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

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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14695#0353

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Nemesis

279

Alexander. The king, a recumbent youth naked to the waist,
is sleeping beneath a plane-tree, at the foot of which is a bucranium.
Beside him lie his shield, spear, and greave.
Beyond him stand the two Nemeseis holding
a bridle and a cubit-rule respectively, and
making their customary gesture. The sig-
nificance of this gesture has been much
discussed1. I take it to have been origin-
ally that of a bride, comparable with Hera's
handling of her veil2. The goddess, in
short, needed a partner; and Alexander,
whom Apelles painted at Ephesos with a Fig. 205.

thunderbolt in his hand3, may have passed

muster as her divine consort. This is of course mere surmise. But,
if we follow the figure of Nemesis back into the past as far as we
are able, we still find her paired with Zeus, not to say with a human
Zeus. For the Kypria, an early epic of uncertain authorship, told
how ' Zeus king of the gods' became by her the father of the
Dioskouroi and of Helene4. Moreover, since the Dioskouroi and

1 C. Sittl Die Gebdrden der Griechen mid Rdmer Leipzig 1890 pp. 120, 301, Roscher
Lex. Myth. iii. 146.

2 Infra ch. iii.

3 Plin. nat. hist. 35. 92, cp. Class. Rev. 1903 xvii. 404 n. 1.

4 Cypria frag. 5 Kinkel ap. Clem. Al. protr. 2. 30. 5 p. 22, 22 ff. Stahlin and frag.
6 Kinkel ap. Athen. 334 b—d. According to frag. 6, Nemesis, when pursued by Zeus,
fled across sea and land transforming herself into a fish and other animals to escape his
embraces. Cp. Eustath. in II. p. 1321, 38 f. Xeyoju 81a rod Troirjo-avros rd Ki!nrpia on
Aioo~Kovpovs /cat 'EX^^f 7? Ne^ecris ereKev, rj diwKO/nevr], (prjcriv, virb Alos jxerefjiopcpovTo.
O. Rossbach in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 119 thinks that the end of the story as told in the
Cypria is preserved for us by Apollod. 3. 10. 7 Xeyovai. 8e Zvioi Xe^ecews 'EXe/^ elvai /cat
Atos. Tadrrfv yap rrjv Atos cpevyovaav avvovaiav els TW ^op(p7]v jxeTa^a\e7v, bjiOLwdevTa
8e /cat Ata kvkvlo crvvekdelv ' rrjv Se cpbu e/c rrjs avvovaias dworeKelv, tovto 8e if rots aXaeaiv
(aXaeaiv excerpt. Sabb., eXecriv cj. Preller cp. Ptol. Heph. ap. Phot. bib/, p. 149b 5,
Tzetz. in Lyk. Al. 88, Sdcreaiu cj. Bekker) evpbvra tlpcl Troipieva ArjSa Koixiaavra bovvai,
tt\v 8k Karade/xevi]p et's \dpvaKa (pv\ao~o~ei.v, /cat XP°VV KadrjKOVTL yevprjffelcrav 'Fi\evr)v cos
avTT]s dvyarepa rpecpetv. If so, the myth was not yet localised : aKaeaiv ( — ve/jLeo-tv) may
have been suggested by Ne'/xecrts, as eXeaiv by 'EXe'p??. Others (U. v. Wilamowitz-Mollen-
dorf in Hermes 1883 xviii. 262 n. 1, R. Kekule Festschrift zur Feier des fiiufzigjcihrigen
Bestehens des archdolog. Instituts zu Rom Bonn 1879 p. 9, H. Posnansky op. cit. p. 17)
suppose that the final scene of the Cypria was laid at Rhamnous.

The love of Zeus for Nemesis is variously told. Almost all accounts agree that Zeus
took the form of a swan (Clem. Rom. horn. 5. 13 (ii. 184 Migne), however, has NeMecret
ry rod Qeariov, rrj /cat ArjSa vo/niadetarj, kvkvos fj ^.W yevbuevos k.t.\. = infra ch. i § 8 (d)
and schol. Clem. Al. protr. 2. 37. 2 p. 308, 13 Stahlin says Sp&Kcov iiri ISefMeacp — supra
p. 270 n. 5). Hyg. poet. astr. 2. 8 adds that Zeus as a swan was fleeing from Aphrodite
as. an eagle. Nemesis was secured in the form of a goose (Apollod. 3. 10. 7, Tzetz. in
Lyk. Al. 88) or of a woman (Isokrat. 10 Helene 59, Hyg. poet. astr. 2. 8).

A red-figured krater from Gnathia, now at Bonn (fig. 206), shows the egg deposited
on an altar in the precinct of a pillar-Zeus (stipra p. 40 n. 1), where Leda—originally a
 
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