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

318 The Kyklops and Zeus

Bronton, ' the Thundering1,' steropegereta, ' the lightning-gatherer2,'
arges, 'the brilliant3.' Again, the Kyklopes not only made the
thunder and lightning of Zeus, but could on occasion wield his
weapons on their own behalf. The late epic of Nonnos describes
in bombastic style how Argtlipos, Steropes, and Brontes fought on
the side of the gods against the Indians :

The stout Kyklopes circled round the foe,
Helpers of Zeus. Above that murky throng
Argilipos was flashing as he swung
A radiant brand and, armed with chthonian bolt
Fire-tipped, took torches for the fray. Thereat
Quaked the dark Indians, mazed at such a flame
That matched the fiery whirl-wind from the sky.
He, blazing, led the way: 'gainst hostile heads
Sparks from his earth-born thunderbolt were shot.
Ash spears he beat and many a blade, that Kyklops,
Swaying his hot shafts and his burning pike,
A brand his dart, and, man on man destroying,
Still scorched the Indians with his archer flame.
[Not one Salmoneus only he convicted
Of bastard bolts, not one god's-enemy
Alone he slew, nor only one Euadne
Made moan for Kapaneus extinguished there.]

Steropes next had armed him and was wielding
A mimic blaze, a gleam that echoed back
The lightning of the sky, both flash and fade,
Sprung into being" from the western flame,
Seed of Sicilian fire and glowing hearth.
A cloud-like robe he wore, within whose fold
He hid his sheen and then the same revealed
With double quivering, like the light of heaven;
For lightning's gleam now goes, now comes again.

Then Brontes went a-warring and beat out
A song sonorous, while he bellowed back
The clappings of the thunder and with spray
Unwonted, made of earth-born snow, shed water
False-fashioned, little-lasting, from the sky—
He and his drops, a bastard, cloudless Zeus.

But Zeus the Father marked the Kyklops aping
His own fell din and laughed amid his clouds4.

On terra-cotta brasiers of Hellenistic date there is often stamped
a grotesque bearded head, sometimes wearing a pointed cap and

1 Infra ch. ii § 4 (d).

2 Infra ch. ii § 3.

3 Stipra p. 31.

4 Nonn. Dion. 28. 172—201, cp. ib. 14. 52—60 where Brontes, Steropes, and Arges
are named among other Kyklopes opposed to the Indians. For the Kyklops' imitation
of Zeus' thunder see Eur. Cycl. 327 f.