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

28

Zeus identified with Aither

interpretation of his own cosmological myth. But the tradition
that he actually did so is late, and so mixed up with Stoic
phraseology that it would be unsafe to build upon it1.

Whatever Thales of Miletos meant by his statements that ' all
things are full of gods2' and that even inanimates, to judge from
the load-stone and amber, have life3, it is at least clear that his
teaching was in a sense zoi'stic. It is therefore of interest to find
that Herakleitos, the greatest of his followers, uses the expression
' AWirios Zeus' as a direct equivalent of'the Bright Sky.' In
a fragment preserved by Strabon he writes:

The limits of Morning and Evening are the Bear,

and over against the Bear is the boundary of AWirios Zeus4.

Nay more, may we not venture to assert that Herakleitos' cardinal
doctrine of the universe as an Ever-living Fire5 is but a refinement
upon the primitive conception of Zeus the Burning Sky ? For
not only does the philosopher speak of his elemental Fire as
Keraunos, 'the Thunderbolt6,' a word peculiarly appropriate to
Zeus7, but he actually applies to it the name Zen or Zeus8. The
author of the pseudo-Hippocratean work On Diet borrows both

1879 p. 654, 7 ff. Qepentibris fxh dpxds etVat Xiycou Zrjva, /cat Xdopiyv /cat Kpovov ' Zijva fj.ev
tov aidepa, XOovLrju tt)v yr/v, Kpovov de rhv xpbvov' 0 (ihv aidrjp to iroiovv, i] de yi] to
ird<rxov, 6 5e xpbvos iv $ ra yivbp.eva, Probus in Verg. eel. 6. 31 p. 355 Lion Pherecydes...
Tirjva, inquit, /cat X66v<a> /cat Kpovou, ignem ac terrain <ac> tempus significans; et
esse aethera, qui regat terram, qua regatur tempus, in quo universa pars moderetur.

1 This was seen by E. Zeller op. cit. i. 91 n. 3.

2 Aristot. de anima 1. 5. 411a 8, Plat. legg. 899 B, Diog. Laert. 1. 27, Aet. 1. 7. 11.

3 Diog. Laert. 1. 24, Aristot. de anima 1. 2. 405 a 20 f.

4 Herald, ap. Strab. 3 olvt'lov tt)s dpKTOv odpos aidpiov Ai.6s=frag. 30 Bywater, 120 Diels.
On the interpretation of these words consult E. Zeller A History of Greek Philosophy
trans. S. F. Alleyne London 1881 ii. 46 n. 1, who renders 'the sphere of bright Zeus,'
and J. Burnet Early Greek Philosophy London and Edinburgh 1892 p. 136 n. 23, who
says: 'It seems to me to be simply the clear noon-day sky, put for pLe<T7)p(3pia.'

5 Ilvp aeifaov Herakl. frag. 20 Bywater, 30 Diels.

6 Herakl. ap. Hippolyt. ref. haer. 9. 10 7raVra ot'a/ctfet /cepaw6s =frag. 28 Bywater,
64 Diels, cp. Kleanth. h. Zeus 10 irvpotVT deL^diovTa nepavvov, Philodem. 7rept evaefidas
6a p. 70 Gomperz nepavvbs ^r<avT, ota/ot^et.

7 Infra ch. ii § 3 (a) i.

8 Herakl. ap. Clem. Al. strom. 5. 14 p. 404, 1 Stahlin (Euseb. praep. ev. 13. 13. 42)
'iv to aocpbv plovpov \6yeadaL ovk e6e\ei /cat edtXei. 7nr)vbs 6vop,a=frag. 65 Bywater, 32 Diels.
Schuster punctuates after p.ovvov (Rhein. Mus. 1854 ix. 345), Cron after ^0Aet {Philologtis
N.F. 1889 i. 208 ff.). Bernays transposes e'0Aet /cat ovk idtXei {Rhein. Mus. 1854 ix> 25^ £)•
6vop,a vulg. oiivop.a. Bywater with Euseb. cod. D. ovvop.aTL Mullach.

Probably Zrivbs, for Aids, in order to suggest a connexion with tfjv, 'to live' (supra
p. 11 n. 5).

That Herakleitos called his first principle Zeus, appears also from Chrysipp. ap.
Philodem. irepi eucre/3et'as 14 p. 81 Gomperz tov T\.o\ep.ov /cat tov Ala top avTov eTvat,
Kaddirep /cat 'Hpd/cXetroi' Xeyeiv, Clem. Al. paed. 1. 5 p. 103, 6 Stahlin TOiavTTjv tlvcl
■jrai^eiv Traidiav t6p iavTOV At'a 'Hpd/cXetros \eyet.