits that there is no trace of the fillet. On the shaved moustache of the Spartans
as a tribal mark see infra ch. i § 3 (f).

The relation of Kcupos to this group of words is dealt with in Append. A.

1 In Anth. Pal. 6. 242 Krinagoras records the dedication of his brother's first beard
reXe'iip \ Tirjvi /cat &d'ivwv neCkix^ 'Apre/JuSi. Dr Rouse op. cit. p. 241 says: 'Agamemnon
in perplexity tore out handfuls of hair as an offering to Zeus' (//. 10. r 5 f. 7roXXas e/c
KecpaXrjs irpode\vp,vovs eX/cero %atras | v^bd' ebvri Au). But this strange couplet has been
variously interpreted. Eustath. in II. p. 786, 46 ff. presses the preceding metaphor to
mean that, just as Zeus thundered, rained, and snowed, so Agamemnon groaned, shed
tears, and scattered his hairs broadcast! Probably the whole passage is due to some
bombastic rhapsode, who was trying to outdo the more commonplace phrase Aa xet/oas
avao-xetv (W. Leaf ad loc).

2 Supra p. 18. A puzzling epithet, perhaps another example of the same inter-
linguistic phenomenon, is that given in the Bull. Corr. Hell. 1891 xv. 186 no. 130 A, 1
[Att U~\avT]/Aep<j} 'Apyupov Kal"H[pa]. MM. Deschamps and Cousin take 'Apyupov to be an
indeclinable divine title, which has given rise to such personal names as Bull. Corr. Hell.
1888 xii. 487 no. 60 (Panamara) 'Ewacppci [/cjo/^ 'Ap[y~]vpov, Bull. Corr. Hell. 1887 xi. 12
no. 6, 5 f. (Lagina) ttpeia i] yvvrj a\y\Tov | 'Apre^ets 'Apyupov K(copa)£(is), Corp. inscr. Gr.
iv no. 8753 (Pergamon) 'Ap[y]vpou. But to Greek ears 'Apytipov spelled 'Silver,' and
silver was the metal specially assigned to Zeus by the Byzantines {infra ch. i § 6 (g)
on Iupiter Dolichenus).

3 L. Meyer Handb. d. gr. Etym. ii. 91, Prellwitz Etyjn. Worterb. d. Gr. Spr." p. 15,
Boisacq Diet. etym. de la langue Gr. p. 23.

4 //. 2. 412, 4. 166, Od. 15. 523, Theogn. 757 aldtpi valwv.

5 //. 15. 192 Zei)s 5' £Aax' ovpavbv evpvv iv cuW/h /cat vecpeXycnv. See infra ch. ii §6.