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)

The relation of rain to Zeus 323

that the Kouretes sprang from a heavy rain-shower1 is paralleled
by the anonymous statement that they sprang from the tears of
Zeus2. And Herakleitos the Stoic (s. i a.d.?3) interprets the blood-
rain sent by Zeus in the Iliad4' to portend the death of Sarpedon5
as the tears, not indeed of Zeus, but of the aither*—which amounts
*-° the same thing7.

Artists of Roman date represent rain as falling in large gouts or
drops from the hand of Zeus. A bronze coin of Ephesos, issued by
■^ntoninus Pius, shows Zeus enthroned on Mount Koressos, with a
thunderbolt held in his left hand and a shower descending from his
nght upon the recumbent figure of Mount Peion8. To the example

Fig. 205. Fig. ■206.

. tne British M useum {supra i. 134 fig. 100) must be added others
" the Cabinet des Medailles at Paris (fig. 204)9 and in the Lobbecke
Sa^2o5)10and Greau (fig. 2o6)u collections—all apparently from the

dies. Again, an engraved chalcedony of the Graeco-Roman

1 Q

'argoni ' ** +' 281 te quocluei nunc adamas, quondam fidissime parvo, | Celmi, Iovi
^ifottiefr*10* Curetas ab imbri I ■•• I praetereo. The section is discussed by W.Vollgraff
'598 r " °Vi<i ^roningen 1909 i. 141. See also O. Immisch in Roscher Lex. Myth.

2 S ]

tQjv KopvfidvTwv, ol kcli rpo0eis kclI <pu\cuies /ecu
ovvrai. Tivis Si tovs avrovs tois Rot/pi/trip Aval tpaalv.
cltto tCqv rov Albs SaKpvoJv yeyePTjfJ.evovs ' £jv apidfxbv ol fxtv
11,(01 a* oTl yt°v*LV- CP- schol. R. Aristoph. vesp. 8 reXerij 84

ovto, Travres Si bfio\oyov<Ti rijs 'Vias p-iv oiraSovs

» C p° • ' Si roC A.6s.

4 11 l6einhafirdtinPauly-Wisso«-a^a/-£»<r. viii. 508.

6 Herakle-f ^\ * Infra p> 478"

f"5"'"" fyjjpo,, . Stoic 9""est. Horn. p. 64, 1 ff. Soc. Philol. Bonn, tovtov Sv rbv

^^Pivu Tfa" ^riy°P'*&t ctirev ai8(po$ Sdupva, Aids p.iv oi3—d/cXawrros yap—, Ik Si twv

7 S"pra i ^"a*^ ^P^"0^ HWyptvov Karappayivros verod.

" O- lienn 1 r c 8 ^uPra l3*> 2-

n l° A- L6bb \ Forsc)utnge* in Ephesos Wien 1906 i. 56 fig. lU (= my fig. 204).
Benndorf ol '"• lhC Zeitschr-f- 1890 xvii. 10 no. 2 pi. t, 17 (= my fig. 205),

' Benndorf6'I Descril'tio" *» medailles grecques de M. J. Griau Paris 1867 no. 1767 pi. 4,
P- <**. 1. 56 fig. iid (= my fig. 206).