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)

32

Zeus Krataibdtes

had a name of kindred significance1, involving Doric a for e2. We
might compare the Tarentum or Terentum ('Hole'?) in the Campus
Martius at Rome3. On the other hand, such Celtic deities as Ta-
ranisy Taranu-cnus, lupiter Taranucus* are perhaps best related to
Anglo-Saxon Thunor, Norse Thor, etc.—witness the alternative
form lupiter Tanarus6.

(£) Zeus Krataibdtes.

A relief found at.the village of Katsigkri near Nauplia repre-
A I o £ sents Zeus advancing from left to right. He hurls

K P A T A I a thunderbolt with his right arm and stretches out
B A T A ^e^' a^ove which is an inscription (fig. 14)6 read-

Fig. .4. inS

' Of Zeus Krataibdtes!

The title thus spelt is unique. It may of course be a mere
blunder for Kataibdtes. But more probably it is an intentional
variation of that epithet : whoever erected the monument wished
to suggest the potency of the lightning-god7.

(?]) Survivals of the foregoing beliefs.

In Christian times it was believed that the victim of lightning"
had been struck by the sudden descent of a demon. For example,
early in the fifth century Saint Hypatios, presbyter and hegotimenos

1 A. Vanicek Griechisch-lateiiiisches etymologisches Wbrterbtich Leipzig 1877 *• 2^6.
s L. Boisacq Les dialedes doriens Paris 1891 p. 33 ff.

3 O. Richter Topogrctphie dcr Stadt Rom2 Miinchen 1901 pp. 224 f., 257, H.Jordan—
C. Huelsen Topographie der Stadt Rom i/n A Iterthum Berlin 1907 i. 3. 477 ff"., H. Kiepert
et C. Huelsen Formae ttrbis Koniae antiqtiae1 Berolini 1912 p. 137.

Zeus TapavTaios was the god of Tarantos in Bithynia (Steph. Byz. s.v. Tdpas'..JffTL 5e
k<xi Tctpaeros dpaevLKws Xeyofiiurj ttoXls Bidvuias, Ivda. Tifxarai Tapavraios Zet/s, cl>s Ari/xoad^vrji
ev oevTe/jip MlOvvlukQiv. eCp?jrai /cat did tou 5 AdpavSos, Schdll—Studemund anecd. i. 265
'Eiridera Atos no. 100 rtxpavraiov, 267 ^EwideTa Aids no. 88 Tapavraiov).

4 A. Holder Alt-celtischer Sprachschatz Leipzig 1904 ii. 1728 f., O. Hofer in Roscher
Lex. Myth. v. 87 ff.

5 A. Holder op. cit. ii. 1716 f., Reusch in Roscher Lex. Myth. v. 74. It would of
course be possible to make the opposite assumption and to regard Taranis as the normal,
Tanarus as the aberrant form. I have discussed the matter with Prof. H. M. Chadwick,
who inclines to the solution adopted in the text.

6 P. Wolters in the Ath. Mitth. 1890 xv. 233 Atos | KpaTai\(3dra = Lnscr. Gr. Pelop.
i no. 669 ( = my fig. 14).

7 For the form of the compound I. Kophiniotis (in 'Adrjvd 1890 ii- 695 an in Kcupot
1890 no. 476) cites KparaifioXos, KparaiyvaXos, KparaLirovs [add Kparalfiios, /cparcu'Xews,
KparaipLevris, KparaiireBov, KparaiTriXos, Kparalpivos, KparaiTovos]. For Kpdros as applied to
lightning H. Usener (in Rhein. Mus. 1905 lx. 12) adduces Soph. O.T. 200 f., Cornut.
theol. 10 p. 10, 13 Lang (where Lang adopts Schmitt-Blank's cj. /3Aos), etc.