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)

Zeus and the Clouds

31

a pre-Homeric tag1 originally descriptive of Zeus as a rain-making2
magician3. In Greece, as elsewhere4, the primitive rain-maker,
probably clad in a sheep-skin to imitate the fleecy vapours5, mounted
some neighbouring height and did his puny best to allay the mid-
summer heat by calling the clouds to draw their welcome veil across
the sky. This at least seems a plausible inference6 from one curious
Greek custom, the procession of men clad in thick sheep-skins which
on the very hottest day of the year toiled up the slopes of Mount

1 Supra i. 444 n. 6.

2 Hesych. s.w. ve<pe\TryeplTa- vetpekrjyepiT-qs, o-ras re</>Aas ayeipuv, 0 eon <?wa8pol{wv
0 toiis o/ippovt iroiGiv. K\r}TiKi) avrl evffeias, vetpeXoyeptT-qs (M. Schmidt cj. vetpeX-qyepirris (?).
Cp. Tzetz. alleg. II. 17. 35 Zeis 6 ve^tXtryepir^) ■ to aird, et. Gud. p. 406, 46 ve<pe\-q-
yepirao- tov tos vetptXas adpolfrvTos, et. mag. p. 601, 55 ve<p(\-qyepiT-i)s- 6 T&v vetpwv
aOpoiariKos Zeis, Favorin. lex. p. 1066, 38 ff. kXjjtikois iK^pci" clvtI eiOciun> rCiv 'Attikuv
eerie, ohf vtcpeh-qyepiTa Zei>s ivrl tov veQeXrjyepiTTfs.

3 Supra i. 14 n. 1, 758, ii. 258 n. 3, 694 n. o, 695 n. o, 1146 f. Cp. Medeia in Ov.
met. 7. 201 f. nubila pello | nubilaque induco.

4 Frazer Golden Bough3: The Magic Art i. 249 C, 256 f., 260 ff., 275, 323.

5 Theophr. de signis tempest. I. 13 ral orav v«p(Xai it6kois tplwr ofioiai waiv iiSwp
cwaiVe^Arat. phaen. 206 f. TroXXdia 5' ipxop.tvwv iieTuv viq>ea irpovapoidev \ ola //.aXurra
tt6>;oio~iv eoiKdra ivSoLWofrai = Plin. not. hist. 18. 356 si nubes ut vellera lanae spargentur
multae ab oriente, aquam in triduum praesagient, Apul. de deo Son: 10 atque ideo
umectiores humilius meant aquilofnis] agmine, tractu segniore[s]; sudis vero sublimior
cursus e<s (ins. P. Thomas)>t, cum lanarum velleribus similes aguntur, cano agmine,
volatu perniciore. Accordingly the Latin poets speak of fleecy clouds as vellera (Verg.
georg. 1. 397, Varr. Atac. frag. 21 Baehrens ap. anon. brev.. expos. Verg. georg. 1. 397 (m
the ed. of Servius by G. Thilo and H. Hagen iii. 2. 265, 3f.), Lucan. 4. 124 f-> CP- Mart-
ep. 4. 3. 1 f., Prosp. Aquit. in psalm. 147. 16 (li. 420 c Migne))—a usage hardly to be
paralleled in Greek.

It is possible that the dappled fawnskin of the Bacchant, trimmed with tufts of white
Wool (Eur. Bacch. 111 ff. vrucrOm r' ivivra vtPplSwv \ aTl<t>(Te XevKorplx^" *K6K&IUin> I
MaXXois and Sir J. E. Sandys ad toe), was intended as a rough imitation of the starry,
cloud-flecked sky, just as the fawnskin of Dionysos himself, bespangled with pearls
(Claud, de quarto cons. Honor. 606 f. talis Erythraeis intextus nebrida gemmis | Liber
agit currus), seems to have borne a cosmic character (R. Eisler Weltenmantel und Him-
melszelt Miinchen 1910 i. 76, 256 n. 4, who cites Nonn. Dion. 40. 577f. 'Hpcu-X^s Si \
ao-Tpaitp Ai6vvo-ov dxexXaiiwe xtTQvt and cp. the vase-painting figured supra ii. 202
PL xvii).

Attic vases signed by the potter Brygos [c. 505—4758.0.) or attributed to his painter
(lists in Hoppin A'ed-fig. Vases i. 106 ff, J. D. Beazley Attische Vasenmaler des rotfigurigen
Stils Tubingen 1925 p. 175 ff.) often show garments decorated with dots (O. S. Tonks
'Brygos: his Characteristics' in Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
■9o8 xiii. 69, 95, Pfuhl Malerei u. Zeichnung d. Gr. i. 460). In view of Brygos' name
With its northern connexions (Bptiyot, Bpuyes = <i>puyes: see W. Pape—G. E. Benseler
Wdrtcrbuch dcr griechischen Eigennamen3 Braunschweig 1875 i. 231, E. Oberhummer
m Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. iii. 920 f.) it is just conceivable that this craftsman was
Popularising at Athens a custom which originated in Thraco-Phrygian ritual. But the
hypothesis would be risqufe, since dotted garments are not strictly confined to the output
of Brygos (P. Hartwig Die griechischen Meisterschalen der Bliithezeit des strengeti roth-
^gurigen Stiles Stuttgart—Berlin 1893 p. 310 n. 4).

6 Supra i. 420 n. 3, where I was perhaps unduly sceptical of O. Gilbert's conclus.ons.