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)

296 Rain-magic in ancient Greece

her hands, and she called on St. John : "St. John, Lord and Forerunner, thou
art mighty; thou savest and goest before to baptise the young Christ." "Wait for
the dawn that I may go up into Heaven, and may throw down refreshment on the
earth, that our Lord with our Lady may be refreshed, that the springs and waters
may be refreshed, that the flocks may prosper and the idols fall.'"

Even more explicit is another song from the neighbourhood of
Mount Olympos, which represents the baptism in Jordan as
accompanied by a deluge of rain1:

'At the river Jordan, the holy place, the Lord is baptised and saves the whole
world. And a dove came down, white and feathery, and with its wings opened;
it sent rain down on the Lord, and again it rained and rained on our Lady, and
again it rained and rained on its wings.'

ii. Rain-magic in ancient Greece.

No description of a ceremony exactly resembling the rites of
modern Greece has come down to us from classical times. But
points of similarity are not wanting. Thus we have seen reason to
conjecture that the early Greek rain-maker, probably clad in a
sheep-skin to copy the fleecy clouds, worked his magic on the
nearest hill2. Some such ritual was, we thought, presupposed by
the Homeric epithet nephelegereta? and by the Aristophanic chorus
of Cloud-maidens4, if not also by the Orphic hymn that bade the
Clouds send showers to fertilise Mother Earth5.

Usage, no doubt, differed from place to place. In Rhodes the
Telchines are said to have been charlatans who by their magical
arts could produce at will clouds, rain, hail, and snow. Unfortunately
no details of their procedure are on record0.

At Krannon in Thessaly drought was cured by the shaking °f

1 M. Hamilton op. cit. p. 127 citing llapva<r<rbs, 1882, p. 580; Laspopoulos, "OAf/",r''f
Kai ol ko.tolkol aiiTov:—Sr6v 'lopddvrj Trora/j.6, arbv dyio rbv rbiro \ b Kvpios patprl feral K
criif oSXoi' rb Kba/j.o. | Kai Kara/3aV /ua wipbiKa, aairpr) /cat TrXov/XTTiajitvr) \ p-i Ve£' " ,
t& (prepd Tijs avoixra. Kal plptxei rbv atpivrrj \ Kal tt6Xlv £aca/3p<?XEi"ai Kai /3p<?X" r^v KV^
Ti)i j Kai -wd\iv |aca/3pexeTai Kai /3p^xel T<* <prepd tijs.

* Supra pp. 31 f., 68.

3 Supra p. 30 if. Cp. i. 14 n. 1.

4 Supra p. 69 f.

5 Supra p. 70. Cp. Orph. /(. Not. 82 NOTOT, Q\ipXap.a \lfiavov. 1 ff. Xa^vpo" *1Srlli*
Si' ijepos vypoirbpevrov, \ tbKelais wrepiyecai. Bovotiptevov (p8a Kal h6a, \ l\0ois cvv ve<p
voriais, tp-fipoto yevapxa- \ touto yap 4k Albs itrn <rtdev yipas i}epb<poiTOV, \ bpfip0*
ve<pi\as t'£ yepos es (so E. Abel for eh) x9bva ire'p.ireiv. \ roiydp tol Xtrb/xetrda, p-aKap, ieP

Xapevra \ wep-ireiv Kap-rrorpbipovs 8p.j3povs iirl pL-qripa yata

Zenon of Rhodes/r«£y 1 (Frag. hist. Gr. iii. 175 Mliller) ap.

., My"**1

5' ovtoi (sc. ol TeAx"*") Kc" yboTes yeyovivai. Kal irapdyeiv ore ftoffkoivro ve<pt) re Kal
Kai xfXdia5> bp.oim Be Kal \ibva e<p£kKea6ai- ravra 5e KaBdirep Kai rovs p.ay°vs ^s
iaropovaiv. dWdrreo-dai (aWaTTeiv codd. C.F.G. ex silentio Wesselingi) be Ka
idias p:op<pds, Kai ewai (pOovepovs ev rrj biba&KaXla t&v Ttxv&v.