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 in Art 39

its wings still spread—beneath the left foot of Zeus, to serve him as
a living footstool. Eros hovers near at hand with welcoming arms.
Hermes in winged pctasos and loosely draped cldamys holds up, from
a lower level of cloud, aphidlc—possibly that from which Ganymedes
had fed the eagle1. In the background to the left Athena, equipped
with helmet, spear, and Gorgon-shield, turns her head to address
another goddess imperfectly seen behind her. The painting no doubt
has merits. The choice of subject suits its position of central impor-
tance. The blue circle overhead suggests the sky and helps the
spectator to realise that this is no mountain-top but the heaven above
it2. Hermes' gesture secures uplift3. Detachment from earth is
complete. Yet the composition in general is not very well adapted
to fill the circular space. The fusion of three types—Zeus enthroned,
Zeus on the eagle4, Ganymedes on the eagle—is decidedly awkward.
Hermes' action after all is a little meaningless. And the two
goddesses, perhaps intended for those of the Capitoline triad, are
obviously de trop.

These weaknesses disappear in a third fresco, which again formed
the ceiling-decoration in a room of the Golden House (pi. v)5.
The circular design, according to a sketch of it made by that con-
sistently careful draughtsman P. S. Bartoli, depicts Zeus seated on
a cloudy throne with a himdtion wrapped about his legs, a thunder-
bolt brandished in his right hand, and an eagle perched at his side.
The medallion was surrounded by a triple row of gods and goddesses
with, beyond them, a series of sportive Tritons.

An engraved onyx in my collection (fig. io)6 represents the
whole company of heaven as conceived in Roman imperial times.

1 Infra Append. P. 2 Supra i. 115.

3 Cp. the attitude of Ganymedes himself, not to mention the eagle and the dog, in the
Vatican group after Leochares (supra ii. 281 a. 4).
Supra ii. 102 f. n. o figs. 59—64, ii. 462 n. o.

'- J. P. Bellorius et M. A. Causseus Picturae antiquae cryptarum RotnanaruM, et
sepukri Nasunum Komae 1750 p. 89 Append, pi. 6 ('Juppiter nubi insidet, proxime
adstante Aquila, dextraque fulmen minax in hominum exitium torquere videtur: circum-
stant triplici ordine Deorum, Dearumque imagines: quartumque ordinem implent
Tritonum lusus') = my pi. v, Reinach A'tfp. Peint. Gr. Rom. p. 9 no. 5.

6 The stone, which is circular and plano-convex (here figured to a scale of -?), possibly
served as a pendant or ear-ring. On such purely ornamental phalerae see E. Saglio in
Daremberg— Saglio Diet. Ant. iv. 427. This one is from the Wyndham Cook and Sir
Francis Cook collections. It does not appear in the privately printed Catalogue of the
Wyndham Cook Collection, but was in the Sale of Humphry W. Cook (July 1925), who
inherited from Sir Francis Cook. There is an impression of the same intaglio in the
Museum of Classical Archaeology, Cambridge, no. 472 in the Impressions of Engraved
Gems (Ancient and Modern) got together by John Wilson (1790—1876). It is described
in the MS. Catalogue as 'Jupiter between Juno & Minerva to witness a Chariot Race' !