Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 2,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (thunder and lightning): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1925)

Zeus lightens, thunders, rains, etc. 3

wish to know the sort of thing that was said by common-place
folk at Athens in the fourth and third centuries B.C., we turn, for
example, to the extant scraps of Middle and New Comedy. Some-
body in the Atthis of Alexis describes—

How just at first Zeus quietly clouds over,
Then more and more so1.

Somebody else in a fragment by Menandros says :

1 watch Zeus

Pelting with rain 2.

The Characters of Theophrastos tell the same tale. The garrulous
man, full of truisms and trivialities, observes that ' if Zeus would
send rain, the crops would be better3.' The grumbler is ' annoyed
with Zeus, not for not raining, but for raining too late4.' The
coward on a voyage ' pops up his head and asks the steersman if
he is half-way across, and how the weather strikes him5.' Only,
where we translate ' the weather,' the Greek has literally 'the things
of the god,' that is, of Zeus6.

Phrases such as ' He rains,' ' He snows,' ' He is stormy,' ' He
grows dark ' alternate with the more explicit ' God rains,' ' God
snows,' ' God is stormy,' ' God grows dark' throughout the whole
range of Greek literature7. Nor did the incoming of Christianity
banish these reverential expressions. The name of Zeus was indeed
suppressed8, but the name of God remained and is still to be heard
in this connexion. Thus, instead of the usual phrase 'day breaks9,'
a modern Greek folk-song in G. F. Abbott's collection has :

God brings on day-break10.

Ata. ] <i>E. iSov ye Aia irarpQov cbs dpxalos el. \ Zeus yap tls Igtiv ; ST. lariv. <&E. ovk
'£<jt , 017/1', ewel | Atcos fiaaihevei rbv At' e£eX7;Xa/cu>s. | ST. ovk efeAijAa/c', dXX' eyto tovt
d)6/j.rjv I dia tovtovI rbv blvov. ol/jloi SetXatos, I ore Kai ae xVTPeo^v ovra debv 7\yi]aajxr\v.
The last line should not be cut out: it is quite justified by other pot-Zeuses, the At'es
KxTjcrtot of Append. H).

1 Alexis Atthis frag. 2 {Frag. com. Gr. iii. 397 Meineke) ap. Fhot. lex. s.v. jxoXhov
fxaWov ...was (ws Meineke) eirivecpei (eirLvecpei Cobet) to TrpG>rov 6 Zevs t/ctl'X'Jj | '^eira
fxaXhov [xtiWov.

2 Menand. frag, incert. 306 {Frag. com. Gr. iv. 299 Meineke) ap. Non. Marc. p. 387,
40 f. TTjpG) t'ov Aia I vovtcl 7roXX£. So Porson for TripcoTOfaiarov (vov codd. L BA) rariox^-
But W. M. Lindsay, after Turnebus, prints TTjpw rbv Aia \ rbv aiyioxov.

3 Theophr. char. 18 Jebb. 4 Theophr. char. 12 Jebb.

5 Theophr. char. 27 Jebb. 6 R. C. Jebb on Theophr. loc. cit. to. tou deou.

7 Cp. Hdt. 4. 50 Oee with Hdt. 3. 117 Bet ff<pi 6 debs, Aristoph. vcsp. 773 eai> 5e vLcpri
with Xen. cyn. 8. 1 brav v'i<prj 6 debs, Hdt. 7. 191 i)p.epas yap br\ exe'Llxa-i'e Tpels with Xen.
oec. 8. 16 brav xei^tdfTj 6 debs, Xen. Cyrop. 4. 5. 5 67ret avveffKoraae with Polyb. 31. 21. 9
avaKoragovros dpri rod deov. See further B. Gerth in R. Kuhner Ausfiihrliche Grammatik
der griechischen Sprache Hannover und Leipzig 1S98 ii. i. 33.

8 Supra i. 165 ff. 9 '^rifxepuvei.

10 G. F. Abbott Songs of Modern Greece Cambridge 1900 Part 2 1. 21 /cat '^pepibvei
6 6ebs t' 7]fxipa\

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