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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#0206

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Zeus Ourios^ ikmenos^ Eudnemos, Boreios 151

Boi'das1 of Byzantion2, son and pupil of Lysippos3. The boy uplifts
his face towards Zeus and, with hands turned outwards in the
customary attitude of prayer4, asks for the fair breeze to speed him
on his way. This, the most spiritual of all extant Greek bronzes5, is
of course a votive offering, public or private, and stands for the
success of some venturesome quest. One thinks of Pindar's Iason6:

A golden bowl he took, and at the stern

Called on the Father of the Sons of Heaven—
Zeus of the Lightning-Lance,
Called on quick waves and winds' advance,
Called on the nights and tracks thro' deep seas driven,
For friendly days and fortune-blest return.

Nevertheless it would be rash to identify the 'Praying Boy' with
Iason, or—as L. Stephani suggested7—with Phrixos. He is a
Lysippian modification of an earlier athletic type8. More than that

223; its technique, by E. Pernice in the Jahresh. d. oest. arch. Inst. 1908 xi. 223—225
%• 97-

1 H. Lucas loc. cit. p. 118, H. Lechat loc. cit. p. 154.

2 Vitr. 3 praef. 2. 3 Plin. nat. hist. 34. 66, cp. 73.

4 E. Voullieme [sic) Quomodo veteres adoraverint Halis Saxonum 1887 p. 26 ff. ('De
gestu manuum sublatarum') gives a very full collection of literary passages and con-
cludes: ' Precantes brachiis in eandem regionem ita ad caelum sublatis, ut palmae inter
se aspiciant, eas pariter resupinabant, quo modo ita vertuntur, ut ad caelum spectent.'
1$. ib. p. 36 ff. adds a survey of the monumental evidence and a pi. of the Berlin
Praying Boy' with arms correctly restored. See also C. Sittl Die Gebdrden der Griechen
"nd Rimer Leipzig 1890 p. 305 ff. and the bronze statuette (height 4* ins) of a Praying
Negro, from Ephesos, now in my collection (pi. xx).

8 The interpretation of it as a ball-player about to catch a ball (J. J. Cornelissen
'Archaeologica' in Mnemosyne N.S. 1878 vi. 424—431, W. Raabe The Hunger-Pastor
trans. Arnold London 1885 ii. 34, A. Mau 'Der betende Knabe' in the Rom. Mitth. 1902
xvii. 101—106) is incompatible with the position of the arms (M. Goepel in the Jahrb.
d- kais. deutsch. arch. Inst. 1904 xix Arch. Anz. p. 187, id. 'Zum betenden Knaben und
Zlu" springenden Amazone' ib. 1905 xx. 108 ff., H. Lucas in the Nette Jahrb. f. kiass.
Altcrtum 1912 xxix. 113) and grotesquely inadequate. Some critics have no souls.

To

group the statue as a suppliant with that of a warrior brandishing lance and
shield (A. Herzog Studien zur Geschichte der griechischen Kunst Leipzig 1888 p. 40, cp.
^vo bronzes represented on the kylix by 'the Foundry Painter' (Furtwangler Vasensamml.

e''hn ii. 593 ff. no. 2294, Furtwangler—Reichhold—Hauser Gr. Vasenmalereim. 81—86
P'' r35) Hoppin Red-Jig. Vases i. 454 f. no. 1, J. D. Beazley Attische Vasenmakr des
rMfigurigen Stils Tubingen 192? p. 187 no. 2)), or as Taras with that of a colossal
°seidon (H. Willers Studien zur griechischen Kunst Leipzig 1914 pp. 125—159 with
P s. 9—,j (<j3er betende Knabe vor Poseidon')), is a risky, not to say a reckless, expedient.
° Pind. Pyth. 4. 193 ff.
L. Stephani Parerga archaeologica St Petersburg 1851—1876 no. 2
lted by A. Conze in the Jahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch. Inst. 1886 i. 11
• 25 and B. Sauer in Philologus 1908 lxvii. 304 n. 1.

A. Furtwangler 'Zum betenden Knaben' in the Jahrb. d. kais.

Putsch.

, -— arch. Inst. 1886 i. 217—219 with fig. ( = my fig. 64) of a
^auhfully cut, but badly flaked, cornelian at Berlin (id. Geschnitt. Steine

' tn P' 257 no. 6905 pi. 51, id. Ant. Gemmen i pi. 44, 32, ii. 214), Fig. 64.
 
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