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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

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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14698#0062

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24 Zeus and the Earthquakes

as a means of communicating fertility to the ground1, so that it had
probably come to be regarded as a victim suited to the earth-goddess
and therefore appropriate to a grave disturbance of the earth. Again,
in 268 B.C., when Rome was waging war in Picenum, the battlefield
was shaken by a seismic crash2, whereupon P. Sempronius Sophus,
the Roman general, vowed a temple to Tellus and in due time paid
his vow3. But such cases were exceptional. As a rule the Romans
were studiously vague and non-committal. Aulus Gellius, who
brought out his Attic Nights in 169 A.D.4, has some interesting
remarks on the point5:

THAT IT HAS NOT BEEN DISCOVERED TO WHAT GOD SACRIFICE SHOULD BE
MADE ON THE OCCASION OF AN EARTHQUAKE.
The ostensible cause of earth-tremors has not been discovered by the
common experience and judgment of mankind, nor yet satisfactorily settled by
the various schools of natural science6. Are they due to the force of winds pent

esse non diffitebere, quod a. d. duodecimum Kalendas Ianuarias Herculi et Cereri faciunt
sue praegnate, panibus, mulso. Cp. supra n. 6.

9 Macrob. Sat. i. 12. 20 adfirmant quidara, quibus Cornelius Labeo (on whom see

G. Wissowa in Pauly—Wissovva Real-Enc. iv. 1351 ff.) consentit, haric Maiam cui mense
Maio res divina celebratur terram esse hoc adeptam nomen a magnitudine, sicut et Mater
Magna in sacris vocatur: adsertionemque aestimationis suae etiam hinc colligunt quod sus
praegnans ei mactatur, quae hostia propria est terrae.

The connexion of Maia with magnus, motor, etc. is philologically sound (Walde Lai.
etym. Wdrterb? p. 455, Muller Altital. Worterb. p. 249 f.) and accords with the cult of
Iupiter Mains at Tusculum (Macrob- Sat. 1. 12. 17 sunt qui hunc mensem ad nostras
fastos a Tusculanis transisse commemorent, apud quos nunc quoque vocatur deus Maius
qui est Iuppiter, a magnitudine scilicet ac maiestate dictus. The inscription from Frascati
published by R. Garrucci I'piornbi antichiraccoltidalV emirientissimo.. .Cardinale L. Alticri
Roma 1847 p. 45 = Orelli—Henzen Inscr. Lat. set. no. 5637 Iovi | Maio | sacrum and by
R. Garrucci Sylloge inscriptionum Latinarum aeviRomanae reipublicae Turin 1877 p. 174
under no. 564 Iovi | Maio | sacrum | P. Mucius pater is now held to be of doubtful
authenticity: see H. Dessau in the Corp. inscr. Lat. xiv no. 216* and in the Ephem. epigr.
1892 vii. 383 no. 1276).

1 Arnob. adv. nat. 7. 22 Telluri gravidas atque fetas ob honorein fecunditatis ipsius...
et quod Tellus est mater...gravidis accipienda est scrofis—an explanation knocked down
by Arnobius, but set on its legs again by Frazer Worship of Nature i. 334.

2 lul. Obseq. 26, Oros. 4. 4. 5 ff. In Frontin. strut. 1. 12. 3 the consul is wrongly
called T. Sempronius Gracchus.

3 Flor. epit. 1. 14. For the aedes Telluris on the western slope of the Mons Oppius
see O. Richter Topographie der Stadt Rom2 Miinchen 1901 pp. 323—325, H. Jordan—
C. Huelsen Topographie der Stadt Rom im Alterthum Berlin 1907 i. 3. 323—326,

H. Kiepert et C. Huelsen Formae urbis Romae antiquae'1 Berolini 1912 p. 33, Frazer
Worship of Nature i. 336—339, S. B. Platner—T. Ashby A Topographical Dictionary
of Ancient Rome Oxford 1929 p. 511.

4 M. Schanz Geschichte der rbmischen Litteratur- Miinchen 1905 iii. 188, K. Hosius
in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. vii. 993.

0 Gell. 2. 28. 1—3.

6 See Plout. de plac. philos. 3. 15 = H. Diels Doxographi Graeci Berolini 1879 P- 379 a
8 ff., Sen. nat. quaestt. 6. 5 ft"., Suet. frag. 159 Reifferscheid ap. Isid. de natura rcrum 46.
 
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