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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#0236

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The Arrhephoroi

the daughter of Zeus by Selene the 'Moon1.' Now Plutarch, com-
menting on the passage from Alkman, remarks that the meaning
of the poet was as follows: Zeus, the air, under the influence of
Selene, the moon, turned himself into dew2. Plutarch's comment is
a physical speculation of the usual sort3; but it suggests a pos-
sibility. It may be that the dew was regarded as the actual means
whereby the sky-father impregnated the earth-mother. Rain was
certainly so regarded4; and dew was held to be a gentler form of
rain5. Homer says that, when Zeus embraced Hera on the summit
of Ide, 'glittering dew-drops' fell from the golden cloud that en-
compassed them and earth put forth 'the dewy lotus-bloom6.'
Pliny in plainer terms tells us that the planet Venus, called by
others the star of Iuno or Isis or the Mother of the gods, makes the
earth to conceive by means of generative dew and rouses the
procreative powers of all living things7. Besides, it is a significant
fact that ersen, drsen, drrhen, the Greek word for ' male,' is
obviously related to e'rse, 'dew8.' Perhaps,then,when the Dew-bearers
brought dew down the underground descent, they were simply
conveying the sacred seed of Father Sky into the womb of Mother
Earth.

And, if so, it may well be that in the 'something wrapt up9',

1 Supra i. 732 n. 5. Gruppe might have added Lucian's whimsical notion that the
Moon-dwellers agreed to pay the Sun-dwellers by way of tribute 10,000 amphorae of dew
(Loukian. ver. hist. 1. 20).

- Plout. de fac. in orb. Inn. 25 bib wpbs &e Tpiejiop-ai fidWov, c5 <pl\eBe'uv \iyeis yap ijp.iv
ti;7]yovp.EVOs ravra To, 'AXk^jlolvos 1 Atos duydrijp | fy&a rpttpei Kal XeXdvas [67as]' 6'ri vvv tov
depa Ka\ei teal ALa <p-q<xlv avrbv virb rijs XeXrjVtjs KaOvypaivbpievov els dp6o~ovs Tp^ireadai.

3 Supra i. 29 f. 4 Infra § 9 (e) i and ii.

5 Plout. quaestt. nat. 24 i] yap dpocros dcrdevrjs tis Kal ddpavijs bp.[3pos.

6 Supra i. 154, iii. 35.

7 Plin. nat. hist. 2. 36—38 ending with the words: 'itaque et in magno nominum
ambitu est. alii enim Iunonis, alii Isidis, alii Matris Deum appellavere. huius natura cuncta
generantur in terris. namque in alterutro exortu genitali rore conspergens non terrae modo
conceptus inplet, verum animantium quoque omnium stimulat.' Cp. Plout. de Js. et Os. 4I
oi hi rolaoe rots (pvamoh Kal twv air' aarpokoyias /xa8i)piaTiKav {via jiiryciWes 'Pvcfiwva
oiovrai rbv i]\iaKbv Kbafiov, "Oaipiv de tov aeK7]viaKbv \eyea6ai • tt)V fxev yap aeX'ijVTjv, ybvip^ov
to c&ws Kal vypoiroibv ^xovaav, eb/ievij Kal yovais £&uv Kal (pvr&v elvai f3\ao~rrio~€0-i' rbv be
jjXiov aKpa/Tip irvpl KeKkypuKbra 8d\ireiv re Kal Karavalveiv ra <pvop.eva Kal rtdrfhbra, k.t.A«>
Nonn. Dion. 44. 220 ff. Tata (pvr&v wbiva Treiralvei \ pappiapvyrjV dpoabeo~oav aKoi/j.TjTOio
2e\7jVT]s I SexvvpLevr].

8 L. Meyer Handb. d. gr. Etym. i. 462, Prellwitz Etym. Wdrterb. d. Gr. Spr.2 p- i58>
Boisacq Diet. etym. de la Langue Gr. p. 83. Cp. Apul. apexb/j-evos (printed as Anth. Lat.
i. 1 no. 712 Riese: for date see De Vit Lat. Lex. Index p. exxxi n. (ro)) 21 eiaculent
tepidum rorem niveis laticibus.

How are we to explain Souidas' dppt)vo<popeXv (certified by the order of letters) in the
sense of appr]<popeiv, epprjcpopeiv? Two manuscripts of Harpokr. s.v. apprjipopeiv have the
same reading.

9 Supra p. 169 n. o.
 
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