DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14695#0262
Cult-epithets of Zeus that may be solar 195
local syncretism or foreign influences1.' But unfortunately it is far
from certain that Monsieur Dubois' restoration of the second line is
sound. Monsieur Delamarre, who has recently edited the inscrip-
tion for the Berlin Corpus, argues from the analogy of dedications
in Thera that we need rather the name of the dedicator in the
genitive case2. And, if that be so, the inscription is no longer in
point.
(b) Cult-epithets of Zeus that may be solar.
But, if it must be admitted that the Greeks did not directly
identify Zeus their sky-god with the sun, it can hardly be denied
that indirectly Zeus was connected with solar phenomena. Some
of his cult-epithets are suggestive of such a connexion. Thus at
Chios Zeus was entitied Aitktops, 'He of the Burning Face3,' a name
elsewhere given to a son of Hephaistos, eponym of Aithiopia4, and
to one of the horses of the Sun5. Conceivably, however, Zeus may
have been termed Aitktops in his character of Aitker, 'the Burning
Sky6,' rather than in any solar capacity. Again, at Thorikos on
the south-east coast of Attike, an unworked block of stone has
been found bearing the inscription7:
ft ■ ■
Hopos Boundary
Upov of the precinct
Aibs of Zeus
Avavrrj- Auante-
pos r.
This Zeus Auanter, 'the Scorcher,' is explained by Mr N. G. Polites
as the god of summer heat8—a conception which might refer to the
glowring sky in general, but with more probability attaches to the
sun in particular.
1 Farnell Cults of Gk. States i. 44.
2 J. Delamarre in Inscr. Gr. ins. vii no. 87, citing ib. iii nos. 400ff.
3 Tzetz. in Lyk. Al. 537, cp. Eustath. in Od. p. 1385, 62.
4 Plin. nat. hist. 6. 187.
5 Hyg.fab. 183 Aethiops quasi flammeus est, concoquit fruges...huic rei auctor est
Eumelus Corinthius. M. Schmidt reads Aethops, a conjecture based on the fact that
Eur. frag. 896 Nauck2 ap. Athen. 465 B and ap. Eustath. in II. p. 883, 62 called one of
the Sun's horses AX6o\p in the lines Bajcxi'ou (pCKavde/xov \ Mdoira ireiraivovT opxarovs
oirwpivotis, I ov fipoTol KctkovaLv olvov aWoira. Cp. Nonn. Dion. 29. 301 aiOowos 'HeXioio
6 Supra p. 27 fF.
7 AeAr. 'Ap%. 1890 p. 140 f. in letters of the fourth century B.C. ATANTHPOS is a
blunder for ATANTHP02.
8 N. G. Polites ' Zeus Auacnjp' in'Bcrrta 1890 no. 41 (see Ath. Mitth. 1890 xv. 443,
Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. ii. 2264) derives KvavT-qp from the same root as avaLvw, 'I
scorch' or 'parch,' cp. Aristoph. ran. 194 top AvaLvov \idov.
13 — 2
local syncretism or foreign influences1.' But unfortunately it is far
from certain that Monsieur Dubois' restoration of the second line is
sound. Monsieur Delamarre, who has recently edited the inscrip-
tion for the Berlin Corpus, argues from the analogy of dedications
in Thera that we need rather the name of the dedicator in the
genitive case2. And, if that be so, the inscription is no longer in
point.
(b) Cult-epithets of Zeus that may be solar.
But, if it must be admitted that the Greeks did not directly
identify Zeus their sky-god with the sun, it can hardly be denied
that indirectly Zeus was connected with solar phenomena. Some
of his cult-epithets are suggestive of such a connexion. Thus at
Chios Zeus was entitied Aitktops, 'He of the Burning Face3,' a name
elsewhere given to a son of Hephaistos, eponym of Aithiopia4, and
to one of the horses of the Sun5. Conceivably, however, Zeus may
have been termed Aitktops in his character of Aitker, 'the Burning
Sky6,' rather than in any solar capacity. Again, at Thorikos on
the south-east coast of Attike, an unworked block of stone has
been found bearing the inscription7:
ft ■ ■
Hopos Boundary
Upov of the precinct
Aibs of Zeus
Avavrrj- Auante-
pos r.
This Zeus Auanter, 'the Scorcher,' is explained by Mr N. G. Polites
as the god of summer heat8—a conception which might refer to the
glowring sky in general, but with more probability attaches to the
sun in particular.
1 Farnell Cults of Gk. States i. 44.
2 J. Delamarre in Inscr. Gr. ins. vii no. 87, citing ib. iii nos. 400ff.
3 Tzetz. in Lyk. Al. 537, cp. Eustath. in Od. p. 1385, 62.
4 Plin. nat. hist. 6. 187.
5 Hyg.fab. 183 Aethiops quasi flammeus est, concoquit fruges...huic rei auctor est
Eumelus Corinthius. M. Schmidt reads Aethops, a conjecture based on the fact that
Eur. frag. 896 Nauck2 ap. Athen. 465 B and ap. Eustath. in II. p. 883, 62 called one of
the Sun's horses AX6o\p in the lines Bajcxi'ou (pCKavde/xov \ Mdoira ireiraivovT opxarovs
oirwpivotis, I ov fipoTol KctkovaLv olvov aWoira. Cp. Nonn. Dion. 29. 301 aiOowos 'HeXioio
6 Supra p. 27 fF.
7 AeAr. 'Ap%. 1890 p. 140 f. in letters of the fourth century B.C. ATANTHPOS is a
blunder for ATANTHP02.
8 N. G. Polites ' Zeus Auacnjp' in'Bcrrta 1890 no. 41 (see Ath. Mitth. 1890 xv. 443,
Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. ii. 2264) derives KvavT-qp from the same root as avaLvw, 'I
scorch' or 'parch,' cp. Aristoph. ran. 194 top AvaLvov \idov.
13 — 2