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)

P. Kretschmer's hypothesis

^73

550 B.C.) represents a pair of nymphs inscribed Nysai: a mere
eponym would not have been thus
pluralised. Kretschmer further
suggests that Nysa as a place-name
is a shortened form of Nyseia or
Nysaia, and observes that Homer
uses only the adjectival phrase
Nyse'wn1. On this showing nysa
was the Thracian term for a nymph
or maid, and its masculine correla-
tive was -nysos, the second element
in Did-nysos. We are thus led along
a legitimate route2 to the conclu-
sion that Dionysos denoted simply
1 Zeus' Son,' ' Zeus' Hero,'—a view
confirmed by another remarkable
vase-painting (fig. I /7):i, which de-
scribes the child Dionysos as Dibs
phos, ' Zeus' Man,'' Zeus' Hero,' not to mention a third, which dubs
Herakles Dibs pais, 'Zeus' Son4.'

IVien. VorlegebL 1889 pi. 2, 3"—3d, F. Studniczka ' Ueber die Bruchstiicke einer Vase des
Sophilos" in Eranos Vindobonensis Wien 1893 PF- 233—24°' P« Wolters in the Jahrb.
d. kais. deutsch. arch. Inst. 1898 xiii. 19 n. 8, H. B. Walters History of Ancient Pottery
London 1905 i. 379 f., Graef Ant. Vasen A then. i. 64 no. 587 a—i pi. 26 a, b (=my
fig. 176), c—h, Perrot—Chipiez Hist, de FArt x. 199.

1 11.6. 133. In //. 2. ^08 'S.ladv re faOerjv there was a variant XOcrcu' re '^adtriv (Strah. 406).

2 J. Savelsberg in the Zeitschrift fiir vergleichende Sprachforschung 1867 xvi. 60 n.
had already related 1 Aio-avvcros " zeussohn"' to vvos, nurus, but he had spoilt his
etymology by attempting to work in vios, vuv, and other totally unconnected words.

2 G. Minervini Monunienti antichi inediti posseduti da Raffaele Barone Napoli 1852
i. 1—7 and Appendice p. vi pi. r (--my fig. 177), Jahn Vasensatnml. Munchen p. lxi
n. 402, L. Stephani in the Compte-rendu St. Pet. 1861 p. 12, H. Heydemann Dionysos'
Geburt und Kindheit (IVinckelmannsfest-Progr. Halle 1885) Halle 1885 p. 13, P. Kretschmer
Die griechischen Vaseninschriften Giitersloh 1894 p. 199, De Rklder Cat. Vases de la Bibl.
Nat. i. 127 f. no. 219, P. Milliet—A. Giraudon Vases antiques de la Bibliotlieque Nationale
Paris 1891 i pi. 32 f. a (ivme (Jlasse, viiie Serie), O. Kern in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc.
v. 1 [44. The obverse design of this small black-figured amphora from S. Maria di Capua
shows Zeus seated to the right, in chiton and hiwation, with a fillet on his head, a thunder-
bolt in his right hand, a sceptre in his left. On his lap stands a naked boy, with a fillet on
his head and two flaming torches (not thyrsoi) in his hands. Moving to the right, but
turning to speak with Zeus, is Hera, in chiton and hi/nation, her hair bound with a double
fillet. Inscribed KAUO^ (taXo?, not ko.\6v) HEPA O. Jahn loc~cii.

recognised the scene as the ' Geburt des Dionysos'—an interpretation strongly supported
by the analogous types of Athena's birth (infra % 9 (h) ii (6)). P. Kretschmer in Aus der
Anomia p. 29 was the first to read Atos <£ios as ' einen volkstiimlichen oder sacralen...
Ausdruck fiir das Verhaltnis des Dionysos zu Zeus,' rightly objecting to such a poetic
locution as Atos 0uis (cp. supra i. 7 n. 3 and Xen. an. 3. 1. 12 <pws p-eya ck Atos iSete (80(e).
4 J. Millingen Ancient Unedited Monuments London 1822 i. 91 f. pi. 38, 1, Muller—

C. II. . 18