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)

12

Zeus Keraunos

zoistic stage zvas the burning sky1. Hence Herakleitos had common
opinion behind him, when he called his elemental Fire both Zeus
and Keraunos2. The same identification of Zeus with Keraunos
accounts for an Orphic hymn, which consists of a prayer to Zeus
that he will expend his fury on the sea or on mountain-summits
and leave mankind in peace, but is headed by the title Keraunou,
' of Keraunos3.' The equation of Zeus with Keraunds is implied
also, as H. Weil remarked4, in the fragment of a Hesiodic Theogony
which tells how Zeus swallowed Metis—' fearing lest she bear a
second offspring stronger than Keraunos5.' The logic of the passage
and the parallel myth of Thetis6 lead us to expect 'stronger than
himself.' But, since the strength of Zeus is chiefly exhibited in the
lightning-flash, the poet substitutes the latter for the former.
Further evidence of Zeus Keraunos came to light in 1868, when
P. Foucart found at Mantineia a rough block of limestone inscribed
as follows in lettering of the fifth century B.C. (fig. i)7:

Of Zeus Keraunos.
Fig. 1.

The stone appears to have marked some spot struck by lightning.

1 Supra i. 25 ff. 2 Supra i. 28.

3 Orph. h. Ker. 19. 1 ZeO wdrep k.t.\. with the title Kepavvou. The editors, including
E. Abel, alter this quite arbitrarily to Kepavvlou Aios. A. Dieterich De hymnis Orphicis
Marburg 1891 p. 19 n. 1 ( = Kleine Schriften Leipzig and Berlin 1911 p. 82 n. 2) and
H. Usener ' Keraunos' in the Rhein. Mus. 1905 lx. 3 ff. { — Kleine Sc)i7-iften Leipzig and
Berlin 1913 iv. 473 ff.) rightly retain the reading of all the Mss.

4 H. Weil in the Rev. Arch. 1876 ii. 50 f.

5 Quoted by Chrysippos ap. Galen, de Hippocralis et Platonis placitis 3. 8 (v. 351 f.
Kiihn) deicras p.rj ri^i) KparepuTepov &Wo Kepawov. Infra § 9 (h) ii (k).

6 Infra § 9 (h) ii (k).

7 Lebas—Foucart Peloponnhe ii. 209 no. 352 a, P. Foucart ' Le Zeus Keraunos de
Mantinee' in the Monuments grecs pittite's par VAssociation pour Vencouragement des
e'tudes grecques en France No. 4 1875 PP- 2 3—2^ and m the Bull. Corr. Hell. 1878
ii. 515, Roehl Inscr. Gr. ant. no. 101, Collitz—Bechtel Gr. Dial.-Inschr. i. 343 no. 1197,
O. Hoffmann Die Griechischeii Dialekte Gottingen 1891 i. 18 no. 5, Michel Recueil
d'Inscr. gr. no. 761, Inscr. Gr. Arc. Lac. Mess. no. 288. See also H. Weil 'Zeus
Keraunos' in the Rev. Arch. 1876 ii. 50 f., Immerwahr Kult. Myth. Arkad. p. 25,
G. Fougeres MantinJe et PArcadie Orientale Paris 1898 pp. 22 r—224, Gruppe Gr. Myth.
Rel. p. 727 n. 5, p. mi n. 3.