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)

6

The Diosemia or c Zeus-sign '

Magistrates, can you stand it? And am I
In my own country by barbarian hands
To be thus handled ? No, to pay the Thracians
There shall be no assembly. See, there is
A Zeus-sign—I distinctly felt a rain-drop1.

Hereupon the herald without further enquiry terminates the sitting:

Thracians, begone: come back in two days' time.
The magistrates hereby adjourn the assembly2.

The Diosemia doubtless afforded fair sport to the comedian ;
but to the majority of his fellow-countrymen, as also to the Romans3,
it was no laughing-matter. ' When armies gather for battle,' says
Dion Chrysostomos, 'and a sudden Zeus-sign appears or an earth-
quake takes place, men straightway turn back and abandon hos-
tilities, since the gods are against their fighting4.' The suddenness
of the sign appears to have been an essential feature5. If foreseen,
it was robbed of its terrors—witness an anecdote told by Polyainos
the Macedonian :

Leonidas was about to join battle, when he noticed storm-clouds collecting
and remarked to the generals that they must not be surprised if it lightened and
thundered—that was bound to happen in the dog-days. So, when numerous
Zeus-signs occurred, Leonidas' men being forewarned held on their way with
no fears for the future, but the enemy in dire dismay were cowed by the danger
and consequently beaten6.

Another name for the meteorological omen was echesamia, a
'stop-sign,' and this is defined by Hesychios as 'a summer drizzle

1 Aristoph. Ach. 167 ff. 2 Aristoph. Ach. 172 f.

3 Appian. de bell. civ. r. 30 6 he ttoXitikos 6'%Xoj e/36a cl>s yevopLevris ev eKKK-qaia (3povTr)s,

odev ov depiis earl 'Pw/WoiS ovbev en Kvpovv......on ovk ^cftl vbfios 6 wpbs fitav re Kai

(3povrrjS wvop.ao~p.ev7]s KeKvpwfxe'vo'i irapa to, irdrpia, Dion Cass. 38. 13 r??s yap piavrelas r?;j
or]p.oo~[as €k re tov ovpavov Kai e'£ aWwv nvu>v, wairep elwov, Troiovfj.^vrjs, to fieyiarov Kvpos r\
€k tov ovpavov elx€v < ovtcos Hare rd flkv dWa olcoviop.ara TroWa Kai Kad' eKdffrrjv irpa^Lv,
iKelvo Se eadwa^ eirl waarj rrj 'rjp.epa yiyveadai. tovto re ovv ibuhraTOv ev avru? rjv, Kai on
eirl p.ev rwv aWwv dirdvTWv t) iire'Tpeire Trpaxdrjvai nva, Kai iyiyvero ixr)5evbs in Kad' ^Kacrrov
oicoviapLaros eirayop,evov, fj eKLoXve, Kai avexeipL^erb n, ras de 8rj tov Stj/xov 8La\pr]<pio~eis
iravrws eTriaxev, Kai rjv Trpbs avras del Aioo~r)p.ta, etre evaiatov e'ire e^almov eyevero (cp. ib.
38. 29, 39. 35, 39. 39, 40. 17).

4 Dion Chrys. or. 38 p. 138 Reiske /cat orav crvvepxop.evuiv eh fxdxw vrparuiv 7) Aiou^/xia
<pavy aifpviSios 7) rijs yrjs yevrjrai aetapLos, diroarpecpovTai evdvs 01 dvdpwiroi. Kai diroxupovcnv
a7r' dWrikbiv cbs twv OeCcv ov j3oi<\op.evu}v avroi/s fxax^crdai.

5 This is implied by Od. 20. 112 ff. ZeO Trdrep,... | 77 fxeydX1 e(3pbvT7]o-as d?r' ovpavov
darepbevro^, j ovSe irodi vi<pos earl- repas vv reip rbSe (paivets. Similarly Servius regards a
bolt from the blue as an omen, hut a bolt from the clouds as a natural phaenomenon
(Serv. in Verg. Aen. 7. 141, 9. 630).

6 Polyain. 1. 32. 2. J. Melber 1 Uber die Quellen und den Wert der Strategemen-
sammlung Polyans' in the Jahrb. f. class. Philol. Suppl. 1885 xiv. 437 argues that the
Leonidas of Polyain. 1. 32. 2 f. was not the hero of Thermopylai mentioned in Polyain.
1. 32. r, but another Spartan general of the same name.