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)

2 2 ' The Zeus-struck man in Elysium

were places on to which a bolt from the sky had dashed down or
descended, that the Zeus of the bolt was called Kataibdtes, and that
such places were fenced round and left untouched1. Artemidoros
adds that altars were erected there and sacrifices offered2.

(7) The Didbletos or Zeus-struck man in Elysium.

Spots where Zeus had descended in the form of lightning were
known, not only as enelysia, but also as elysiaz. Fenced about from
the foot of common mortals and reserved for Zeus himself, they were
both in name and in nature so many ' Elysian fields4.' Consequently
a man struck by lightning was literally enelysios, ' in Elysium5.' To
modern ears it sounds a grim jest to talk of Elysium in such a case.
But, after all, the attitude of the ancients was thoroughly consistent.
Zeus fell as a lightning-flash. The man on whom he fell was there-
fore Didbletos or Diobles, 'struck by Zeus6.' And the divinity thus
conveyed to him made him immortal, or at least imperishable—wit-
ness Plutarch :

We all know well enough that the bodies of those who are struck by lightning
do not decay. Many persons neither burn them nor bury them, but just fence
them round and leave them, so that their corpses are seen in a state of perpetual

Xeiirerai \ Xonrols aKipavvos dpdpwv | eTrr/Xvaiicv drriXiTrev, but notes 'locus corruptissimus').
oi be rd Ka.Ta<7kt)<pdevTa. ovtws els to 'V-qTopiKov. els be tovs 'JtjTV/JioXbyovs exipov .. .evr/Xvaia-
evr/Xvaia Xeyerai eis a Kepavvos elff^^rjKev a Kai dvaTiderai Ad KaraifiaTr], Kai Xkyerai
dbvra Kai d^ara. Cp. Hesych. s.v. evrfXvffia- rd KaraaKr/cpdevTa xcopi'a <evr/ (add. M.
Musurus)> Xvcria Xeyovrai- evioi be euKivr/Ta, wapa tt)v <fj\vcriv tt)v (add. M. Schmidt) >
HXewriv dXXoi be rds ev rols a(3drois x^pt'ots a<pibpvp.evas vvfxtpas.

1 Poll. 9. 41 rd p.£vToi evr/Xvaia ovtus d)vop.d'<~ero eis d KaTaffK-qipeie j3eXos £!; ovpavov, 5
Kai evffKrj\pai Kai eyKaTa<JKrjipai Kai KareXdeTv eXeyov, Kai rbv Aia tov eir' avrip KaraifSdrr/v.
Trepieipxdevra be rd evrfkvaia dxpauara ave?to. The expression rbv Aia rbv err' avrqi denotes
strictly ' the Zeus set over it' (the bolt).

2 Artemid. oneirocr. 2. 9 6 Kepavvos rd p,ev da-q/na tQiv xwP^<j)v eirio-qp.a woiel bid tovs
evibpvpevovs fiwixovs Kai rds ev avToh yivofxevas dvaias, rd be TroXvTeXrj xwpi'a eprjp.a Kai
d(3ara iroiel, ovbeis yap ev avrois evbiaTpi(3eiv eVt deXei.

3 Hesych. s.v. rfkvcnov.. .dXXoi KeKepavviopevov x^piov rj webiov rd be Toiavrd eicriv
d/3ara, KaXelrai be Kai evrjXvaia- ILoXep-wv be 'Adr/vaiovs (prjai Kai dXXoi rives to KaraaKatpev
x^piov rj iepov (regarding Kai dXXoi rives as a gloss on YloXepiiov, KaracrKacpev with L. Kiister
as a blunder for KaracrKr/ipdev, and rj iepov as a gloss on xwpioi', we may emend HoXepiwv
be Adrjvaiovs <prj<ri to KaraffKrjipdev xwpi-0" ?]Xvcriov KaXeiv) = Souicl. s.v. rjXvaiov = Phot. lex.
s.v. r/Xvaiov, cp. et. mag. p. 428, 30 ff. See further G. Bernhardy on Souid. lor. cit. and
C. MiAller on Polemon frag. 93 {Frag. hist. Gr. iii. 146)=frag. 5 (Frag.gr. Kultschr.
p. 89 Tresp).

4 The lexicographers cited in the preceding note state that 'YLXvcriov is, according to
some, KeKepa.vvwp.evov x^piov rj irebiov. Eudok. viol. 438 in her account of the Elysian
plain repeats the statement: oi be to KeKepavvupievwv x^piov rj ireSiov. L. Meyer Handb.
d. gr. Etym. i. 640 is not averse from connecting 'RXijctiov, ' Elysium,' with rjXvcriov,
' a spot struck by lightning.'

5 Hesych. s.v. evrjXvaios • epi^pbvTrjTos. Kepavvbj3XrjTos.

6 Stephanus Thes. Gr. Ling. ii. 1508 c s.vv. AiofiXrjs, Aibj3Xr]Tos, Aib(3oXos.