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

The cult of Zeus on Mount Olympos 101

Of all these mountains the most important, from a religious
and mythological point of view, is the great Macedonian ridge
that culminates in a peak still known as Elymbo1. Soaring to
a height of 9,754 feet above sea-level, it affords a wide panorama :
the eye travels south to Mount Parnassos, south-west to the range
of Pindos, north to the confines of Makedonia, east to Mount Athos
and the sea beyond2. Equally striking is the view of the mountain
from below3. Dr Holland, who saw it from Litokhoro, writes : 'We
had not before been aware of the extreme vicinity of the town to
the base of Olympus ; but when leaving it.. .and accidentally looking
back, we saw through an opening in the fog, a faint outline of vast
precipices, seeming almost to overhang the place ; and so aerial in
their aspect, that for a few minutes we doubted whether it might
not be a delusion to the eye. The fog, however, dispersed yet
more on this side, and partial openings were made ; through which,
as through arches, we saw the sunbeams resting on the snowy
summits of Olympus4.' Dr Holland adds that these summits
' rose into a dark blue sky, far above the belt of clouds and mist
that hung upon the sides of the mountain.'

The ancients were much impressed by the fact that Olympos
rears its crest above the rain-clouds5. They fancied that birds
could not fly over it6, and that at such an altitude the air was
too thin to support human life7. In short, Olympos penetrated
the aer or ' moist sky' and reached the aither or ' burning sky'
(pi. ix i, 2)8. It was in the Greek sense of the term an 'aetherial'

1 E. Dodwell A Classical and Topographical Tour through Greece London 1819
ii. 106, W. M. Leake Travels in Northern Greece London 1835 iii. 342, 349, 407, A. Fick
Vorgriechische Ortsnamen p. 77.

The same form of the name Elymbo or Elymbos is given by the modern Greeks to the
mountains in Attike and Euboia (supra p. 100 nn. 4, 5).

2 L. Heuzey Le Mont Olympe et VAcarnanie Paris i860 p. 135.

3 E. Dodwell Views in Greece London 1821 ii. 105 has a coloured plate of Elymbo as
seen from the south between Larissa and Baba. The views given in most books of travel
and topography are very inadequate. Heuzey devotes a large illustrated volume to the
mountain, but provides no picture of it at all !

4 H. Holland Travels in the Ionian Isles, Etc. Lon-
don 1815 p. 302.

5 VXowX.. frag. 96 Dttbner ap. Philop. in Aristot. met.
1 p. 82, Lucan. 2. 271, Lact. Plac. in Stat. Theb. 3. 262,
Claud, de cons. Mall. Theod. 206 ff., Vib. Seq. p. 31
Oberlin, Aug. de Genesi ad litt. imperf. 1. 14, de Genesi
adlitt. 3. 2, de civ. Dei 15. 27.

6 Apul. de deo Socr. p. 138 Oudendorp, Aug. de
Genesi locc. citt., cp. Mart. Cap. 149.

7 Aug. de Genesi ad litt. 3. 2.

8 The schol. A. T. //. 8. 13 gives the diagram here
reproduced (fig. 74). Fig. 74.