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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#0105

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Nephelokokkygia

'having won all that belonged to Zeus1.' The scholiast is puzzled,
and comments on the verse—

He is your Master, 'tis he that is shaking the

Earth with your powers!—

'He means Zeus of course, or Pisthetairos now that he has got
Basileia2.' But the meaning of the chorus is quite unmistakable.
When Pisthetairos, bride in hand, is escorted 'to Zeus' floor and
marriage-bed3,' they acclaim him with all the emphasis of a farewell
line as 'highest of the gods4.'

Pisthetairos is Zeus. And Basileia is—who? Scholars ancient
and modern have given a variety of answers to the question5. An

1 Id. ib. 1752 Ata Be wavra Kparrjcras j k.t.X.

2 Schol. Aristoph. av. 1751 6 Zeds SrjXovbn, rj 6 XleiixBhaipos Xafluv rr\v BatriXelav (sic).

3 Aristoph. av. 1757 f. iirl iriBov Aibs \ kcu \<?x<» yafi-nXtov.

4 Id. ib. 1765 Sa.iiJ.bvuv vire'pTa.Te.

5 (1) Schol. Aristoph. av. 1536 aoifiaroTOiei ttjv BcurtAeiac avrb rb ■wpayiJ.a. is ■yvvaiKa.
in defiance of metre (supra p. 59 n. o) made her a personification of Royalty.

(2) Euphronios the Alexandrine grammarian of s. iii B.C. (L. Cohn in Pauly—
Wissowa Real-Enc vi. 1220 f., W. Christ Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur*
Miinchen 1920 ii. 1. 150) op. schol. Aristoph. av. 1536 regarded her as a daughter of
Zeus—probably an inference from Aristoph. av. 1537 ff.

(3) Others held that she dispensed immortality, as Athena in Bakchyl./ra^-. 45 Jebb
was about to dispense it to Tydeus; and some actually called her Athanasia (schol.
Aristoph. av. 1536). This was perhaps one of the many (Cornut. theol, 20 p. 36, iff.
Lang) etymologies suggested for Athena (so even in Prellwitz Etym. Worterb. d. Gr.
Spr? p. 11).

(4) F. Wieseler Adversaria in Aeschyli Prometheum Vinctum et Aristophanis Aves
Gottingae 1843 p. 124 ff. contends that she was Athena, cp. Tzetz. in Lyk. Al. in 'AByvq.
tivl jiatJiXiSi rfj Kai BaXevUrj \eyofievn, Bvyarpl Se Bpovre'ov (supra ii. 833 n..7).

(5) Others cite Dionysios Skytobrachion (E. Schwartz in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc.
v. 673) ap. Diod. 3. 57, who in his romantic vein told how Basileia, a daughter of
Ouranos by Titaia (Ge) and a sister of Rhea (Pandora), brought up her brothers the
Titans and hence was known as the Megale Meter, inherited her father's kingdom, and
ultimately became by her brother Hyperion the mother of Helios and Selene.

(6) Others again equate the Aristophanic Basileia with the goddess worshipped at
Athens under the name BaaiXri or BatrlXeia (O. Kern in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. iii.
41 ff., Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. pp. 1081 n. 5,1521 n. 1), whom some take to be a 'Queen'
of Heaven (H. Usener Gotternamen Bonn 1896 p. 227 ff.), some a 'Queen' of the
Underworld (G. Loeschcke Vermutungen zur griechischen Kunstgeschichte und zttr
Topographie Athens Dorpati Livonorum 1884 pp. 14—24).

(7) C. Pascal Dioniso Catania 1911 pp. 99—no argues that the Basileia of the play
is 'Queen' of the Underworld and at the same time goddess of the mysteries and of
fertility, in fact a variant of Kore. Marriage with her means death (supra ii. 1163 ff.).
Pisthetairos the pretender, after a career of hitherto unbroken success, is thus at the last
politely handed over to the other world (E. Wiist in the Jahresbericht iiber die Fortschritte
der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft 1916—1918 clxxiv. 135).

(8) J. T. Sheppard 'tis eunv i) Bacri'Xeia;' in the Fasciculus Ioanni Willis Clark
dicatus Cantabrigiae 1909 pp. 529—540, after rightly insisting that the solemnity of the
final scene in the Birds implies a clear reference to the sacred marriage of Zeus and Hera,
 
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