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

4°

The Blue Nimbus

whose archaic statue holding thunderbolt and eagle surmounts a
pillar on the right1. Before it upon the wall hangs a shield.

These vases prove that the pillar-
cult of Zeus as conceived in south
Italy passed from the aniconic to the
iconic stage without discarding the
primitive pillar. They thus afford a
fair parallel to the painting from
Pompeii, though there we have Zeus
by the pillar and here Zeus on the
pillar.

It remains to speak of the blue
nimbus. Despite the express denial
of L. Stephani2, there is something to
be urged for the view put forward by
E. G. Schulz, that painters varied the
colour of the nimbus in accordance
with the character of the god they
portrayed, and that a blue nimbus in
particular suited Zeus as representative
of the aitherz. It is—I would rather
say—a naive device for depicting Zeus
as a dweller in the blue sky, and is
therefore no less suitable to other
denizens of Olympos4.

Christian art retained the symbol
with a like significance. A fourth
Fig> XI century painting from the top of an

arcosolium in the Roman Catacombs
shows Elias ascending to heaven in his chariot of fire. The saint

however Eur. El. 839 ff.): it was perhaps inspired by the death of Priamos at the altar of
Zeus Herkeios [supra p. 39 n. 2).

1 A milder type of pillar-Zeus, with phidle in right hand and sceptre in left, occurs on
a krater from Gnathia, now at Bonn [infra ch. i § 6 (d) i (£")).

2 L. Stephani Nimbus und Strahlenkranz St Petersburg 1859 P- 9^ (extr. from the
Mimoires de VAcadimie des Sciences de St.-Petersbourg. vi Serie. Sciences politiques,
histoire, philologie. ix. 456).

3 Bull. d. Inst. 1841 p. 103 ' Tra le altre divinita e specialmente il Giove quasi
sempre fregiato di quest' ornamento, al quale come ad una divinita universale e rap-
presentante 1' etere viene per lo piu attribuito il nimbo azzurro. Cosi lo vediamo tra
altri esempj in un dipinto del Museo borbonico ed in un altro esistente nel cavedio della
casa delle Baccanti,' with n. 'Mus. borb. vi, t. 52.'

On the meaning of gold, silver, red, green, and black nimbi in later art see Mrs H.
Jenner Christian Symbolism London 1910 p. 9if.

4 Blue nimbi are attached to the following deities : Aphrodite (Helbig Wandgem.
Camp. nos. 118?, 291, 317), Apollon (Helbig nos. 189?, 232, 4, Sogliano Pitt. mur.