DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0575
5<D2 Lightning as a flash from an Eye
often regarded as the piercing glance of a fiery eye, and that the
wide-spread belief in the evil eye is directly traceable to this con-
ception1. Of the conclusions here stated I should accept the first and
reject the second. There are, I think, grounds for supposing that the
Greeks sometimes at least viewed lightning as a glance from the eye
of Zeus, and indeed as the glance of his evil eye. But to explain
the evil eye of men as derived from the evil eye of a god is—apart
from other objections—to invert the order of religious causation.
Hesychios the lexicographer quotes from an unnamed Greek
tragedian the phrase—
as the eye of Zeus,
and informs us that it means 'as a flash of lightning2.' This is
1 W. Schwartz Indogermanischer Volksglaube Berlin 1885 pp. 169—219. Cp. some
sentences in an earlier work by the same author (F. L. W. Schwartz Der Ursprtmg der
Mythologie Berlin i860 p. 212 f.), and the helpful chapter of W. II. Roscher Die Gorgonen
tind Verwandtes Leipzig 1879 p. 63 ff. ('Der Blitz als Wuthblick eines himmlischen
Ungeheuers,' etc.).
2 Frag. trag. adesp. 278 Nauck2 ap. Hesych. s.v. uiairep ov(p6aXfibs Aids' us durpairrj.
ov(p6aXp.bs Aios is the correction of A. Meineke {Philologus xii. 630) for 6 6(pdaXp.bs rod
Aios cod. A. Nauck reads 6<pdaXp.bs Aios.
Homer alludes four times to the 6We <paeivw of Zeus (//. 13. 3 and 7, 14. 236, 16. 645),
once to those of Athena (//. 21. 415), once to those of Menelaos (//. ij. 679), and once to
the 60-ae tpaeivd of Alkathoos (//. 13. 435). But it is to be observed that, according to
Dr W. Leaf and Mr M. A. Bayfield ad locc, the first four passages belong to a decidedly
earlier stratum of the poem than the last three. Hence we may perhaps infer that 'flashing
eyes ' were appropriate to Zeus as a lightning-god, and to Athena as his second self {infra
§ 9 (h) ii (/x)). Menelaos was at most Aiorpecpr/s (II. 17. 679), as was the father of Alkathoos
(//. 13. 427): Agamemnon was ofi/mara Kai KecpaXijv i'/ceXos Ad repiriKepavvop (II. 2. 478.
Infra Append. I).
Later writers usually lay stress on the eye of Zeus as the wakeful witness of right and
wrong: e.g. Hes. o.d. 267 [supra i. 187 n. 9, 196 n. 6), Aisch. suppl. 6460°. Alov iiriBd-
fievoL Trp&KTopd [re] o~Koirbv \ 5vo~TroXepLT]rov, Sv [tw]rts ob/xos 'ix01 I ^7r bpb<biov fxiaivovra ;
fiapbs 5' etpi^ei with schol. ad loc. Aios gkowov, top Aios b<pdaXf.ibv rbv irdvra o-kottovvto.
(W. Headlam, after F. Bamberger and T. G. Tucker, would read wpaKropd rot kotov.
I should keep ctkotvou, but explain it as alluding to the eagle, not to the eye, of Zeus),
Soph. 0. C. 704 ff. 6 "yap aiev bpQiv kvkXos \ \evao~ei viv ~Mopiov Aios | %d y\avKQnris ' Addva
(the schol. ad loc., cited supra p. 20 n. 4, equates Zeus Mopios with Zeus Kctrcu/SdTTjs),
Eur. Hipp. 886 to aep.vbv Zrjvbs o/x/u: dTi,udcras, Cornut. theol. 11 p. 11, 20 Lang irdvr'
e<popa Aios b<pdaKp.bs Kai irdvr erraKovei. But there is at least a negative reminiscence of
the 'flashing eyes' in Ov. met. 2. 857 nullae in fronte minae, nec formidable lumen.
Athena was worshipped as '0£u5ep/c?js or 'O^vbepKu at Argos (Paus. 1. 24. 2), as
'O^vbepKa at Epidauros [Inscr. Gr. Pelop. i no. 1074 '0£v5ep\Kas. \ Aio^t/crijos (Aiouvaiov) |
■7rvp(popr)\<jas with circle no. 40 (id. p. 189) and numeral X7'), as '07rrt\eris (Plout. v. lyc.
II, apophth. Lac. Lyc. 7) or 'OTrriXia (Olympiod. in Plat. Gorg. 40 icrropurai yap on
HriWias 'Adr/vds lepbv eiroirio-e- tttLWovs Se eKaXovv rovs 6<pdaXp,ovs, cp. C. A. Lobeck
Pathologiae linguae Graecae elementa Lipsiae 1853 u 83) or 'OcpdaX/iTris at Sparta (Paus.
3. 18. 2). These cult-titles recall her poetic epithets 7Xai)/cu;7ris, yopyunis, oBpip-obepK-qs,
etc. (Bruchmann Epith. deor. p. 7, Gruppe Gr. Myth. Pel. p. 1198 n. 3) and her intimate
relation to the Gorgon (W. H. Roscher Die Gorgonen und Verwandtes Leipzig 1879 Index
p. 135 s.v. 'Athene,' id. in the Lex. Myth. i. 677, 1696, Gruppe Gr. Myth. Pel. pp. 1201
often regarded as the piercing glance of a fiery eye, and that the
wide-spread belief in the evil eye is directly traceable to this con-
ception1. Of the conclusions here stated I should accept the first and
reject the second. There are, I think, grounds for supposing that the
Greeks sometimes at least viewed lightning as a glance from the eye
of Zeus, and indeed as the glance of his evil eye. But to explain
the evil eye of men as derived from the evil eye of a god is—apart
from other objections—to invert the order of religious causation.
Hesychios the lexicographer quotes from an unnamed Greek
tragedian the phrase—
as the eye of Zeus,
and informs us that it means 'as a flash of lightning2.' This is
1 W. Schwartz Indogermanischer Volksglaube Berlin 1885 pp. 169—219. Cp. some
sentences in an earlier work by the same author (F. L. W. Schwartz Der Ursprtmg der
Mythologie Berlin i860 p. 212 f.), and the helpful chapter of W. II. Roscher Die Gorgonen
tind Verwandtes Leipzig 1879 p. 63 ff. ('Der Blitz als Wuthblick eines himmlischen
Ungeheuers,' etc.).
2 Frag. trag. adesp. 278 Nauck2 ap. Hesych. s.v. uiairep ov(p6aXfibs Aids' us durpairrj.
ov(p6aXp.bs Aios is the correction of A. Meineke {Philologus xii. 630) for 6 6(pdaXp.bs rod
Aios cod. A. Nauck reads 6<pdaXp.bs Aios.
Homer alludes four times to the 6We <paeivw of Zeus (//. 13. 3 and 7, 14. 236, 16. 645),
once to those of Athena (//. 21. 415), once to those of Menelaos (//. ij. 679), and once to
the 60-ae tpaeivd of Alkathoos (//. 13. 435). But it is to be observed that, according to
Dr W. Leaf and Mr M. A. Bayfield ad locc, the first four passages belong to a decidedly
earlier stratum of the poem than the last three. Hence we may perhaps infer that 'flashing
eyes ' were appropriate to Zeus as a lightning-god, and to Athena as his second self {infra
§ 9 (h) ii (/x)). Menelaos was at most Aiorpecpr/s (II. 17. 679), as was the father of Alkathoos
(//. 13. 427): Agamemnon was ofi/mara Kai KecpaXijv i'/ceXos Ad repiriKepavvop (II. 2. 478.
Infra Append. I).
Later writers usually lay stress on the eye of Zeus as the wakeful witness of right and
wrong: e.g. Hes. o.d. 267 [supra i. 187 n. 9, 196 n. 6), Aisch. suppl. 6460°. Alov iiriBd-
fievoL Trp&KTopd [re] o~Koirbv \ 5vo~TroXepLT]rov, Sv [tw]rts ob/xos 'ix01 I ^7r bpb<biov fxiaivovra ;
fiapbs 5' etpi^ei with schol. ad loc. Aios gkowov, top Aios b<pdaXf.ibv rbv irdvra o-kottovvto.
(W. Headlam, after F. Bamberger and T. G. Tucker, would read wpaKropd rot kotov.
I should keep ctkotvou, but explain it as alluding to the eagle, not to the eye, of Zeus),
Soph. 0. C. 704 ff. 6 "yap aiev bpQiv kvkXos \ \evao~ei viv ~Mopiov Aios | %d y\avKQnris ' Addva
(the schol. ad loc., cited supra p. 20 n. 4, equates Zeus Mopios with Zeus Kctrcu/SdTTjs),
Eur. Hipp. 886 to aep.vbv Zrjvbs o/x/u: dTi,udcras, Cornut. theol. 11 p. 11, 20 Lang irdvr'
e<popa Aios b<pdaKp.bs Kai irdvr erraKovei. But there is at least a negative reminiscence of
the 'flashing eyes' in Ov. met. 2. 857 nullae in fronte minae, nec formidable lumen.
Athena was worshipped as '0£u5ep/c?js or 'O^vbepKu at Argos (Paus. 1. 24. 2), as
'O^vbepKa at Epidauros [Inscr. Gr. Pelop. i no. 1074 '0£v5ep\Kas. \ Aio^t/crijos (Aiouvaiov) |
■7rvp(popr)\<jas with circle no. 40 (id. p. 189) and numeral X7'), as '07rrt\eris (Plout. v. lyc.
II, apophth. Lac. Lyc. 7) or 'OTrriXia (Olympiod. in Plat. Gorg. 40 icrropurai yap on
HriWias 'Adr/vds lepbv eiroirio-e- tttLWovs Se eKaXovv rovs 6<pdaXp,ovs, cp. C. A. Lobeck
Pathologiae linguae Graecae elementa Lipsiae 1853 u 83) or 'OcpdaX/iTris at Sparta (Paus.
3. 18. 2). These cult-titles recall her poetic epithets 7Xai)/cu;7ris, yopyunis, oBpip-obepK-qs,
etc. (Bruchmann Epith. deor. p. 7, Gruppe Gr. Myth. Pel. p. 1198 n. 3) and her intimate
relation to the Gorgon (W. H. Roscher Die Gorgonen und Verwandtes Leipzig 1879 Index
p. 135 s.v. 'Athene,' id. in the Lex. Myth. i. 677, 1696, Gruppe Gr. Myth. Pel. pp. 1201