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)

256 Dionysos displaced by Apollon

Towards the close of the fourth century Servius a propos of Aeneas
and his comrades, whom Virgil had described as worshipping the
Delian Apollo with bent heads1, remarks :

'We should realise that, in accordance with the character of the deity ad-
dressed, the worshippers look sometimes down, sometimes up ; for some powers
are heavenly, others earthly, others a blend of both. Hence now, when be-
seeching Apollo, they turn towards the ground, since he is at once himself and
Sol and Father Liber, who descended to the dead—as Horace puts it : " Cer-
berus saw thee and harmed thee not2." So they do well to turn towards the
ground : it is from the ground that oracular responses come to them, and Apollo
is known even to the dead below3.'

Elsewhere, commenting on Virgil's apparent equation of the sun
and moon with Liber and Ceres4, Servius attributes the same unita-
rian doctrine to the Stoics :

' The Stoics hold that there is but one god and one goddess, and that it is
the self-same power which is called by various names according to its functions
and activities. Hence, on the one hand, they identify Sol, Liber, and Apollo ;
on the other, Luna, Diana, Ceres. Iuno, and Proserpina. Virgil—so they main-
tain—has here invoked Liber and Ceres in place of Sol and Luna5.'

Again, Servius cites a similar view from a neo-Platonic source :

' But, according to Porphyrios' book entitled The Sun, it is clear that the
power of Apollo is threefold, and that we should identify Sol in heaven, Father
Liber on earth, Apollo under the earth. And this is why we see three attributes
grouped about his effigy—the lyre which represents to us heavenly harmony,

avyKpoTeiadai. M. m.) tt)v TravrjyvpLv• vevaov de Kai x&PLV T0^s Xbyois, irapa uov (wapd croi p.)
•yap 01 (yap Kai oi M. m.) XoyoL Kai 7/ 7r6Ais.

1 Verg. Aen. 3. 90 ff. 2 Hor. od. 2. 19. 29.

3 Serv. in Verg. Aen. 3. 93 et sciendum pro qualitate numinum orantes interdum
ima, interdum summa respicere ; nam potestates aliae caelestes sunt, aliae terrenae, aliae
permixtae: unde nunc Apollinem deprecantes terrain petunt. ipse est enim et Sol et
Liber Pater, qui inferos petiit, ut Horatius te vidit insons (sic F. m. insomnis L. H. M.
in somnis E.) Cerberus, bene ergo terram petunt, unde ad eos responsa perveniunt, et
quia Apollo etiam inferis notus (motus F.) est.

4 Verg. georg. r. *5 flF. vos, o clarissima mundi | lumina, labentem caelo quae ducitis
annum, | Liber et alma Ceres.

5 Serv. in Verg. georg. 1. 5 Stoici dicunt non esse nisi unum deum et unam <deam>,
eandemque (esse) potestatem, quae pro ratione officiorum nostrorum (pro nostrorum leg.
et actuum) variis nominibus appellatur. unde eundem Solem, eundem Liberum, eundem
Apollinem vocant item Lunam, eandem Dianam, eandem Cererem, eandem Iunonem,
eandem Proserpinam dicunt: secundum quos, pro Sole et Luna, Liberum et Cererem
invocavit. The passage is cited by Myth. Vat. 2 prooem. Stoici dicunt non esse nisi unum
deum et unam deam, eademque esse potestate ; qui pro ratione officiorum et actuum variis
nominibus appellantur (eandemque esse potestatem, quae pro ratione officiorum variis
nominibus appellatur C. D.). deum (unde C. D.) eundem Solem, eundem Liberum,
eundem Apollinem vocant. item deam eandem (deam eandem om. C. D.) Lunam, eandem
Dianam, eandem (om. C. D.) Cererem (om. D.), eandem Junonem, eandem Proserpinam
dicunt. numina autem utriusque sexus esse videntur, ideo quia incorporea sunt. Cp.
Serv. in Verg. Aen. 4. 638 ( = J. von Arnim Stoicorum veterum fragmenta Lipsiae 1903
ii. 313 no. 1070).