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)

88 The Clouds personified in Cult and Myth

Gottheiten der Etrusker Berlin 1847 pp. 40 n. (96), 58 n.*) ( = Abh. d. berl. Akad. 1843
Phil.-hist. Classe pp. 556 n. (96), 574 n.*)), F. Wieseler in C. O. Miiller Denkmdler der
alten Kunst Gottingen 1835—1856 ii. 2. 14 f. pi. 34, 394, A. Fabretti Corpus inscriptionum
Italicarum Aug. Taurinorum 1867 p. ccxiv no. 2470, Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus
p. 187 f. no. (c) Atlas pi. r, 37, H. Heydemann Dionysus' Geburt und Kindheit
{ Winckelmannsfest-Progr. Halle 1885) p. 14 f., C. Pauli in Roscher Lex. Myth. v. 460 f.).
In the centre sits Zeus (Tinid) wearing a wreath of lilies {supra i. 622 f., 736 n. o, ii. 740)
and a Initiation, which leaves his right leg bare. He leans with his right hand on a long
sceptre surmounted by an eagle (Gerhard wrongly took this to be a Dodonaean dove) and
holds a winged thunderbolt in his left. From his right thigh emerges Dionysos as a nude
baldish infant with a siring of bullae across his chest. The child carries in his left hand
a narthex with umbelliferous head (so Heydemann. Gerhard made it a ferule and grape-
bunch; Visconti, followed by Wieseler, a small pedum) and raises his right to greet
the birth-goddess (Thalna) who, arrayed in Ionic chiton and himdtion with stephdne,
ear-ring, and necklace, stoops forward to receive him. Behind Zeus is a winged goddess
(M[e\att, on whom see W. Deecke in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 2481) wearing an Ionic
chiton with girdle and cross-bands; she too has stephdne, ear-ring, and necklace. She
uplifts a dipper in one hand and grasps an aldbastron with the other (not a pen and
ink-bottle, as though about to inscribe the child's destiny). To the left of the group
stands Apollon (Apulu), his long hair rolled round a fillet, a chlamjis over his shoulders,
a bay-branch in his left hand, and a doe behind him. To the right, room is found
beneath the wings of Mean for the infant's cradle or, more probably, swaddling-clothes
(so Heydemann. Inghirami had spoken of a vannus, Gerhard of a mystic cistd). The
whole composition, probably derived from some Greek vase-painting, is enclosed between
two purely decorative figures—above, a wild bearded head with streams or streamers
flowing from the mouth (Gerhard thought of Phobos, or of the Dodonaean Zeus!
Visconti saw a lion's head and a snake !!); below, a winged goddess swathed in a himdtion.
Over her runs an inscription, which has lately been read by C. Pauli he. cit. as
VW4 [8 V8] Fupms Semleal, 'Dionysos son of Semele.' The
reverse of the handle shows a pair of scantily draped dancers, male and female.

C. Lenormant in the Ann. d. Inst. 1833 v- 2I5 ff- and J. de Witte in the Mm. Ann.
1836—1837 i. 369—371 pi. a 1837, 1—2 published two bullae of thin gold foil (diameter
c. if inches), found in a tomb at Vulci and preserved in the Cabinet des Medailles at Paris.
They are both decorated with a repoussd design representing the birth of Dionysos (cp. the
series of sarcophagus-reliefs described supra p. 85 n. o (2)). Zeus with bowed head sits to
the left on a rock (?). He wears a himdtion round his loins and over his left shoulder. His
right hand clasps his right knee. His left hand rests on the rock. From his right thigh
emerges the infant god, uplifting both arms. He is received by a winged Athena, clad in
a Doric piplos with long overfold, aigis, and Gorgdneion. Between Zeus and Athena is
a lotiform thunderbolt (?). J. de Witte's description of the scene is full of bad blunders. My
pi. xiv, 1 is from a fresh photograph by Giraudon. Another gold bulla from Italy, of
third-century work, shows Zeus in labour flanked by two winged Eileithyiai (Brit. Mus.
Cat. Jewellery p. 262 f. no. 2285 pi. 46 with fig. 75 ( = my pi. xiv, 2)).

Lastly, a bronze coin of Nysa Skythopolis, the ancient Beth-Shan and modern Beisdn,
struck by Gordianus Pius in the year 304, i.e. some year between
240/1 and 243/4 a.d., has for reverse type Zeus standing to the
left and the city-goddess standing to the right. Zeus is clad in a
himdtion, which passes like a veil over the back of his head.
His right foot is raised on some uncertain object (? a rock),
while the head and shoulders of the infant Dionysos emerge
from his right thigh. He rests his left hand on a long sceptre and
extends his right towards the goddess. She is dressed in chitdn
and himdtion, and wears a turreted crown and a veil (?). She
holds a long sceptre in her right hand and the babe Dionysos in
her left. The legend is [NV] CCKV I6PAC and in the exergue [A] T (G. F. Hill i