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)

Prayers to Zeus for rain 317

Other cults that gave the sanction of religion to the rites of rain-
magic were the worship of Zeus Aktaios on Mount Pelion in Thessaly
and the worship of Zeus Polieiis on the Akropolis at Athens. The
ntual of the former presupposed a procession of rain-makers clad in
sheep-skins by way of copying the clouds1. The ritual of the latter
deluded the significant action of the Hydrophoroi, who poured water
°ver axe and knife at the Dipolieia2.

The vitality of such usages is amazing. I conclude with an
•instructive example noted by Sir A. J. Evans3 in the Balkans:

' Ibrahimovce itself is a small Bulgarian village, but it contains a monument of
antiquity, interesting in itself, and of greater interest inks connexion with a local
cult which has at least all the superficial appearance of being a direct inheritance
from Roman times. Lying on its back on the village green was a large block,
waich proved on examination to be a Roman altar, erected to Jupiter Optimus
Maximus, by an vEdile of a Colonia, of which we learn no more than that its
name began with CO..., who was also Duumvir of the Colony of Scupi.

'To my astonishment, I learnt that this monument of Roman municipal piety
towards the "cloud-compeller" is still the object of an extraordinary local cult.
I was informed by one of the inhabitants that in time of drought the whole of
the villagers, both Christian and Mahometan, with a local Bey at their head, go
tpgether to the stone, and, having restored it to its upright position, pour liba-
tions of wine over the top, praying the while for rain. The language of the
villagers is at present a Slavonic dialect, and the name of Jove was as unknown
t° them as the inscription on the stone was unintelligible. Nevertheless, it was
difficult not to believe that in this remote Illyrian nook some local tradition of
1 e cult of Jupiter Pluvius had survived all historic changes.'

(b) Prayers to Zeus for rain.

Marcus Aurelius has preserved the Athenian equivalent of our
Prayer ' In the time of Dearth and Famine.' It runs as follows:

Rain, rain, dear Zeus,

On Athens' tilth and Athens' plains4.

f Supra pp. 31 f., 68 f. 2 Infra pp. 583, 603 ff.

: S'r A. J. Evans in Archaeologia 1885 xlix. t. 104 f. fig. 48 ( = my fig. 202), id.
^Journ. Hell. Stud. 1925 xlv. 19 n. 44.

, Marc. Ant. comment. 5. 7 cvxh'Athjvaluv ^Taov, iaov, a ipl\e Zeu, Kara rrjs apoipas
S ^Valup Kal tu>v TreMuv. jJVoi ov Set (6xe<T0ai, 77 oCtws, air\ws xal fKevdtpws. On the
iii ,lm,cal arrangement of the prayer see T. Bergk Poetae lyrici Graeci1 Lipsiae 1882
, " 84> E. Norden Die antike Kunstprosa Leipzig 1898 i. 46. Bergk loc. cit. cj. Kara tt)s
.j°^as TW 'A-BrpaUm nal tCiv Ylediaiw. J. M. Edmonds Lyra Graeca London 1927 iii.

Pr'nts Kara rijs dpoiipas rijs' A6rjvwv \ Kai < Kara > rijj UeSiQy ( = IIeJ^wc, cp. Ueipaiwi).
ii. « address " 0*Xf ZcC is appropriate to a simple, not to say primitive, prayer (supra
' '2 f a'SO S'raUis Qoiviaoai frag. 2 (Frag. com. Gr. ii. 781 Meineke) ap. Poll. 9.

■ (&Xeu' and Aristoph. 'Sijffoi frag. 4 (Frag. com. Gr. ii. 1110 Meineke) ap. Souid. s.v.