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)

152 Zeus Otlrios, ikmenos, Eudnemos^ Boreios

we do not know. Yet it may be permitted us to wonder whether
the fame of this solitary figure standing with outstretched arms on
the shore of the strait reached the ears of Virgil and prompted one
of the most wonderful couplets in the Aeneid, his description of the
souls on the banks of Acheron:

staba?zt orantes ftrimi tra,7ismittere cursum
tendebantque 7>ianns ripae ulterioris amove1.
They stood and prayed to be first ferried o'er,
Yearning with outstretched hands for the further shore.

Be that as it may, there was inspiration both literal and
metaphorical about Zeus Ourios, and the poets were duly impressed.
The epigram of Philon2 can be capped by another of Meleagros3:

Sea-going ships that thread the Dardanelles

Deep-laden, while the north your canvass swells,

If on the Coan shore ye chance to see

My Phanion looking o'er bright waves for me,

Say this to her, good ships,—Love speeds me fast:

I come afoot, waiting no other blast.

Should you thus bear my message without fail,

Zeus of the Fair Breeze fill your every sail.

Merchants trading with the Euxine introduced the cult of Zeus
Oilrios to Delos4, where it acquired an almost cosmopolitan
character. Worshippers from far and near linked the name of this
Zeus with those of their own special deities and recorded their vows
in primis to him. Thus a citizen of Askalon, who had escaped from
pursuing pirates5, attested his gratitude by erecting a neat little
cylindrical altar inscribed in lettering of s. i B.C. (fig. 65)°:

which gives us 'die Vorstellung von einer alteren Stufe derselben Composition.' Scale-
rather less than -j.

1 Verg. Aen. 6. 313 f.

2 Supra p. 147.

s Anth. Pal. 11. 53. 1—8 Meleagros. In the last two lines W. R. Paton prints elyaP
tovt' cIttoit', ei&yye\oi. (so N. Piccolos for eu -n-Xot cod. with space after eff), avrUa kal
Zeus I oSpios viMTipas Trvetia erai ei's 686vas. Other emendations are discussed by F. Dilbnei
ad loc. ... .

4 P. Roussel Les cultes egyptiens a Delos du JIIC an I" sihle av. j.-C. Nancy
p. 152, id. Delos, colonic athifiienne Paris 1916 p. 275.

5 On the prevalence of these pests in the Aegean during s. ii—i B.C. see J. M. Sestie1
La pirateric dans f antiquile Paris 1880.

6 C. Clermont-Ganneau in the Comptes rendus dc ?Acad, des inscr. et belles-lettres i9°9
pp. 307—317 with fig., G. Leroux in Delos ii. 1. 58 fig. 81 (=my fig- 65). The
altar (height o^'": lower diameter o'4im), found during August 1907 in a Byzantine wa
to the south of the 'Hypostyle Hall,' is inscribed: Aii Ovpiut nai 'kardpT^l IfttXanrTl'"/1'
(Clermont-Ganneau here wrongly inserts ra!) 'kcppoSlr^i Ovpavlai, 6eoU eirt]Koois, \ A"/^
Cs-nfirrrplov 'A<TKd\av'i.TT]s, \ crwOds &t6 ireiparwv, | eixip and in smaller lettering ov 8^roV
ok Trpoadyeif \ atyeiov, v'Ck&v, (Sobs 8i]\elas.