DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0056
The Diosemta or c Zeus-sign ' 9
the operator have been content to be called the son of Zeus; he
would have passed for Zeus himself. The epic tradition survived
into later times. To be struck by lightning was no small honour1;
to be slain by it meant apotheosis2. Euthymos the boxer had a
statue in his native town, the Italian Lokroi, and another at
Olympia : both were struck by lightning on the same day—a fact
which stamped the worship of the living man with the approval of
Zeus3. Even to a dead man's tomb lightning added the lustre of
divinity. According to Plutarch,—
Aristotle declares that the honours paid to Lykourgos in Lakedaimon were
less than he deserved. And yet those honours were very great ; for he has a
sanctuary there, and men sacrifice to him yearly as to a god. It is also said that,
when his remains were brought home, his tomb was struck by a thunderbolt—a
thing that has happened to hardly any other famous personage except Euripides,
who died later and was buried near Arethousa in Makedonia. Indeed, lovers of
Euripides quote as strong evidence of his merit the fact that he alone after
death met with the same fate as the greatest favourite of heaven, the holiest
character of the past4.
Bianor the Bithynian (c. 17 A.D.), not content with this, makes the
lightning strike his poet's grave three times over :
In Macedonian dust thou liest low,
But burnt by Zeus o' the Bolt hast done with clay.
Thrice flashed his sky, Euripides, and so
The tomb's tale of mortality purged away5.
Among the Romans too the fall of lightning was diversely
interpreted, being sometimes at least regarded as a presage of good6.
When a statue of Horatius Codes in the Comitium was struck,
Etruscan Jiamspices bade move it to a lower position, where it
would never be shone upon by the sun. But for this they were
denounced and put to death. The statue was promoted to a higher
place in the Area Volcani, and prosperity resulted for Rome7. In
172 B.C. the Columna Rostrata, erected on the Capitol to com-
memorate the sea-fight of 255 B.C., was shattered by a lightning-
flash at night. The decemviri ordered a lustration of the city, a
1 Itifra p. 22 f. 1 Infra p. 23 ff.
3 Plin. nat. hist. 7. 152. See further Class. Rev. 1903 xvii. 275.
4 Plout. v. Liycurg. 31.
0 Anth. Pal. 7. 49 (Bianor) d Ma/ceVis ere KeKevde rdtpov kovls' dXXd nvpudeis | ZaW
Kepavveiix) yalav atrrifufitacras. \ rpis yap €Tra<TTpd\pas, Et'pi7rto??, £k Aids aidrjp | riyviae rav
dvarav arj/xaros iaTop'iav. In line 2 dwr]fj.<p'iaaas, the reading of Planudes, is preferable to
the conjectures dirrifMpidaw Brunck and Reiske, drpTjy'iacras Reiske, d-Krjxdia.aa,s Polak,
airridpiaaas Piccolos, yds air' dvrjXdes d-rras Schmidt.
6 A. Bouche-Leclercq Histoire de la divination dans taritiquite Paris 1882 iv. 46 ff.
' Annal. max. 11 (ffist. Rom. frag. p. 5 Peter) and M. Verrius Flaccus rerum
memoria dignarum 1 (Fest. ed. Mtiller praef. p. xiii) ap. Cell. 4. 5. 1—7.
the operator have been content to be called the son of Zeus; he
would have passed for Zeus himself. The epic tradition survived
into later times. To be struck by lightning was no small honour1;
to be slain by it meant apotheosis2. Euthymos the boxer had a
statue in his native town, the Italian Lokroi, and another at
Olympia : both were struck by lightning on the same day—a fact
which stamped the worship of the living man with the approval of
Zeus3. Even to a dead man's tomb lightning added the lustre of
divinity. According to Plutarch,—
Aristotle declares that the honours paid to Lykourgos in Lakedaimon were
less than he deserved. And yet those honours were very great ; for he has a
sanctuary there, and men sacrifice to him yearly as to a god. It is also said that,
when his remains were brought home, his tomb was struck by a thunderbolt—a
thing that has happened to hardly any other famous personage except Euripides,
who died later and was buried near Arethousa in Makedonia. Indeed, lovers of
Euripides quote as strong evidence of his merit the fact that he alone after
death met with the same fate as the greatest favourite of heaven, the holiest
character of the past4.
Bianor the Bithynian (c. 17 A.D.), not content with this, makes the
lightning strike his poet's grave three times over :
In Macedonian dust thou liest low,
But burnt by Zeus o' the Bolt hast done with clay.
Thrice flashed his sky, Euripides, and so
The tomb's tale of mortality purged away5.
Among the Romans too the fall of lightning was diversely
interpreted, being sometimes at least regarded as a presage of good6.
When a statue of Horatius Codes in the Comitium was struck,
Etruscan Jiamspices bade move it to a lower position, where it
would never be shone upon by the sun. But for this they were
denounced and put to death. The statue was promoted to a higher
place in the Area Volcani, and prosperity resulted for Rome7. In
172 B.C. the Columna Rostrata, erected on the Capitol to com-
memorate the sea-fight of 255 B.C., was shattered by a lightning-
flash at night. The decemviri ordered a lustration of the city, a
1 Itifra p. 22 f. 1 Infra p. 23 ff.
3 Plin. nat. hist. 7. 152. See further Class. Rev. 1903 xvii. 275.
4 Plout. v. Liycurg. 31.
0 Anth. Pal. 7. 49 (Bianor) d Ma/ceVis ere KeKevde rdtpov kovls' dXXd nvpudeis | ZaW
Kepavveiix) yalav atrrifufitacras. \ rpis yap €Tra<TTpd\pas, Et'pi7rto??, £k Aids aidrjp | riyviae rav
dvarav arj/xaros iaTop'iav. In line 2 dwr]fj.<p'iaaas, the reading of Planudes, is preferable to
the conjectures dirrifMpidaw Brunck and Reiske, drpTjy'iacras Reiske, d-Krjxdia.aa,s Polak,
airridpiaaas Piccolos, yds air' dvrjXdes d-rras Schmidt.
6 A. Bouche-Leclercq Histoire de la divination dans taritiquite Paris 1882 iv. 46 ff.
' Annal. max. 11 (ffist. Rom. frag. p. 5 Peter) and M. Verrius Flaccus rerum
memoria dignarum 1 (Fest. ed. Mtiller praef. p. xiii) ap. Cell. 4. 5. 1—7.