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

Conclusions

777

with his partner, the mountain-goddess1. There, in one famous
case, he lay buried2. And, when paganism, outwardly at least,
succumbed to Christianity, Zeus the mountain-god was superseded
by Elias the mountain-saint3.

Apart from the luminous dome of heaven, there are in normal
circumstances three definite manifestations of the burning sky.
To the mind of the Greek, sun, moon, and stars were made of the
same fiery stuff as the aither itself4. Zeus, therefore, must needs
stand in relations of peculiar intimacy towards these special exhi-
bitions of his own brightness. This was probably the consideration
that, to the more thoughtful portion of the community, justified
the rapprochement, which from a very early period in the history of
Greece began to contaminate the pure worship of Zeus with a
whole medley of solar, lunar, and stellar elements. In various
districts of the Mediterranean area the sun was popularly viewed
as an eye5, a wheel6, a bird7, a ram8, a bull!), a bronze man10, or what
not ? But each of these manifold and in part barbaric notions
was sooner or later absorbed into the all-comprehensive cult of the
Greek sky-god. Again, here and there the moon as Selene11, as
Io12, as Pasiphae13, as Europe14, as Antiope15, was paired with Zeus—
a pairing which implies that he was credited with solar powers.
For this batch of myths non-Hellenic influence is even more
largely responsible. Lastly, Zeus figures on occasion as ruler of
the starry sky16. The Greeks, mediately or immediately following
the lead of the Babylonians, assigned to him as their foremost god
an important role in their astronomy and astrology17. They also
associated, perhaps as early as the fifth century before our era, his
adoptive sons the Dioskouroi with the electric stars now known as
Saint Elmo's fire18.

In short, Zeus was brought into close connexion with any and
every celestial luminary. But, though this is undoubtedly the
case, it must be steadily borne in mind that genuine Hellenic
religion never identified Zeus with sun or moon or star. If an

I Supra pp. 104—106, 154—157. 2 Supra pp. 157—163.

3 Supra pp. 163—186.

4 See O. Gilbert Die meteorologischen Theorieu des griechischen Alter turns Leipzig
1907 p. 20. In abnormal circumstances (storms etc.) lightning is another manifestation
of the aither (id. ib. p. 20 f., and infra ch. ii § 3 (a)).

5 Supra p. 196 f. 6 Supra pp. 197—341. 7 Supra pp. 341—346.
8 Supra pp. 346—430. 9 Sup?-a pp. 430—665. 10 Supra pp. 719—730.

II Supra pp. 732 f., 739. M Supra pp. 453—457, 733, 739.

13 Supra pp. 521 ft'., 543 ft., 733, 739 f.

14 Supra pp. 524ft., 537 ft., 544 ft., 733 f., 739 f. 15 Supra pp. 734—740.
16 Supra pp. 751 ft., 757. 17 Supra p. 754 ft". 18 Supra p. 771 ff.