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)

72 The Clouds personified in Cult and Myth

For, after all, a cloud may symbolise mystery as well as mystifica-
tion; and what began as a nimbus may end as a glory1.

Nephele, the personified Cloud, figures in one or two Greek
myths which deserve attention. Pherekydes of Athens (or Leros2),
the earliest Attic prose-writer {floruit 454/3 B.C.), tells the tale of
Kephalos and Prokris in the following form3:

Kephalos, the son of De'ioneus, married Prokris, the daughter of Erechtheus,
and dwelt at Thorai4. Wishing to make trial of his wife, he went abroad—it is
said—and left her for the space of eight years6 while she was yet a bride. After
that, he adorned and disguised himself and, coming to his house thus tricked
out, persuaded Prokris to receive him and consort with him. Prokris, eyeing
his adornment and seeing that Kephalos was a very handsome man, lay with
him. Thereupon Kephalos revealed himself and took Prokris to task. However,
he made it up with her, and sallied forth to the chase. As he did this repeatedly,
Prokris suspected that he had intercourse with another woman. So she summoned
the serving-man and asked if he knew aught of it. The thrall said he had seen
Kephalos repair to the top of a certain mountain and often exclaim 'O Nephele0,
come to me!'—that was all he knew. Prokris on hearing it went to that
mountain-top and hid herself. Then, when she heard him saying the same words,
she ran towards him. Kephalos, seeing her, was seized with sudden madness
and, on the spur of the moment, struck Prokris with the javelin in his hand and
slew her. Then he sent for Erechtheus and gave her a costly burial.

Schwenn7 in a recent discussion of the myth very justly observes
that Nephele here must be a flesh-and-blood personification, not a
mere amorphous vapour. Ovid8 goes off on a wrong tack, when he

1 The nimbus of Christian art has a long history of its own, on which see L. Stephani
Nimbus und Strahlenkranz St Petersburg 1859 pp. 1—140 (extr. from the Mimoires de
FAcadimie des Sciences de St.-Pitersbourg. vi Serie. Sciences politiques, histoire, philologie.
ix. 361—500), E. Venables in Smith—Cheetham Diet. Chr. Ant. ii. 1398—1402,
H. Mendelsohn Der Heiligenschein in der italienischen Malerei seit Giotto Berlin 1903
pp. 1—23 with figs., A. Krlicke Der Nimbus tmd verwandte Attribute in der friihehrist-
lichen Kunst Strassburg 1905 pp. 1—145 with 7 photographic pis ( = Zur Kunstgeschichte
des Auslandes Heft 35), G. Gietmann 'Nimbus' in The Catholic Encyclopedia New York
19 r 1 xi. 80—83. Older monographs are Behmius De Nimbis Sanctorum (cited by Venables)
and J. Nicolai Disquisitio de Nimbis antiquorum, Imaginibus Deorum, imperatorum olim,
cV nunc Christi, Apostolortim oV Maria Capitibus adpictis (Jena) 1699 pp. 1—151.

2 W. Christ Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur* Miinchen 1912 i. 454 f.

3 Pherekyd.77 {Frag. hist. Gr. i. 90f. Muller) ==/ra<?-. 3+ (Frag. gr. Zlist. i. 71
Jacoby) ap. schol. M.V. Od. 11. 321, cp. Eustath. in Od. p. 1688, 20 ff.

4 Schol. Od. 11. 321 has h Bopiiuv (sc. (6uXjj). F. Q. Sturz cj. i» r£ Go^wi/
(sc. Sri/J-v)- C. Muller, after P. K. Buttmann, would read et> rip QopiK^' (sc. Syfiip).
U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, followed by F. Jacoby, prints ei> 7-77 Oop<a>iewy.

5 A significant period, one 'great year' (supra i. 540 n. 1, ii. 240ff.).

8 Codd. M. Va. of schol. Od. 11. 321 read & vecp{\a, which is accepted by F. Jacoby.
Eustath. in Od. p. 1688, 27 has a v^i\t], and so P. K. Buttmann in schol. Od. 11. 321.
C. Muller prints w Ne^Aa.

7 Schwenn in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. xi. 218.

8 Ov. ars am. 3. 697 ff., met. 7. 811 ff.