Universitätsbibliothek HeidelbergUniversitätsbibliothek Heidelberg
Hinweis: Ihre bisherige Sitzung ist abgelaufen. Sie arbeiten in einer neuen Sitzung weiter.
Metadaten

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

DOI Seite / Zitierlink: 
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14698#0338

DWork-Logo
Überblick
loading ...
Faksimile
0.5
1 cm
facsimile
Vollansicht
OCR-Volltext
274

Zeus Aphrios

Sir James Frazer1, who cites the tale as a parallel to the myth
of Balder, adds: 'The foam of the sea is just such an object as
a savage might choose to put his life in, because it occupies that
sort of intermediate or nondescript position between earth and sky
or sea and sky in which primitive man sees safety. It is therefore
not surprising that the foam of the river should be the token of a
clan in India2.'

The Greeks apparently looked upon foam as one manifestation
of the sky-god's seed, and thus in a manner akin to dew or rain-
Nonnos3 states that Hephaistos, when enamoured of Athena,

Shot forth the hot and self-sped foam of love.

The same poet elsewhere4 tells how a dolphin once carried Aphro-
dite to Kypros,

What time the gendering dew of Ouranos,
Down-streaming with his manhood's gore, gave shape
To the foam of childbed and brought forth the Paphian.

The Orphic Rhapsodies5 used similar language in narrating tne
birth of Aphrodite from the foam that arose when the seed of Zeus
fell into the sea. Both incidents of course involve the naive deriva-
tion of Aphrodite from aphrds*. But the idea of seminal foam is aS

Bloomfield ib. further contends that this legend of Indra and Namuki gave rise

to
lied

a class of magical practices in which demons were routed by means of river-foam, ca'^
'river-lead,' or some surrogate such as lead, iron-filings, and even the head of a h^
See e.g. Hymns of the Atharva-veda trans. M. Bloomfield (The Sacred Books of
East xlii) Oxford 1897 p. 65 f. 1. 16. 1—4 with p. 256, The Satapatha-Brdhmana tra
J. Eggeling Part iii (The Sacred Books of the East xli) Oxford 1894 p. 92 5. 4- 9 '

1 Frazer Golden Bough3 : Balder the Beautiful ii. 280 f. -cal

2 E. T. Dalton 'The Kols of Chota-Nagpore' in Transactions of the Et!l" f^y
Society of London 1868 New Series vi. 36—again cited by Frazer Totemism and EX°e> ^

i. 24 ('the foam of the river is an Oraon totem and not to be eaten by the clans

ii. 290 ('The Amdiar will not eat the foam of the river ').

3 Nonn. Dion. 13. 179 0ep/j.bv aKovrlfav abrbaavTov a<ppbv"Ep&TWv. ,0(le

4 Id. lb. 13. 439 ff. bwirbre yap yovbeaaa KardppvTos tipatvi \bdp(p \ QipavlV M
Xex^ov atjipbv Upu-q \ koX Ua(p[T)v udive, k.t.X. . . 0iei

5 Orph. frag. 183 Kern ap. Prokl. in Plat. Craiyl. p. no, 23 ff. Pasquali (1
supra ii. 1029).

6 Modern adherents of this time-honoured view include the following: wad11'

(1) L. Meyer Vergleichende Grammatik der Griechischen und Lateinischcu f ^ ^
Berlin 18S4 i. 2. 641 1'Aippo-St-Ti] ("die im Schaum leuchtende (?)"),' ii. 99° ' gf-
(eigentlich "im Schaum glanzend" oder "im Gewolk glanzend"?),' id- . ' , (cp.
Etym. i. 160 f. from &<ppb-s 'foam' + a participial form of the root di 'to s n{sc¥
Sanskrit su-dtH), '"im Schaume glanzend.'" So also H. Hirt Der >"^e'''"nei th«
Ablaut Strassburg 1900 p. 99 §364 'idg. deja "schemen"...'A0poS/iV I Pu

same will-o'-the-wisp in the Class. Rev. 1903 xvii. 177. sumes an

(2) L. v. Schroeder Griechische Gbtler und Heroen Berlin 1887 i- 7 »• tjl6 root
Indo-Europaean *abhraditd or *abhraditi from Sanskrit abhra 'cloud' (&4>P°sl
 
Annotationen