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

54 The Blue Globe

was that which Saturn was said to have swallowed in place of
Iupiter1. This confusion suggests that Terminus' stone had a
round top to it2—as was in fact the case, if I am right in my
conjecture with regard to the globe of Iupiter Capitolinus.

Fig. 30.

But, it will be asked, if this globe was originally the stone of
Terminus, how came it to be regarded as a symbol of the sky ?
Partly, I suppose, because it was a round object standing under
the clear sky; but partly also because a globe on a pillar was used
by Greek astronomers as a model of the sky3. Thus imperial

1 Lact. div. inst. 1. 20.

2 In Roman art the stone of Kronos is figured as a half-egg on the top of a short
pillar (infra ch. ii § 10 (d)).

a See F. Hultsch in Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. ii. 1853 f.