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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#0074

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36 Zeus and the Clouds in Art

Latin poets likewise associate the clouds with the sky-god—Statius
for instance speaks of'cloudy Iupiter1'—-and the notion passed into
the common poetic stock.

(b) Zeus and the Clouds in Art.

This canonical conception of the sky-god sitting among his clouds
can be illustrated from early imperial art. A fine fresco from
Herculaneum, now in the Museo Nazionale at Naples (pi. iv, fig. 8)2,

Fig. 8.

shows a fair-haired3 Zeus reclining amid the clouds. He wears an
oak-wreath on his head, a reddish4 himdtion round his left shoulder
and both legs, and a sandal on his foot. His right hand grasps a double
lotiform thunderbolt, his left a long sceptre. His face, backed by
a whitish5 nimbus, expresses serious thought, and a small winged

1 Stat. Theb. 12. 650 f. qualis Hyperboreos ubi nubilus institit axes (axe cod. P) |
Iuppiter et prima tremefecit sidera bruma, | etc.

2 Guida del Mils. Napoli p. 289 no. 1259, Helbig Wandgcm. Camp. p. 32 f. no. 113,
B. Quaranta in the Real Museo Borbonico Napoli 1834 x pi. 23 with text pp. 1—3,
E. Braun Vorschule der Ktmstmythologie Gotha 1854 p. 10 pi. 15 (= my fig. 8), Welcker
Alt. Denkm. iv. 104 f. ('Jupiter im Wolkenrevier'), O. Benndorf 'Zeus und Eros' in the
Rhein. Mus. 1864 xix. 442—449 with pi., Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus p. 189 ff. (ij)
Atlas pi. 1, 43, Reinach Rep. Feint. Gr. Rom. p. 9 no. 7, Herrmann Denkm. d. Malerei
pi. 186 ( = my pi. iv) Text p. 253.

3 This detail I owe to Miss P. B. Mudie Cooke (Mrs E. M. W. Tillyard), who kindly
inspected for me all the frescoes representing Zeus that are in the Naples collection.

4 B. Quaranta loc. cit. 'un pallio di color bianco livido,' but W. Helbig loc. cit. 'Ein
rothlicher Mantel.'

5 H. W. Schulz in the Bull. d. Inst. 1841 p. 104 'col nimbo bianco,' L. Stephani
Nimbus und Strahlenkranz St Petersburg 1859 p. 13 (extr. from theMtmoiret de tAtadimu
des Sciences de St.-Pitersbourg. vi Serie. Sciences politiques, histoire, philologie. ix. 361 ff.)
'weiss,' W. Helbig loc. cit. 'einen weisslichen Nimbus.um das Haupt.'
 
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