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)

Thunder as a sound

(c) Thunder as a sound caused by the Chariot of Zeus.

According to another popular belief, thunder was the noise made
by the chariot of Zeus as it rattled across the sky. Of this concep-
tion there is no certain trace in epic verse1. But Pindar began one
of his lost poems with the words :

' Thunder-driving son of Rhea2.'

On which Hesychios comments: ' The thunder is thought to be the
chariot of Zeus3.' A second Pindaric exordium was as follows :

'Driver on high of the tireless-footed thunder,
Zeus,' etc.4.

Hereupon one scholiast remarks: 'Recent writers assign the thunder
to Zeus as his chariot and say "O Zeus the Charioteer.'" Another:
' Pindar takes the thunder to be the horse of Zeus, and so calls it
" tireless-footed." ' A third : ' Recent writers after a manner of their
own hold the thunder to be the chariot and horse of Zeus5.' The
reference to recent writers is meant to include such poets as
Horace6. But we can hardly doubt that the Thunderer's chariot was
genuinely Greek. For, not only does it occur elsewhere in literature7

1 Zeus in the Iliad has his 'well-wheeled chariot and horses' {supra i. 338 n. 1, where
—as Mr C. T. Seltman points out to me—I should have noted //. 8. 41 ff. rather than //.
8. 438 ff. as the earliest allusion); but they are not said to cause thunder.

'Txpi^vyos, an epic epithet of Zeus (//. 4. 166, 7. 69, 11. 544, 18. 185, Hes. 0. d. 18,
Cougny Anth. Pal. Append. 2. 373. 1), might conceivably be rendered ' who driveth his
team aloft' (though it would describe horse or chariot more naturally than driver) and
viewed as a virtual equivalent of v^ippe/xer-qs, ' who thundereth aloft' (//. 1. 354, 12. 68,
14. 54, 16. 121, Od. 5. 4, 23. 331, h. Herm. 329, Hes. 0. d. 8, theog. 568, 601, Aristoph.
Lys. in, Orph. Arg. 1278, Cougny Anth. Pal. Append. 6. 95. 3, 6. 210. 2, Tzetz. alleg.
Od. 5. 75 : cp. Orph. h. Ker. 19. r, where J. Pierson cj. v\f/lj3po/xov for v\pibpop.ov). But
ii\pl£vyos is traditionally taken to mean 'who sitteth aloft' (H. Ebeling Lexicon Homeri-
cum Lipsiae 1S80 ii. 396)—an epithet appropriate to a steersman (Noumenios ap.
Euseb. praep. ev. ri. 18. 24, Euseb. de land. Const. 10 p. 223, 12 f. Heikel), which may
well have descended to Homer from the days of the ' Minoan ' thalassocracy.

2 Pind. frag. 144 Schroder ap. Souid. s.v. eXacrLfipovr dvappTjyvvs Itvi] (=schol.
Aristoph. eq. 624) " eXaaij3povra 7rcu'Peas."

3 Hesych. s.v. eXaaifipovTa • ...iirel doKel ox^/m T°v Aids 7/ j3povri] eTvai.

4 Pind. 01. 4. 1 f. eXarijp vTreprare fipovrds aKa/xavTbirobos j ZeO.

5 Schol. Pind. 01. 4. 1 d, 1 k\ 1 a.

6 Hor. od. 1. 34. 5ft'. Diespiter I ...per purum tonantis | egit equos volucremque
currum (cp. ib. 1. 12. 58 ff.) with Porphyrion ad loc. dicuntur tonitrua strepitus esse currus
et quadrigarum Iovis.

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Bellerophontes frag. 312 Nauck2 £<£' dpfiar1 e\duv Ztjvos darpair-qcpopel (sc. Pegasos : supra
p. 828 n. 2), Quint. Smyrn. 12. 189 ff. Aios 5' iiri velpao-i 70.177s j ov Xddov 971) vorpua- Xlttwv
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