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)

820

Zeus Zbelsourdos

shows the same god still brandishing his bolt, but mounted on a
two-horse chariot, which carries also a draped and veiled goddess.
She holds in both hands attributes hard to determine—in her right
perhaps two ears of wheat (? a cornu copiae), in her left perhaps a
long torch (? a sceptre). The chariot is preceded by the snake, of
which the tail alone is visible. This relief, despite its extreme
clumsiness, is again composed of Hellenic elements, the motif of
Zeus fulminant in a chariot with a snaky tail before him being

probably drawn from the Gigantomachy1. And here it is of interest
to remember that in the neighbourhood of Constantinople thunder
is nowadays attributed to St Elias, who drives his chariot across the
sky in pursuit of a dragon, and that the modern Greek as like as
not will say ' The lightning is chasing the snakes2.'

The third type, again represented by a single relief (fig. ?86)3,
shows the Thracian god once more in the guise of a Greek Zeus4,
a nude, bearded figure facing us with sceptre held high and lowered

1 For an analogous case see supra p. 82 f.

2 Supra i. 183.

3 Marble relief, found in 1875 near the church of S. Eusebio at Rome, i.e. on a part
of the Esquiline where foreign troops, including Thracians, had their barracks, and now
to be seen in the Palazzo dei Conservatori (R. Lanciani in the Bull. Comm. Arch. Comun.
di Roma 1880 viii. 12 no. 157 pi. 1 ( = my fig. 786), Matz—Duhn Ant. Bildw. in Rom iii.
146 no. 3771, P. Perdrizet in the Revue des e'tudes anciennes 1899 p. 24 no. 4, G. Seure in
the Rev. Et. Gr. 1913 xxvi. 236 ff. fig. 7, Reinach Rep. Reliefs iii. 203 no. 3), inscribed
0ei2 7ij3ep0oup5u> /cat 'Ia/j,j3a8ov\r} iwL(pa\ve<jTa.Tois Avp(rjXios) Aiovihtlos arpaT^uirrjs)
%cj(p)tt;s J rod TrpaiT(wpiai>ov) iKarovrapxiov) ^Xupevrivov 6£kw[v] \ dve9r]tea = Inscr. Gr.
Sic. It. no. 981. After x^(p)TV^ there is space for a missing numeral.

4 Supra p. 749 ff.

Fig. 785-