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)

Dios and Dios Njsos

277

method of formation producing' on the one hand a compound, e.g.
Dio-nysos, on the other a synthesis, e.g. * Dios-nysos. But these data,
it seems to me, are susceptible of another interpretation, viz. that
corresponding with the Hellenic sky-god Zeus there was a Thracian
sky-god Dtos, whose name coupled with an appellative appeared
now as Dios Papas or the like, ' Dios the Father1,' now as Dios
Nysos, 'Dios the Son2.' The Greeks, familiar with Dios as the
genitive case of Zeus, would inevitably take this Dios Nysos to
mean ' Son of Zeus' and would therefore readily form the Hellenic
compound Dio-nysos3.

(7) Dios and Dios Nysos.

Further evidence of a Thraco-Phrygian sky-god called Dios may
be sought both on the Asiatic and on the European side of the
Dardanelles. Epitaphs of the Roman imperial age found in Phrygia
and published by Sir W. M. Ramsay4 and Mr W. M. Calder5 com-

8 Diu-zenus, a Bessian, is mentioned in a bronze diptych found at Stabiae in 1749 A-D-
and now preserved at Naples : Corp. inscr. Lat. iii. 844, x no. 769, Wilmanns Ex. inscr.
Lat. no. 2863, 13 f., Dessau Inscr. Lat. sel. no. 1986 gregali: Spartico Diuzeni f. Dips-
curto (altered from Dibpsairtd), [ Besso.

9 Deos-por in a military dedication of 123 a.d. found at Xanten and now at Bonn:
Orelli—Henzen Inscr. Lat. sel. no. 6804, Dessau Inscr. Lat. sel. no. 2350 Sept.
Deospor etc. W. Tomaschek in the Sitzungsber. d. kais. Akad. d. Wiss. in Wieti Phil.-
hist. Classe 1894 xxxi. 1. 31 divided Deo-spor, cp. ZrropdKujs (Dion Cass. 68. 21).
P. Kretschmer {supra p. 272 n. 3) divides Deos-por.

10 Dios-cuthes on a large broken coffer from Reusilava or Orsilava near Kirlikova in
Makedonia: Corp. inscr. Lat. iii no. 703, 5 sabixvs • dioscvuis. W. Tomaschek
loc. cit. divided Dio-scnthes like ALo-<TKe(3pi.os (supra p. 276 n. 7). P. Kretschmer (supra
p. 272 n. 3) divides Dios-citthes.

1 On IIct7ras as the Thracian term for ' Father' see W. Tomaschek in the Sitzungsber.
d. kais. Akad. d. Wiss. in Wien Phil.-hist. Classe 1894 xxxi. r. 18. Lnfra § 3 (a) iv (5).

2 Dios Nysos could presumably pass into * Dios-nysos. Cp. Dies + Pater= Diespiter
(K. Brugmann Kurze vergleichende Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen Strassburg
1904 p. 298, K. Brugmann—A. Thumb Griechische Grammatik* Munchen 1913
pp. 182, 200).

:J Another possible, but—I think—less probable, explanation would be to suppose that
the compound Dionysos was originally Thracian and meant the same as Dios Nysos, ' Dios
the Son.' The main objection is the rarity of such appositive compounds: K. Brugmann
Kurze vergleichende Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen Strassburg 1904 p. 303
quotes laTpo-fxavTis and analogous forms from Gothic, Old Church Slavonic, and Russian.
Other examples are collected by F. H. M. Blaydes in his notes on Aristoph. ran. 499,
937. But these are all cases of mixed human (At.ovv<ra\e£avdpos etc.) or animal (rpay-
eXacpos etc.) types. What of Aenrarvpos (supra i. 681 n. 4) ?

4 Sir W. M. Ramsay 'Phrygian Inscriptions of the Roman Period' in the Zeitschrift
filr vergleichende Sprachforschung 1887 xxviii. 381 — 400, id. ' Neo-Phrygian Inscriptions'
in the Jahresh. d. oest. arch. Inst. 1905 viii Beiblatt pp. 79—120. See also A. Fick in
the Beitrdge zicr kunde der indogermanischen sprachen 1889 xiv. 50 f. with the reply of
Sir W. M. Ramsay ib. pp. 308—312.

5 W. M. Calder 'Corpus inscriptionum Neo-Phrygiarum' in the Journ. Hell. Stud.
1911 xxxi. 161—215 and 1913 xxxiii. 97—104.