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)

at Delphoi

257

the griffin which shows him as an earthly deity too, the arrows which mark him
as a destructive god of the underworld1.' Etc.

Finally, Macrobius (c. 400 A.D.), after adducing the Aeschylean and
Euripidean evidence already quoted'2 by way of proof that Mount
Parnassos was not sacred to two diverse deities, puts his case thus3:

'We began with the statement that Apollo is the sun. We next showed that
Father Liber is none other than Apollo. Consequently there can be no doubt
that Sol and Father Liber refer to the same god. Nevertheless this shall be
established by yet clearer arguments. Mystic religion in its rites observes the
following rule : when the sun is in the upper or diurnal hemisphere, it is called
Apollo ; when in the lower or nocturnal, it is held to be Dionysos4, that is Father
Liber.' Etc.

In short, it appears that a variety of influences—Pythagorean,
Egyptian, Orphic—tended towards the assimilation of Dionysos

1 Serv. in Verg. eel. 5. 66 sed constat secundum Porphyrii libram, quern Solent
appellavit, triplicem esse Apollinis potestatem, et eundem esse Solem apucl superos,
Liberum Patrem in terris, Apollinem apucl inferos, unde etiam tria insignia circa eius
simulacrum videmus—lyram quae nobis caelestis harmoniae imaginem monstrat, gryphen
quae eum (see H. A. Lion ad loc. n. 66 : Myth. Vat. 3. 8. 16 has more correctly gryphen
qui eum) etiam terrenum numen ostendit, sagittas quibus infernalis deus et noxius in-
dicator. The passage is quoted by Myth. Vat. 3. 8. 16 and, in a shortened form, by
Myth. Vat. 2. 18 (where G. H. Bode would rightly restore gryphem as against A. Mai's
quadrigam).

2 Supra p. 253.

3 Macrob. Sat. 1. 18. 7 f. sed licet, illo prius [Sat. 1. 17. 7 ff.] adserto eundem esse
Apollinem ac solem, edoctoque postea [Sat. 1. 18. iff.] ipsum esse Liberum patrem
qui Apollo est, nulla ex his dubitatio sit Solem ac Liberum patrem eiusdem numinis
habendum, absolute tamen hoc argumentis liquidioribus astruetur. in sacris enim haec
religiosi arcani observatio tenetur, ut sol, cum in supero—id est in diurno—hemisphaerio
est, Apollo vocitetur, cum in infero—id est in nocturno—Dionysus, qui est Liber pater,
habeatur.

4 An etymologising (w£ + ^Aios or ijeXios !) explanation of HvfcreXios, a title borne by
Dionysos at Megara (Pans. r. 40. 6 /xera <5e rod Aios to re/xevos es ttjv aKpoiroXiv dveXdovcn
Ka\ovp.evqv cltto Kapds rov Qopwviuis Kai es ij/xas en Kaptav 'iari /xev Aiovvaov vabs xSvktcXLov,
TT€TroLT]raL 5£ 'AtypoSirrjs 'ETriarpocpLas iepov Kai Nu/cros KaXovfxevbv eari fxavreiof Kai Aids
Koviov (L. C. Valckenaer cj. Kpoviov. Welcker Gr. Gotterl. i. 642 n. 75 cj. Kwpioi',
' kegelfbrmig, metae modo.' K. F. Hermann in Philologus 1848 iii. 518 cj. okot'lov or
xdoviov. And H. Hitzig—H. Bltimner ad loc. state that the text ' scheint keine plausible
Erklarung zuzulassen.' Zeus 'of the Dust,' cp. Pind. Nem. 9. 102 ev kov'iq ^epcry, was
possibly chthonian, but more probably the god that sent dusty weather—a very material
consideration in Greece, where the ancient wayfarer—witness Plat. rep. 496 o-—was glad
to take shelter from the swirling dust-storm behind the nearest wall and the modern
hotel-manager keeps a man in the hall to flap your boots with a feather-broom) vaos ovk
ix^v opocpov), at Delphoi (Plout. de E apud Delphos 9 cited supra p. 234), and doubtless
elsewhere (Ov. met. 4. 15, ars am. 1. 567, Anth. Pal. 9. ^24. 14=/^. Dion. 14 (Abel
Orphica p. 284), Nonn. Dion. 7. 349, 22. 6, 27. 173, 44. 203). But the title certainly origi-
nated in the fact that Dionysiac rites were held at night (Plout. quaestt. Rom. 112, et. mag.
p. 609, 20 f., schol. Soph. Ant. 1147) : see further Soph. Ant. 1146 f., Eur. Pon 1074 ft.,
Bacch. 485 ff., Aristoph. ran. 340 ff., Verg. georg. 4. 521, Hesych. s.v. vvKTeXeiv, and the
epithets vvKrepios (Orph. h. triet. 52. 4), vvktlttoXos (Eur. frag. 472, 11 Nauck2 cited
supra i. 648 n. 1 cp. i. 667 n. 4, Nonn. Dion. 7. 288), mktl(paris (Nonn. Dion. 44. 218).

C II.

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