Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 2,2): Zeus god of the dark sky (thunder and lightning): Appendixes and index (Cambridge, 1925)

Zeus Phtlios

Nor was this union one of merely physical fruition. The Greek was capable
of rising to greater heights, and the title Phtlios had from the first a moral con-
notation. True, Aristotle denied the possibility of love (philia) between man
and God:

' For love, we maintain, exists only where there can be a return of love. But
love towards God does not admit of love being returned, nor at all of loving.
For it would be strange if one were to say that he loved Zeus1.'

But popular usage was against him2. Whether parched with drought3, or
drenched with rain4, the man in the street cried out upon 'loved Zeus.' And
the like intimacy is attested by half-a-dozen poets from Theognis to Antipatros
of Thessalonike5. On a red-figured kylix by the potter Sosias Herakles, when
admitted to Olympos, makes the same naive ejaculation0. Moreover, the name
Dtphilos, 'loved by Zeus,' was of common occurrence7. No doubt this mutual
love did not amount to much. But the root of the matter was there, and its growth
was fostered by mystic teaching. On the grandest page of extant Greek literature8
the Platonic Sokrates tells how Diotima of Mantineia (supposed to be a priestess
of Zeus Lykaios'-1 and in any case, as her name shows, 'honoured of Zeus') once
made plain to him the mysteries of Eros. The initiate, she said, must mount by
successive grades from desire of a single beautiful body to desire of all beautiful
bodies, and from beauty of body to beauty of soul involving the beauty of customs
and laws. Thence he will launch out boldly into the beauty of knowledge until,
crossing its wide sea and nearing his journey's end, on a sudden he catches sight

1 Aristot. mag- mor. 2. ii. T208 b 28 fx. t-qv yap (piXiav evravdd <fia/j.ev dvat oO earl to
avTLcpiKelffdai, r] 8e npos tov debv (piXia ovre dvTKpiXeladai 5e%ercu ovd' oXws to tpiXeiv •
&TOTrov yap dv ei'77 et ris (pair] (piXelv tov Aia.

2 Indeed, he was against himself—witness his brief but pregnant utterance with regard
to the Final Cause in met. 12. 7. 1072 b 3 f. Kivei 5?) <i>s ipdi/nevov, Kivovp.evov be TaXXa Kivel.
He is groping his way towards the stupendous discovery that ' God is love.'

3 Marc. Ant. comment. 5. 7 c3 <piXe ZeO (infra § 9 (b)).

4 Anth. Pal. 5. 166. 6 (Asklepiades) ZeO 0tXe [infra § 9 (b)).

5 Theogn. 373 Hiller—Crusius ZeO <pt\e, dav/id^ui <re- k.t.X., Eupol. XPV(T0^V yevos
frag. 13 (Frag. com. Gr. ii. 541 f. Meineke) ap. Poll. 10. 63 dXX\ u> <pi\e ZeO, KaT&xvT\ov

t7}v piv' e%eis, Aristoph. eccl. 378 f. xal Stjtu rroXiiv 17 filXros, cS ZeO </>i'\rare, | ye\wv
irapeo-xev, k.t.X., Philem. Pyrrhosfrag. 1. 7 f. (Frag. com. Gr. iv. 22 Meineke) ap. Stob.
for. 55. 5 eip-qv-q '(Tt'lv to Tiev (piXraTe, \ tt)s eTracppoSiTov km. cpiXavdpibirov deov, Kallim.
ep. 7. 4 Schneider, 6. 4 Wilamowitz KpewcpvXLp, ZeO 0tXe, tovto fieya, Anth. Pal. 5.
108. 4 (Antipatros) rj pa fxaT-qv, Tied <piXe, /3o0? iyivov. It is obvious that the phrases ZeO
(piXe, c3 <piXe ZeO, c3 ZeO (piXTare expressed a variety of moods—indignation, astonishment,
delight, etc. But the point is that all alike are colloquial, herein differing somewhat from
such usages as //. r. 578 Trarpl <piXu> emr/pa <pepeiv Au, Pind. Nem. 10. 104 ft. ap.epav rdv
jxev irapd irarpi (piXop | At vlp-ovrai, rdv 5' vwo Kevdeai yaias k.t.X.

15 Furtwangler Vasensamml. Berlin ii. 549 ff. no. 2278, C. Lenormant in the Ann. d.
Fist. 1830 ii. 232 ft., Mon. d. lust, i pi. 24 = Reinach Riip. Vases i. 70, 2, Furtwangler—
Reichhold—Hauser Gr. Vasenmalerei iii. 13 ft. pi. 123, Perrot—Chipiez Hist, de F.Art
x. 503ft". fig- 285, Pfuhl Malerei 11. Zeiclinung d. Gr. i. 457 ft., iii. 137 fig. 41S.
Further bibliography in Hoppin Red-fig. Vases ii. 421ft. no. 1. Corp. inscr. Gr. iv

no. 8291, a 3>IICDV3I.

7 Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. v. 1152—1156 record twenty-two bearers of the name.
See also K. Meisterhans Granimatik der attischen Insckriften3 Berlin 1900 p. 74 n. 644 a.

8 I am weighing my words: that is my deliberate opinion.
Schol. Aristeid. p. 468, 15 f. Dindorf.