Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1940)

6

Zeus and the Earthquakes

The sire of men and gods thundered on high

Horrific, and beneath Poseidon shook

The boundless earth and the tall mountain-tops.

Yea, all the feet of many-fountained Ide

And all her crests were swaying to and fro,

Troy-town to boot and the Achaean ships.

Deep underground Aidoneus, king of the dead,

Trembled and, trembling, sprang from his throne and shouted

Lest o'er his head Poseidon, shaker of land,

Should cleave the very earth and bring to the ken

Of mortals and immortals his grim realm,

A mouldering realm that ev'n the gods abhor1.

This passage is well illustrated by a bronze medallion of
Mytilene, struck by Valerianus, and hitherto unpublished (pi. i and
fig. i)2. The reverse type is an attempt to visualise the foregoing

Fig. i.

scene. On the left Poseidon, holding a dolphin (?), threatens the
ground with his trident. On the right Hades, a rod or sceptre in
his hand, springs from his throne in terror. Zeus, standing between
them, with kimdtion and sceptre, raises his hand to quell the
tumult. The whole must refer to some historic earthquake, and
may have been struck to commemorate it.

The Homeric lines, however effective, are not improbably a late

F. Durrbach in Daremberg—Saglio Diet. Ant. iv. 60 f., Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. pp. 814,
845, 1139 n. 2, E. H. Meyer in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 2798, 2813 ff., Farnell Cults of Gk.
States iv. 7 f.

1 //. 20. 56—65.

2 My specimen came from the cabinet of a Greek collector on May 14, 1928. Obv.
AVT - K -TT-AIK - B AAEPIANOC. Bust of Valerianus to right. Rev. 0601A KPAI
OI|MVTIAHNA IHN. Scene as described above. PI. i shows the reverse to a
scale of f. L. Holstein's coin (supra ii. 873 n. 0(10)) had apparently the same reverse
combined with an obverse resembling supra ii. 260 fig. 172.