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)

386

The Sky-god's hat

parison with the beardless Janiform head wearing a helmet on
asses of Ouxenton (Ugento) in Calabria (fig. 294)l. Now R. Eisler
has rightly insisted that throughout the Levant the sky was often
symbolised as a hat2—witness the tiara of Zeus Oromdsdesz, the
starry pilos of Men or Attis or Mithras (?)4, etc.5 The same con-
ception prevailed among the nations of northern Europe, as may be
seen from Odhin's broad hat6, though hardly from the umbrella-
like head-gear of Rugiwit7. And the Greeks themselves were capable
of equally crude ideas ; for Anaximenes of Miletos, who speaks of
his aer as condensed by a process of 'felting' (pt/esis)s, declares
that the stars move round the earth horizontally ' as the felt hat
(pilion) turns about on our head1'.' We need not, therefore, hesitate
to interpret thepetasosoi Hermes or Argos or Ianus as an unsophis-
ticated symbol for the sky overhead.

1 Garrucci Mon. It. ant. p. 123 pi. 97, 12 ( = my fig. 294). Rasche Lex. Ntim. xi. 953,
Suppl. iii. 72 (Ianus), Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Italy p. 220, Head Hist, num? p. 69
(Athena? Roma?).

2 R. Eisler Weltenmantel und Himmelszelt Munchen 1910 i. 64 f., 67, ii. 582 n. 3, 677,
alib.

3 Supra i. 748 f. fig. 545.

4 Supra i. 741 f.

5 Ioseph. ant. lud. 3. 7. 7 (on the high priest's mitre) /ecu 6 7rtXos be p.01 80 net rbv
ovpavov t€k/j.ripiovv volkivBivos weTroirjfj.t'vos' ov yap 'av ctAXws virepaveTiOeTO avrw to bvop-a
rod Qeou with S. Havercamp ad loc, Theodoret. quaest. in Exodum 60 (lxxx. 285 B
Migne) eirenevro be rfj KecpaXy (sc. of Aaron) KiSapLS rbv ovpavbv p.ip.ovp.evq.

Porph. ap. Euseb. praep. ev. 3. 11. 23 irlXov be irepudeo-av (sc. on the head of He-
phaistos) nvdveov ryjs ovpaviov o~vfi(3o\ov wepicpopds.

6 J. Grimm Teutonic Mythology trans. J. S. Stallybrass London 1882 i. 146, 1888 iv.
1331 f., K. Simrock Handbuch der Deutschen Mythologie Bonn 1878 p. 173, E. H. Meyer
Germanische Mythologie Berlin 1891 pp. 90, 231, 235, 253, E. Mogk in the Grundriss
der germanischen Philologie'1 Herausgegeben von H. Paul Strassburg 1900 iii. 334 f.,
P. D. Chantepie de la Saussaye The Religion of the Teutons Boston and London 1902
p. 226, R. M. Meyer AItgermanische Religionsgeschichte Leipzig 1910 pp. 229, 232!. The
equation of Odhin's hat with Hermes' pitasos (Grimm op. cit. iv. 1332, W. H. Roscher
Hermes der Windgott Leipzig 1878 p. 113, R. M. Meyer op. cit. p. 226, K. Helm Alt-
germanische Religionsgeschichte Heidelberg 1913 i- 265) was presumably one of the reasons
for the Roman identification of Wodan with Mercurius (Tac. Germ. 9, ann. 13. 57 with
J. C. Orelli ad locc. See further supra p. 63 n. o).

7 Dr Vollmer's Wbrterbuch der Mythologie aller Volker. Neu bearbeitet von Dr W.
Binder Stuttgart 1874 p. 403 fig. 273. The source from which this singular illustration
has been drawn is not stated. Saxo Grammaticus hist. Dan. 14 p. 577, 23 ff. Holder says
nothing about the hat.

8 Plout. strom. frag. 3 ap. Euseb. praep. ev. 1. 8. 3 = 11. Diels Doxographi Graeci
Berolini 1879 p. 579, n=id. Die Fragmente der Vorsohratiher3 Berlin 1912 i. 23, 4 f.
Tn\ov/j.evov be tov depos 7Tpd)Trjv -yeyevfjadiiL \iyei tt\v yrjv irXarelav /id\a, Hippol. ref.
hacres. 1. 7 p. 18 Duncker—Schneidewin = H. Diels Doxogr. p. 560, 21= id. Frag.
Vorsokr.'' i. 23, 16 f. depos <be> verpos diroTeKeladaL /caret rr\v ■k,iKr\o~iv, k.t.X.

'■' Hippol. ref. haeres. 1. 7 p. 18 Duncker—Schneidewin = H. Diels Doxogr. p. 561,
* 7 ff. —id. Frag. Vorsokr." i. 23, 24 ff. ov Kiveladat. be vwb yrjv rd acrrpa \iyei, Kadtos erepoi
i>ireikT}(pa.o-i.v, dWd irepi yrjv, uiairepei irepl tt)v Tj/xer^pav Ke(pa\i}v arpecperai to irikiov.