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 decoration of the double axe 641

chevrons that appear on Charon's hammer in a tomb-painting at
Vulci (fig. 557)1; for, if we may assume ^ ^
that he was originally a god of the
Underworld2, his hammer could be-
token chthonian thunders, and the
zigzags upon it chthonian lightnings.
It was perhaps these 'nether thunder-
bolts3' that earned for him the very
sobriquet of Charon, ' He of the Flash-
ing Eyes4.' Further reflexion has,

1 H. Brunn ' Pitture etrusche' in the Ann. d.
hist. 1859 xxxi. 356 f., Mon. d. Inst, vi—vii pi. 31,

I (of which my fig. 557 is an excerpt), E. Saglio
in Daremberg—Saglio Diet. Ant. i. itoo fig. 1359.
Further bibliography in W. Helbig Fiihrer durch
die offentlichen Sammlungen klassischer Altertiimtr
in Rom'?' Leipzig 1912 i. 323, who notes that the
paintings are not earlier than 300 B.C.

2 Monographs etc. : J. A. Ambrosch De
Charonte Etruseo Vratislaviae 1837 (reviewed by
E. Braun in the Ann. d. Inst. 1837 ix. 253—274), G. Krueger Charon und Thanatos
Berlin 1866, N. G. Polites 3IeAeY?j eVi roO /3iod tQv 'Sewrepwv 'EX\?jf uv Athens 1874 ii. 237—
301 (' Xdpos'), D. C. Hesseling Charos. Ein Beitrag zur Kenntniss
des nengriechischen Volksglaubens Leiden—Leipzig 1897, S. Rocco

II ?nito di Caronte nelV arte e nella letteratura Torino 1897,
O. Waser 'Charon' in the Archiv f. Rel. 1898 i. 152—182, id.
Charon, Charun, Charos Berlin 1898 (with important reviews by
D. Bassi in the Rivista difilologia e d'istruzione classica 1899 xxvii.
473—475 and by U. v. Wilamowitz-Mollendorff in Hermes 1899
xxxiv. 227—230), A. Furtwangler 'Charon' in the Archiv f. Rel.
1905 viii. 191—202 with two figs., J. C. Lawson Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek
Religion Cambridge 1910 pp. 98—117 (' Charon '). A fresh treatment of the theme is in
preparation by my friend and former pupil Miss M. E. H. Lloyd. A survey of recent
hypotheses is given by Gruppe Myth. Lit. 1908 pp. 438—441, who concludes: 'Man
wird sich beim Lesen dieser Materialsammlung der.. .Konsequenz schwerlich entziehen
kbnnen, die v. Wilamowitz-Mollendorff, Herm. 1898, 227 ff. ausspricht, class Ch.
urspriinglich wie der neugriechische Charos und der etruskische Charun nicht der Toten-
fiihrmann, sondern der Totengott selbst war,' etc.

Personally I incline to think that Charon was, to begin with, an Anatolian god of the
Underworld (J. C. Lawson op. cit. p. 116 makes him a Pelasgian god of death) much like
Hephaistos, that he has left traces of his early cult in the various Xapdoveia or Xapw^ia of
the Maiandros-valley (O. Waser Charon, Charun, Charos p. 61 ff., id. in Pauly—Wissowa
Real-Enc. iii. 2183, L. Biirchner and W. Ruge ib. iii. 2183 f.), and that he was brought
by the Etruscans from Lydia to Italy. When and where he acquired the traits of the
grim ferryman is a problem as yet unsolved. In any case he stands for the lower, as
Zeus for the upper, world : cp. Aisop. prov. 5 (E. L. von Leutsch—F. W. Schneidewin
Paroemiographi Graeci Gottingae 1851 ii. 228) r\ Zeus 7} Xapwu- 17 evdai/xovos /3tos 17 t^\os.

3 A. Caecina ap. Sen. nat. qaaestt. 2. 49. 3 and Plin. nat. hist. 2. 138 f., cp. Manil.
2. 892 (fulmina codd. R. Bentley cj. culmind). See further T. H. Martin La foudre
Ielectricite et le magnetisme chez les anciens Paris 1866 p. 178 and C. O. Thulin Die
etruskische Discipliu i. Die Blitzlehre Gbteborg 1906 pp. 34, 49.

4 U. von Wilamowitz-Mollendorff Homerische Untersuchungen Berlin 1884 p. 225

C. II. 41