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)

14 Zeus and the Earthquakes

bewegend, erschtitternd,' Boisacq Diet. ityrn. de la Langue Gr. p. 139 'qui secoue la
terre,' but ib. p. 735 'qui vehicule la terre,' F. Bechtel Lexilogus zu Homer Halle a.d.S.
1914 p. 17 'der die Erde bewegt,' G. Meyer in Philologus 1923 Suppl. xvi. 3. 71 n. 1
' erdbewegend,' Walde—Pokorny Vergl. Worterb. d. indogerm. Spr. i. 249 'der die Erde
bewegt.' The history of o'xos, dxeiaBai is—pace the pundits—decisive for the meaning
'earth-carrier' as against 'earth-shaker.'

P. Kretschmer ploughed a lonely and fruitless furrow, when he sought to take the
epithet as the equivalent of Yaiav oxevav ' mating with Gaia' (Glot/a 1914 v. 303 and 1924
xiii. 270). ■

Poseidon appears as ' earth-carrier' in ceramic illustrations of the Gigantomachy
(Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Poseidon pp. 328—331 Atlas pi. 4, 6, 8, 12b, pi. 5, lb, 1 c,
pi. 12, 25—27, pi. 13, 1, B. N. Staes in the 'E0. 'Apx- 1886 p. 88 pi. 7, 2, M. Mayer Die
Giganten und Titanen Berlin 1887. pp. 316—319, H. Dibbelt Quaestiones Coae mythologae
Gryphiswaldiae 1891 p. 14 f., Preller—Robert Gr. Myth. i. 70, 584, Gruppe Gr. Myth.
Rel. p. 258 n. 16, Frazer Pausanias ii. 48—50, E. H. Meyer in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii.
2815 f., H. Bulle ib. iii. 2867, O. Waser in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. Suppl. iii. 659,
669, 686, 754 f., J. Six in the Ath. Mitth. 1925 1. 117 fF. pi. 1). According to the oldest
accessible form of the myth 'Polybotes, chased through the sea by Poseidon, came to
Kos; whereupon Poseidon, breaking off a piece of that island now called Nisyros, hurled
it upon him' (Apollod. 1. 6. 2, cp. Strab. 489, Eustath. in Dionys. per. 525, Plin. nat.
hist. 5. 133 f.). A variant version tells how Polybotes, when struck by Zeus, started to
swim, and how Poseidon flung a trident at him but failed to hit, the missile becoming the
island Nisyros or Porphyris (Steph. Byz. s.v. Nfrrupos ( = Eudok. viol. 764, Favorin. lex.
pp. 1311, 14 f., 1536, 18 ff.)). Black-figured vases regularly show Poseidon moving from
left to right and bearing on his left shoulder the mass of rock with which he is about to
overwhelm his opponent (Overbeck op. cit. p. 328 ff. enumerates fourteen such vases).
But only one vase, an Ionian amphora, adds the name Polybotes {supra ii. 713 pi. xxx).
Red-figured vases of the strong style (c. 500—460 B.C.) give Poseidon in the same
attitude, but further characterise his rock as the island by representing on it an assortment
of land- and sea-creatures (Overbeck op. cit. p. 330 f. lists eight such vases. Typical
are (1) an amphora from Vulci, now in the Vatican, referred by J. D. Beazley Attic Red-
figured Vases in American Museums Cambridge Mass. 1918 p. 52, Attische Vasenmaler
des rotfigurigen Stils Tubingen 1925 p. in no. 2 and by Hoppin Red-fig. Vases i. 206 f.
no. 4 to 'the painter of the Diogenes amphora? a contemporary of Myson and of 'the
Eucharides painter' (Mus. Etr. Gregor. ii pi. 56, 1 a ( = ii2 pi. 60, 1 a), Overbeck op. cit.
p. 331 no. 8 Atlas pi. 12, 25, W. Helbig Fiihrer durck die bffentlichen Sammlungen
klassischer Altertiimer in Rom3 Leipzig 1912 i. 308 no. 489, with photographs by
Moscioni (no. 8572) and Alinari (no. 35754 = my pi. ii)): (2) a kylix from Vulci, now at
Berlin (Furtwangler Vasensam?nl. Berlin ii. 589ff. no. 2293), attributed to 'the Brygos
painter' [siipra ii. 777 n. 2, J. D. Beazley Attische Vasenmaler des rotfigurigen Stils
Tubingen 1925 p. 176 no. 6. R. Zahn in Furtwangler—Reichhold Gr. Vasenmalerei iii.
257 f- pi- 160 (part = my fig. 3) supersedes E. Gerhard Griechische und etruskische
Trinkschalen des koniglichen Museums zu Berlin Berlin 1843 pi. 10—11 (part = Overbeck
op. cit. p. 330 no. 1 Atlas pi. 4, 12 b)): (3) a kylix from Vulci, now at Paris, assigned by
Hoppin to 'the Brygos painter' (Hoppin Red-fig. Vases i. 136 no. 80), by Beazley to
a dexterous but mechanical imitator of his style (J. D. Beazley Attische Vasenmaler des
rotfigurigen Stils Tubingen 1925 p. 189 no. 1) (De Ridder Cat. Vases de la Bibl. Nat. ii.
429 ff. no. 573, P. Milliet—A. Giraudon Vasespeints du Cabinet des Me'dailles & Antiques
{Bibliothtytie Nationale) Paris 1891 vie classe, xic serie ii. pi. 70 interior, pis. 71, 72
exterior, Overbeck op. cit. p. 330 no. 2 Atlas pi. 5, 1 a, ib ( = my fig. 4), ic. My pi. iii is
from fresh photographs. The rock on (1) shows a scorpion, a polyp, a hedgehog, and
two fronds; on (2) a running fox (so Furtwangler and Zahn: Overbeck represents it as a
galloping horse surrounded by a fringe of seaweed (?) etc.); on (3) exterior a hedgehog, a
scorpion, a snake, and a goat (?); on (3) interior a snake (?), a fox, and tertium quid).
Only one of the red-figured vases names the Giant, and this calls him not Polybotes