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)

8 14 Zeus Keraunobolos, Keraunios;

as king1 with purple robe, silver sceptre, and regal diadem2 was a
Cilician by birth, and had perhaps brought the cult of the lightning-
god with him from Asia Minor.

In view of the foregoing examples it may be maintained that
the Graeco-Roman age witnessed, not indeed a recrudescence of the
old zoistic conception of Zeus Keraunos*, but the rise and spread
of a new theistic conception—that of Zeus Keraunios, a deity too
sublime to be represented in human form4, whose potency might
yet be inferred from the shape of his dreaded weapon. In a word,
the thunderbolt, once a primitive fetish, had become, not merely
the attribute of a human, but the symbol of a superhuman, power.

At Tegea in Arkadia there have from time to time been found
numerous small four-sided pillars of Doliana marble, capped in
each case by a diminutive pyramid and often inscribed with the

An eagle on a thunderbolt is the device of a sling-bullet published by W. Vischer
' Antike Schleudergeschosse' in his Kleine Schriften Leipzig 1878 ii. 262 f. no. 32
pi. I4 = G. Fougeres loc. cit. fig. 3626 (with inscription [A]HMHTPIOY, perhaps
Uemetrios Poliorketes).

1 Appian. Mithr. 59.

2 Flor. 2. 7. 10.

3 A fragmentary relief from Emesa {Hot/is), now at Brussels (F. Cumont Catalogue
des sculptures <sr inscriptions antiques {monuments lapidaires) des Musees Royaux du
Cinquantenaire" Bruxelles 1913 p. 68 ff. no. 55 fig.: height 0*41m, breadth o-32m),
represents a series of at least four Syrian deities, from left to right—(a) a divinity of whom
one foot only remains ; (b) a god in Roman military costume, with a spear in his right
hand, a thunderbolt (?) in his left, and a rayed nimbus round his head ; (c) a veiled goddess,
with a javelin or sceptre in her left hand, a necklace round her throat, and an oval shield
partly hidden by her head ; (d) a god in oriental military costume, with a lance in his
right hand, a circular shield on his left arm, and a turban (?) round his head. Above (c)
and (d) are the dedications A0H NA and KGPAYj NCO. Below (a)—(d) runs a longer

inscription : [----la.pej3ib\cp, 'Ay\i(3w\u), Kai 2e[. . . .] [ [----] inrep crwr^ptas avrov

Ke t[<2v t'StW]. This has been variously completed. S. Ronzevalle in the Rev. Arch. 1902
i. 387 ff. and in the Comptes rendus de PAcad, des inscr. et belles-lettres 1902 p. 235 ff.
with pi. ( = my fig. 780), 1903 p. 2 76 ff. proposes: \Qeoh warpipois BrjJXw, Tapi/3w\y,

'Ay\Lf3tl>\ip Kai Hep.[tpa/xet.] . j [6 Selva tov SelVos] vTrep auTijpias avrov Ke t[Qv reKvwv (?)
avedrjKev']. Semiramis is here the goddess Semea or Sima, on whom see O. Hdfer in
Roscher Lex. Myth. iv. 660 ff. R. Dussaud in the Rev. Arch. 1903 i. 143 f., 1904 i. 206 ff.,
id. Notes de mythologie syrienne Paris 1903 p. 104 ff. fig. 27 ( = Reinach Re~p. Reliefs ii.
163 no. 3), id. Les Arabes en Syrie avant VIslam Paris 1907 p. 130ff. fig. 28 suggests :
[0eo"is 7rarpo;ois Brj]\ip Ta/H/3ai\w, 'Ay\ij3d}\u) j| 'Adrjva, KepawaJ [| Kai Se[t/i/a] [ [6 Selva
tov SeiVos] vwep aurripias avrov Ke t[Q}v tIkvuv^\. F. Cumont loc. cit. would read : [deois
TrarpioLS MaXaxfir; ?]\y, 'Iapej3u\u>, 'Ay\l(3Lb\u Kai Se[i^ti{i] Ho delva tov 5eivos] virkp
auTTjpias avrov (sic) Ke t]_Qiv t'Stcov], but hesitates between MctXax/3?)\y, BrjXip, and
'E\ayaf3d\q.\ ' He would identify (b) with larhibol, 'Lord of the Months,' an originally
lunar but later solar god of Palmyra (id. in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. ix. 750 f.),
(<r) perhaps with Seimia, and (d) possibly—but not very probably—with some form of
fia'al heading the dedication. Amid much that remains uncertain it is clear that Keraunos
is here conceived as a god of military aspect, equipped with lance and shield,—a great
advance upon primitive zoism.

4 See, however, supra p. 808 n. o no. (13).