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)

The Sky-god's hat 385

that type I notice two tendencies, which may be held to reinforce
my contention.

(a) The Sky-god's hat.

Firstly, the bifacial god is apt to wear a broad-brimmed hat.
For instance, on an engraved cornelian at Berlin, Greek work of
Hellenistic date, he has a wide hat on his head and a long staff in
his hand (fig. 292)1. We are reminded of Ovid's Ianus ' leaning on

Fig. 292. Fig. 293. Fig. 294.

the staff, which he carried in his right hand'2.' Again, a brown sard
in the same collection, a convex gem of the early Roman period,
shows a bearded and an unbearded head combined beneath a round
hat with dotted decoration (fig. 293)s. Such a hat suggests com-

Oiaooxos, didKovos. He cp. Od. 8. 335 Ep/xeia, Aids vie, SiaKT'ope, 5Qrop eawp, Hcrin.
18. 12 Xa'P'' '^P^V XaPL§&Ta, OLaKTope, dcorop iawi>, and such passages as //. 14. 489 ff.,
16. 179 ff., Od. 15. 319 f. Bechtel renders 'einer, der grundlich uber Schatze verfugt.'
It appears, then, that Hermes oiaKropos was a chthonian god resembling Zeus HXovtooottis
or TIXovtwv {supra i. 503 f.). On the other hand, a.pye'C<pbvTr)s almost certainly means
'slaying with a flash.' Bechtel op. cit. p. 53 says : ' Die Mythologen miissen entscheiden,
ob sie mit der Bezeichnung " durch den Glanz totend," "in dem Glanze totend " etwas
ausrichten kbnnen.' I gladly take up this challenge. This epithet so interpreted suits
admirably the sky-god with his fatal lightning-flash. Hermes dpyei<fibuT7]s, in fact, recalls
Zeus, who slays dpyrjri Kepavvu {supra i. 31 n. 4). And if Hermes' epithet came to be
misunderstood as ' the slayer of Argos,' that piece of popular etymology is at least of
interest inasmuch as it implies the conflict of two rival gods. It is tempting to conjecture
that the caduceus of the victor originated as a bipartite lightning-fork {infra § 3 {c) iv (/3) and
(0)); but the subject cannot here be pursued.

Since the foregoing paragraph was written an article on 'kpye'C(pbvT-r)s by P. Kretschmer
has appeared in Glotta 1919 x. 45—49. Kretschmer holds that '' Apyeicpbvrris is metri
gratia for 'ApyocpbvTTjs and compares the epic dvbpei<pbvTri<; for dv8po<fibvT7)s (though U. von
Wilamowitz-Mollendorff Homerische Untersuchungen Berlin 1884 p. 299 n. 10 took
dvSpe'C(f)6vT7]s to have been formed on the analogy of 'Apyel'cpovT-rjs). ' Wir kommen also
zu dem Schluss: die Wissenschaft wie die Schule mag ruhig bei der Ubersetzung Argostdter
bleiben.' As to the question put by Bechtel, ' Ich meine, die Mythologen miissen diese
Frage energisch verneinen. Ein solcher Beiname wiirde allenfalls auf den blitzeschleu-
dernden Zeus passen, aber nicht auf Hermes, der auch kein Lichtgott ist.' This suits my
argument well enough.

1 Fjirtwangler Geschnitt. Steine Berlin p. 236 no. 6461 pi. 45 (=my fig. 292 : scale f).

2 Ov. fast. 1. 177.

6 Furtwangler Geschnitt. Steine Berlin p. 96 f. no. 1844 pi. 18 ( = my fig. 293 : scale f).

c. 11. 25