DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0886
and the fork of Hades 805
Iupiter with the Getic Gebeleizis, whose name conceivably meant
' the god with a Fork1.' Still less shall we maintain that he took
over this implement from the fork-bearing figures of early Sardinia2.
For most of these little bronzes are demonstrable forgeries3.
Brushing aside such inadequate hypotheses, we approach the
problem along other lines. The Etruscans believed in lightnings
that sprang from the ground (fulgura inferna^, fulmina in/era or
terrena^), wielded presumably by some chthonian deity6. And
C. O. Thulin, the chief modern exponent of their lightning-lore,
argues that the Etruscan word for ' lightning' was rendered by the
Latin bidens'. Antecedently that is probable enough. ' Forked
lightning,' as we call it, might well be represented by a lightning-
fork. Moreover, the Romans, who in all matters of divination
relied upon the wisdom of Etruria, habitually spoke of a place
struck by lightning as bidental*. Hence H. Usener infers that
they must have symbolised the flash as a 'bidens or ' two-pronged
1 Supra p. 227 n. 4. For a better reading and rendering of the Getic name see
infra p. 822 f.
2 Le Cte A. de La Marmora Voyage en Sardaigne" Paris 1839—r8 =,7 Atlas pi. 17 ft.,
E. Gerhard Uber die Kunst der Pkonicier Berlin 1848 p. 38 f. pi. 5, 1 and 7.
3 Perrot—Chipiez Hist, de V Art iv. 65.
4 A. Caecina ap. Sen. nat. quaestt. 2. 49. 3. Supra p. 641 n. 3.
5 A. Caecina ap. Plin. nat. hist. 2. 138.
6 C. O. Thulin Die etruskische Disciplin i Die Blitzlehre Goteborg 1906 p. 47.
It may at first sight seem rash to suppose that a chthonian god was ever armed with
atmospheric terrors. But some at least of the Greek philosophers—in particular,
Herakleitos, Aristotle, and Poseidonios—held that lightning was primarily due to telluric
exhalations (O. Gilbert Die meteorologischen Theorien des griecliischen Altertums Leipzig
1907 pp. 627 ff., 629 f., 634 ff.J, thereby anticipating, not only the belief in electrical
interaction between earth and sky, but also the part played by evaporation in modern
theories of lightning {id. id. p. 637). Besides, these philosophers, after their manner,
were merely elaborating popular opinion. Greek literature makes frequent mention of
chthonian thunder (Aisch. P.v. 993 f., Edonoifrag. 57, 10 f. Nauck2, Soph. O.C. 1606,
Eur. El. 748, Hipp. 1201, Aristoph. av. 1747, 1752. J. P. Mahaffy, as quoted by
J. E. Harry on Eur. Hipp. 1201, states that ' fipbvTetov is used by the modern Boeotians
of a mountain north of Thebes which constantly makes a rumbling sound.' See also infra
§ 4 (d) Zeus Bpovrwv), and Greek art on occasion treats lightning as the attribute of such
chthonian powers as the Kyklopes (supra i. 318 f. figs. 252, 253) or Typhon (The three-
bodied monster, from the right half of an archaic pedimental group, found on the
Akropolis at Athens, holds in two of his left hands an attribute which has been
variously interpreted: see G. Dickins in the Catalogue of the Acropolis Museum Cam-
bridge 1912 i. 78 ff. no. 35. The most probable view is still that of Collignon Hist, de la
Sculpt, gr. i. 208 1 une sorte de foudre.' Good illustrations in Perrot—Chipiez Hist, de
rArt viii pi. 3, T. Wiegand Die archaische Poros-Archilektur der Akropolis zu Athen
Cassel and Leipzig 1904 pi. 4, R. Heberdey Altattische Porosskulptur Wien 1919 pi. 3,
1 and pi. 4).
' C. O. Thulin op. cit. p. 96 f., quoting A. Caecina ap. Sen. nat. quaestt. 2. 49. 1
dentanea (sc. fulgura), quae speciem periculi sine periculo adferunt.
8 G. Wissowa in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. iii. 429 ff.
Iupiter with the Getic Gebeleizis, whose name conceivably meant
' the god with a Fork1.' Still less shall we maintain that he took
over this implement from the fork-bearing figures of early Sardinia2.
For most of these little bronzes are demonstrable forgeries3.
Brushing aside such inadequate hypotheses, we approach the
problem along other lines. The Etruscans believed in lightnings
that sprang from the ground (fulgura inferna^, fulmina in/era or
terrena^), wielded presumably by some chthonian deity6. And
C. O. Thulin, the chief modern exponent of their lightning-lore,
argues that the Etruscan word for ' lightning' was rendered by the
Latin bidens'. Antecedently that is probable enough. ' Forked
lightning,' as we call it, might well be represented by a lightning-
fork. Moreover, the Romans, who in all matters of divination
relied upon the wisdom of Etruria, habitually spoke of a place
struck by lightning as bidental*. Hence H. Usener infers that
they must have symbolised the flash as a 'bidens or ' two-pronged
1 Supra p. 227 n. 4. For a better reading and rendering of the Getic name see
infra p. 822 f.
2 Le Cte A. de La Marmora Voyage en Sardaigne" Paris 1839—r8 =,7 Atlas pi. 17 ft.,
E. Gerhard Uber die Kunst der Pkonicier Berlin 1848 p. 38 f. pi. 5, 1 and 7.
3 Perrot—Chipiez Hist, de V Art iv. 65.
4 A. Caecina ap. Sen. nat. quaestt. 2. 49. 3. Supra p. 641 n. 3.
5 A. Caecina ap. Plin. nat. hist. 2. 138.
6 C. O. Thulin Die etruskische Disciplin i Die Blitzlehre Goteborg 1906 p. 47.
It may at first sight seem rash to suppose that a chthonian god was ever armed with
atmospheric terrors. But some at least of the Greek philosophers—in particular,
Herakleitos, Aristotle, and Poseidonios—held that lightning was primarily due to telluric
exhalations (O. Gilbert Die meteorologischen Theorien des griecliischen Altertums Leipzig
1907 pp. 627 ff., 629 f., 634 ff.J, thereby anticipating, not only the belief in electrical
interaction between earth and sky, but also the part played by evaporation in modern
theories of lightning {id. id. p. 637). Besides, these philosophers, after their manner,
were merely elaborating popular opinion. Greek literature makes frequent mention of
chthonian thunder (Aisch. P.v. 993 f., Edonoifrag. 57, 10 f. Nauck2, Soph. O.C. 1606,
Eur. El. 748, Hipp. 1201, Aristoph. av. 1747, 1752. J. P. Mahaffy, as quoted by
J. E. Harry on Eur. Hipp. 1201, states that ' fipbvTetov is used by the modern Boeotians
of a mountain north of Thebes which constantly makes a rumbling sound.' See also infra
§ 4 (d) Zeus Bpovrwv), and Greek art on occasion treats lightning as the attribute of such
chthonian powers as the Kyklopes (supra i. 318 f. figs. 252, 253) or Typhon (The three-
bodied monster, from the right half of an archaic pedimental group, found on the
Akropolis at Athens, holds in two of his left hands an attribute which has been
variously interpreted: see G. Dickins in the Catalogue of the Acropolis Museum Cam-
bridge 1912 i. 78 ff. no. 35. The most probable view is still that of Collignon Hist, de la
Sculpt, gr. i. 208 1 une sorte de foudre.' Good illustrations in Perrot—Chipiez Hist, de
rArt viii pi. 3, T. Wiegand Die archaische Poros-Archilektur der Akropolis zu Athen
Cassel and Leipzig 1904 pi. 4, R. Heberdey Altattische Porosskulptur Wien 1919 pi. 3,
1 and pi. 4).
' C. O. Thulin op. cit. p. 96 f., quoting A. Caecina ap. Sen. nat. quaestt. 2. 49. 1
dentanea (sc. fulgura), quae speciem periculi sine periculo adferunt.
8 G. Wissowa in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. iii. 429 ff.