DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0011
PREFACE
THE first volume of this treatise dealt with Zeus as god of the
Bright Sky and traced his evolution in that capacity from
early Hellenic to late Hellenistic times. It included therefore both
the pre-classical change from Zeus the animate Sky to Zeus the
anthropomorphic Sky-god and the post-classical connexion of the
latter with Sun, Moon, and Stars. But, apart from incidental
allusions, it devoted little space to the common classical conception
of Zeus as god of Thunder and Lightning. To investigate this is
the main purpose of my second volume. It will, I trust, be followed
some day by a third (already planned and partly written), in which
the relations of Zeus to other phaenomena—Clouds and Rain, Wind
and Dew, Earthquakes and Meteorites—will find their appropriate
place. I shall hope to conclude at long last with a general survey
of the Sky-god and his cult as constituting one factor in the great
fabric of Greek civilisation, indeed as in some sense a contribution
to Christianity itself.
Meantime the subject of Zeus as god of Thunder and Lightning
cannot be adequately discussed without taking into account a
number of allied topics—the Diosemia or ominous 'Zeus-sign';
the Diobletos or ' Zeus-struck ' man ; the ' road of Zeus ' from earth
to heaven ; the sky-pillars of Greece and Italy ; the central shrine
of Delphoi, where Zeus was successively associated with Dionysos
and Apollon ; again, Kronos the ' Minoan' storm-god to whom
Zeus was affiliated ; the double axe inherited by Zeus from his
predecessor; the origin, development, and decline of his own
peculiar weapon the thunderbolt. With all of these themes I have
attempted pro meis viribus to cope. But reviewers and others that
may wish to get a quick insight into the contents of the present
volume would do well to begin by reading pp. 840-858, in which
I have tried to summarise the principal results of my investiga-
tion. They must, however, bear in mind that a summary statement
proves nothing. Proof can be had only by a patient consideration
of the evidence presented in the text and notes, which will, I hope,
be found reasonably complete.
The footnotes, I admit, are heavy, perhaps too heavy for
modern dyspeptic digestions, and I shall expect to have quoted
against me the usual tags—' a thin stream of text' etc. and ' what's
THE first volume of this treatise dealt with Zeus as god of the
Bright Sky and traced his evolution in that capacity from
early Hellenic to late Hellenistic times. It included therefore both
the pre-classical change from Zeus the animate Sky to Zeus the
anthropomorphic Sky-god and the post-classical connexion of the
latter with Sun, Moon, and Stars. But, apart from incidental
allusions, it devoted little space to the common classical conception
of Zeus as god of Thunder and Lightning. To investigate this is
the main purpose of my second volume. It will, I trust, be followed
some day by a third (already planned and partly written), in which
the relations of Zeus to other phaenomena—Clouds and Rain, Wind
and Dew, Earthquakes and Meteorites—will find their appropriate
place. I shall hope to conclude at long last with a general survey
of the Sky-god and his cult as constituting one factor in the great
fabric of Greek civilisation, indeed as in some sense a contribution
to Christianity itself.
Meantime the subject of Zeus as god of Thunder and Lightning
cannot be adequately discussed without taking into account a
number of allied topics—the Diosemia or ominous 'Zeus-sign';
the Diobletos or ' Zeus-struck ' man ; the ' road of Zeus ' from earth
to heaven ; the sky-pillars of Greece and Italy ; the central shrine
of Delphoi, where Zeus was successively associated with Dionysos
and Apollon ; again, Kronos the ' Minoan' storm-god to whom
Zeus was affiliated ; the double axe inherited by Zeus from his
predecessor; the origin, development, and decline of his own
peculiar weapon the thunderbolt. With all of these themes I have
attempted pro meis viribus to cope. But reviewers and others that
may wish to get a quick insight into the contents of the present
volume would do well to begin by reading pp. 840-858, in which
I have tried to summarise the principal results of my investiga-
tion. They must, however, bear in mind that a summary statement
proves nothing. Proof can be had only by a patient consideration
of the evidence presented in the text and notes, which will, I hope,
be found reasonably complete.
The footnotes, I admit, are heavy, perhaps too heavy for
modern dyspeptic digestions, and I shall expect to have quoted
against me the usual tags—' a thin stream of text' etc. and ' what's