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)

Lightning as a flash from an Eye 503

testimony which we cannot control; but the general trustworthiness
of Hesychios and the occurrence of analogous expressions elsewhere
combine to render it credible. Aischylos tells how an oracle bade
Inachos drive Io from his home:

And if he would not, there should come from Zeus
A fire-eyed thunderbolt to blast his race1.

But neither the reading nor the interpretation of the word translated
'fire-eyed' is quite certain'2. More convincing are two other passages
from the plays of the same poet. Klytaimestra in the Agamemnon
has at length induced her husband to enter his palace treading a
pathway strewn with purple as though he were a god. He does
so, saying:

Well, if thou wilt, let some one loose forthwith
The shoes that serve my foot as slaves, and while
I tread these sea-wrought robes, oh may no envy
Of a divine eye strike me from afar3.

Again, the chorus of Argive elders give the following expression to
their belief in the jealousy of heaven:

Exceeding good report is dangerous ;

For a thunderbolt is flung by the eyes of Zeus.

Luck without envy is my choice4.

These passages certainly seem to imply that lightning is a glance

n. 1, 1209 n. 2, Ziegler in Pauly—VVissowa Real-Ene. vii. 1641 f.). It may be suspected
that she was credited with a potentially evil eye (cp. such passages as Prop. 2. 28. 12
Palladis aut oculos ausa negare bonos? fLyg.Jad. 165 Iuno et Venus cum earn irriderent,
quod et caesia erat (B. Bunte cj. esset) et buccas inflaret, Loukian. dial. deor. 8 y\a.vKQ>-Ki%
l±iv, dXXct Kocr/iei /cat touto 77 k'bpvs, 20. 10 i) Sebias fir) aot i\eyxVTaL T0 y^avKbv rwv 6/j.fid.Tuv
avev tov (po[3epov (3\tirbp.evov ;).

A fine bronze statuette of Zeus from Paranvythia, now in the British Museum {Brit.
Mus. Cat. Bronzes p. 36 no. 275 pi. 7, A. S. Murray Greek Bronzes London 1898 p. 81
with pi.), had eyes inlaid with silver. So have other bronze statuettes of Zeus at Paris
(Babelon—Blanchet Cat. Bronzes de la Bibl. Nat. p. 1 no. 1 fig., p. i f. no. 3 fig., p. 2 f.
no. 4, p. 3 no. 5 fig., p. 3 f. no. 6 fig., p. 4 f. no. 8 fig., p. 5 f. no. 9 fig., p. 9 f. no. 17 fig.,
p. 10 no. 18 fig., cp. p. 13 no. 27, p. 13 no. 29 fig., De Kidder Cat. Bronzes du Louvre
i. 76 no. 511 pi. 38) and doubtless elsewhere. Silver was a metal specially appropriate
to Zeus (supra i. 25 n. 2, 625 f.).

1 Aisch. P.v. 667 f. /cet fj.7) 6e\oi, irvpwrrbv e/c At6s ixokelv j Kepavvbv, 8s irav e^ataTtbaoi
yevos.

2 The Laurentian MS. has irupojTov, other MSS. irvpunrbv, which is printed by Dindorf
and Wilamowitz. E. E. Sikes and St. J. B. Wynne Willson adopt their cj. TrvpOnr' av.
Even if wvpiairbv be kept, it may mean no more than ' of fiery aspect.'

3 Aisch. Ag. 944 ff. The essential words are 947 /urj rts irpbawdev 6/j.p.aTos /3dXot (pdbvos.

4 Aisch. Ag. 466 ff. to 5' virepicdwus Khveiv | e'v (3apu' /3d\Xercu yap oacrois At.6dev
Kepawbs. I Kpivw 5' &(p6ovov okfiov. T. G. Tucker's cj. Kapava, accepted by W. Headlam,
would mean : ' for lofty peaks are struck from heaven by jealous eyes of Zeus.' For other
cjj. see A. W. Verrall ad loc.