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)

and the trident of Poseidon 789

as the lotos is concerned, no more cause to connect the trident with

the sceptre than to connect it with the thunderbolt.

In 1898 O. Gilbert, undeterred by an emphatic protest on the

part of C. Robert1, announced that Poseidon's trident ' must be

essentially identical with the lightning2.' He pointed out that the

Iliad describes Poseidon as—

Holding in his stout hand a dread long-edged
Sword like the lightning3—

and that the mark of Poseidon's trident to be seen on the zYkropolis
at Athens4 is comparable with the elysia or enelysia caused by the
lightning of Zeus5. H. Usener in 1905 likewise declared for the
'original identity of the Poseidonian trident with the thunderbolt'1.'
He too quoted the lines from the Iliad and laid stress on the resem-
blance of the hypaethral7 trident-mark at Athens to the hypaethraP
bidental or lightning-monument of the Romans. Lastly he stated,
on the authority of G. Loeschcke, that the weapon of Zeus is some-
times tridentiform9. Similar views were expressed in 1907 by the
mythologist E. H. Meyer10 and in 1909 by the historian E. Meyer11.

1 Preller—Robert Gr. Myth. i. 570.

2 Gilbert Gr. Gbtterl. p. 170.

3 //. 14. 384 ff. y)pxe &Pa cr(PL ncxreiSdciw ivo<j[\db)v, \ deivbv Hop ravvrfKes ixuv &v
%etpt 7raxei?7, | eticeXov aarepoTrrj with schol. T.V. ad loc. rives tt\v rpiaivav, eirei Kal
' ApK&des Kai AltwXoI ira.v ottXov " aop " KaXovcriv k.t.\.

4 Hegesias frag. 7 (Script, hist. Alex. Mag. p. 143 Miiller) ap. Strab. 396, Apollod. 3.
14. 1, Paus. 1. 26. 5. See W. Judeich Topographie von Athen Mtinchen 1905 p. 250,
M. L. D'Ooge The Acropolis of Athens New York 1908 p. 208.

5 Supra p. 21 f.

6 H. Usener ' Keraunos' in the Rhein. Mus. 1905 lx. 23 ( — id. Kleine Scliriften
Leipzig—Berlin 1913 iv. 490 f.).

7 Not only was the pavement of the north porch of the Erechtheion left open so as to
show the trident-mark in the rock beneath it, but there was a corresponding hole con-
trived in the roof above it (W. Ddrpfeld in the Ath. Mitlh. 1903 xxviii. 466 ff., M. L.
D'Ooge The Acropolis of Athens New York 1908 p. 208 f.).

M. P. Nilsson 'The "ZxVP-0- Tpiaii'T?? in the Erechtheion' in the Journ. Hell. Stud.
1901 xxi. 325—333 places the trident-mark in the north-west corner of the crypt of the
west cella : but his view has not found acceptance (W. Judeich Topographie von Athen
Munchen 1905 p. 250 n. 9).

8 Fest. p. 333 b 30 ff. Miiller, p. 450, 2 ff. Lindsay, Vitr. 1. 2. 5 ; cp. Varr. de ling.
Lat. 5. 66, Catns vel de liberis edncandis ap. Non. Marc. p. 793, 23 ff. Lindsay, Ov.
fast. 1. 671 f., Plout. auaestt. Rom. 28. Supra i. 53, infra § 3 (c) iv (a).

,J I suppose that Loeschcke had in mind the kylix signed by Xenokles (Brit. Mus.
Cat. Vases\\. 223 f. no. B 425, supra p. 785 fig. 749). H. Usener in the Rhein. Mus. 1905
lx. 27 n. 92 ( = id. Kleine Schriften Leipzig—Berlin 1913 iv. 494 n. 92) observes that on
a coin of Taouion (Tavium) in Galatia (Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Galatia etc. p. 27 pi. 5, 12,
figured infra % 3 (c) iv (a)) Zeus holds ' dreizackigen Donnerkeil.'

10 E. H. Meyer in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 2797 (' Dann fasst er (sc. Poseidon) seinen
Dreizack, ein Sinnbild...des dreizackigen in eine Thunfischergabel umgestalteten Blitzes
oder Sturmgeschosses').

11 E. Meyer Geschichte des Altertums- Stuttgart—Berlin 1909 i. 2. 638 ('Als Attribut