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)

8o6

Zeus Keraunobolos^ Keraunios ;

fork1.' True, several of the ancient grammarians expressly derive the
term bidental from the fact that sheep (bidentes) were sacrificed on
the spot2. But that explanation is rejected by Pomponius Porphyrio3
(s. iii A.D.); and the learned scholiast on Persius couples it with
another, namely, that the thunderbolt itself had two teeth4. Pro-
bably sheep with their two prominent fore-teeth3 were sacrificed at
the bidental just because their peculiarity connected them in the
sacerdotal mind with the two-toothed lightning.

In short, it would appear that Iupiter on the Picentine tile has
borrowed his bidens from an Etruscan god of the Underworld—the
Etruscan bident being the exact counterpart of the Greek trident'1
in its original character of lightning-fork. If we may assume, as we
are almost certainly entitled to do, that the Etruscans themselves
hailed from Lydia, it becomes highly probable that the bident of
Italy and the trident of Greece were respectively descended from
the bipartite and tripartite forms of Mesopotamian lightning7.

(e) Zeus Keraunobolos, Keraunios; Astrapaios, Astrapton.

As lord of the lightning Zeus was saluted by the poets with a
variety of sounding epithets, which need not here detain us8.

1 H. Usener in the Rhein. Mus. 1905 lx. 22 ( = id. Kleine Schriften Leipzig—Berlin
1913 iv. 490).

A Greek parallel perhaps underlies Aristoph. av. 1239 f. ottws /j.rj aov yevos irav-
wXedpov I Aios /j.a.KeX\r] irav avaaTpeipr] Alky/ with schol. ad loc. tovto (pr/aL irapa to
^.ocpoKXeLov " XPV(TV ^o-KeWrj Z^fos c^avaaTpacprif where Fritzsche's ingenious cj. ev~Kpvay
is accepted by A. Nauck (Soph. frag. 659) and A. C. Pearson (Soph. frag. 727 Jebb).
Retaining the text with W. Dindorf (Soph. frag. 767), we may adopt the suggestion of
F. Fllendt Lexicon Sophoclenm Regimontii Prussorum 1835 ii. 48 fulmen intellexit
coruscum cum ligonis dentibus comparatum.' Mr A. D. Nock suggests to me (Dec. 15,
1921) that Aristophanes was thinking rather of Aisch. Ag. 525 f. Ipoiav KaraaKaxpavTa
too diKrjcpopov I Aids p-aneWy, rrj KaTeipyatTTai irebov, or possibly of both the Aeschylean
and the Sophoclean passages. As to the shape of a /xdfceAXa opinion varied : Apollon.
lex. Honi. p. 109, 33 p.aKeWav diKeWav, ko.kws' eari yap to nXaTv CKacpeiov, Hesych.
s.z>. fiaKeWrj- SiKeXXa. 7r\a.Ti) aKtMpiov... , Phot. lex. s.v. p-aneWa,- 8'iKeKKa, Souid. s.v.
fiaKeXKa- SiKeXKa, schol. Arat. phaeu. 7 /xd/ceXXa Se y\ /xovodev tceWovaa T\yovv Te/u,vov<ra,
SihceXKa 5c r/ Stxbdev — Eustath. in II. p. 1235, 56 f.

2 Paul, ex Fest. p. 33, 10 f. Muller, p. 30, 17 ff. Lindsay, P. Nigidius Figulus
de extis frag. 39" Funaioli ap. Non. Marc. p. 75, 23 f. Lindsay, Fronto de diff. vocab.
p. 523, 24 f. Keil. 3 Porphyr. in Hor. art. poet. 471, cp. Acron ib.

4 Schol. Pers. sat. 2. 27. 5 F. Olck in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. iii. 427.

,j Bident and trident are sometimes exchanged. Sen. H.f. 564 ff. makes Hades attack
Herakles with a trident (telnm terge??ii)ia cuspide praeferens). En revanche the late schol.
Augustan, in Eur. Phoen. 188 arms Poseidon with a bident (rpiaivo. eari to 56pv < oS
(ins. L. C. Valckenaer) > to iv aidr/pov dpdov, to 5e erepov aTpe(3\6v).

7 Stipra p. 764 ff.

8 Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 1111 n. 3 has collected examples of the following:
dpyiKepawos, Kepavvews, KepawojSpovTTjs, TepiriKepavvos', diTTepoTrrjTrjs, daTpdirios, o~Tepoivr\-
yepeTa, (poLVLKOdTepbiras.