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)

752 Gradual elimination of the thunderbolt

a long ancestry behind it1 and its hold upon life must be attributed
to the obscure persistence of early ideas. From the first the eagle
appearing far up in the blue2 was a visible manifestation, nay an
actual embodiment, of Zeusl To the last it remained his animal
counterpart, born when he was born4 and throughout associated with

him in a hundred ways5.

In the absence of both
thunderbolt and eagle it is
often difficult to decide
whether an erect bearded
ffod was meant for Zeus or

Poseidon. Butamagnificent
bronze from Paramythia,
now in the British Museum
(fig. 691),!, was rightly judged
by E. Braun7, J. Overbeck8,
and K. Wernicke9 to be a
representation of the former

1 Supra i. 84 f. figs. 51, 53.

2 Cp. the grand picture of an
eagle's flight in Apul. flor. 2. When
Apuleius describes how the great
bird swoops down fulminis vice?n,
we are reminded of Tennyson's
fragment The Eagle 6 'And like a
thunderbolt he falls.'

a Supra p. 186 ff.
4 Apostol. 8. 28 Zei)s derbv e'lKero-
ewl twv \vffire\rj Kai k<x\a eKXeyop.e'-
vwv • \eyerai yap /caret rrjv tov Aids
yevvrjaiv tov derbv yevvrjdrjrai, ev 5e
rr) Trpos YiyavTas /J-AxV Tra.pa-T'TTjvai'
SioTrep iv rfj b~iavep7]o~ei tlov tttijvixiv
7j(vs derov ei'Xero, tj Kai Trpoffrdffaei
Kai dyye}.tp xpVTaL irpbs (Keivovs, ovs
eiricpaveias d^ioc (= Arsen. viol. p. 260
Walz), schol. //. 8. 247, 24. 293,
Eustath. in II. p. 1351, 29 ff., et.
Gitd. p. 11, 46 ff. See also pseudo-
Eratosth. catast. 30, Hyg. poet. astr.
Fig. 691. 2- x6, schol. Caes. Germ. Aratea

p. 411, i6ff. Eyssenhardt.

5 K. Sittl op. cit. pp. 3—42.

6 H. B. Walters Brit. Mus. Cat. Bronzes pp. xiv, 36 no. 274 pi. 6, 2. Height: 8f ins.,
with base (ancient) io| ins. Patina: dark green. Fig. 691 is from a photograph by
Mr W. H. Hayles.

7 E. Braun Vorschule der Kttnstmythologie Gotha 1854 p. 9 pi. 13.

8 Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus p. 153 no. 74.

9 Muller—Wieseler—Wernicke Ant. Denkm. i. 22 f. pi.£2, 2.