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)

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and the trident of Poseidon 793

they occur, there is a tendency to explain them as the imprint of
this, that, or the other superhuman power. P. Sebillot1 has collected
man}r cases of such popular interpretations. For example, at
Pont-d'Aisy a 'cup-marked' stone is known as 'the Fairy's Kettle'
or 'the Kettle of Giant Galaffre2'; and at Faux-la-Montagne the
impress of the Devil's spoon and fork is yet visible on a dolmen
where he dined3. Similarly the Greeks regarded these mysterious
marks beneath the Erechtheion as the traces left by the trident of
Poseidon, when he struck the Akropolis-rock and thereby created
his 'sea4.'

But Poseidon was not the first occupant of the Erechtheion.
Before him, as H. Usener5 showed, came Erechtheus, the true lord
and owner of the building. And who was Erechtheus ? Lykophron
in one passage probably6, in another certainly7, uses Erechtheus as
a synonym of Zeus. More than that, a learned schdlion on the
second passage states quite definitely that both at Athens and in
Arkadia Zeus was called Erechtheus*. There is therefore much to
be said for E. Petersen's contention9 that Erechtheus, the 'Cleaver10,'
was in fact a lightning-god like Zeus Kataibdtes11, who during the
fifth century B.C., if not earlier, was identified with Poseidon12. Two

1 P. Sebillot le Folklore de France Paris 1904 i. 395 ft'.

2 Id. ib. i. 396.

3 Id. ib. i. 398.

4 A good parallel is furnished by the sacred rock that juts up in the centre of the
Kubbet es-Sachra in Jerusalem. Certain round holes, apparently 'cup-marks,' on its
west side are said to be the finger-prints of the angel Gabriel: others of a like sort in the
south-west corner are explained as the foot-prints of the prophet Muhammed (R. Kittel
Studien zur hebraischen Archdologie and Religionsgeschichte Leipzig 1908 p. 19).

5 H. Usener Gbttemamen Bonn 1896 p. 139 ff.

6 Lyk. A I. 156 ff 6v (sc. Pelops) 57? dls rj^r)cravTa, nai /3apiV irddov \ (pvybvra ~Sa.vfj.td-
ovtos (sc. Poseidon) apiraKTripiov, \ iareCK 'Epex#ei)s (sc. Zeus) eis Aerpivaiovs yvas \ k.t.\.
with scholl. ad loc. and C. von Holzinger's note.

7 Lyk. Al. 431 rhv 5' av, riraprov iyybvwv 'Epex#eu>s (sc. Idomeneus, son of Deukalion,
son of Minos, son of Zeus).

8 Schol. Lyk. A I. 431 'Epex#eL>s yap /caXetrat 6 Zeus iv 'Adrjvais nal iv ' ApKabia rj dta
to ope^m TTjv Peav rip Kpbvtp \idov avrl Ai<5s, 17 wapa to epex#w to kivCo • 5t' avTov yap oi
o-eio-p,oL. The association of Athens with Arkadia is noteworthy and points perhaps to a
joint Pelasgian usage.

9 E. Petersen Die Btirgtempel der Athenaia Berlin 1907 pp. 61—93.

10 H. Usener op. cit. p. 140 f. took the name to mean the 'Breaker' in the agri-
cultural sense of a clod-' breaker' : E. Petersen op. cit. understands it as the ' Render' or
'Cleaver' used of a lightning-god. In either case '~E>pex8evs is to be connected with
epex^co (Prellwitz Etym. Worterb. d. Gr. Spr.2 p. 155, Boisacq Diet. itym. de la Langtie
Gr. p. 277 f.).

11 Supra p. 13 ff.

12 See the inscriptions and texts cited by O. Jahn—A. Michaelis Arx Athenarum
Bonnae 1901 p. 66 f. on Paus. r. 26. 5. Erechtheus is already replaced by Poseidon in
Hes. frag. 40 Flach, 101 Rzach3 ap. Eustath. in II. p. 13, 44 f. rj" oe, (pacri, Bovttjs vibs