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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#0390

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324 The relation of rain to Zeus

period, formerly in the Castellani collection and now in the British
Museum (fig. 207)1, has Zeus in a car drawn by a pair of eagles.
His left hand holds one of the reins, his right lets fall a shower of
drops. Above and below are Sagittarius and Pisces, which—-as
H. B. Walters2 observes—stand for two of the rainy winter months.
The god so figured would presumably have been called Iupiter
Pluvius* or Pluvialis* by the Romans. No other certain representa-

Fig. 207. Fig. 208.

tion of him is known5. But it is probably he who appears on the
column of Marcus Aurelius in connexion with the campaign against
the Quadi6 (174 A.D.).

For our knowledge of that famous episode we are mainly

1 Brit. Mus. Cat. Gems p. 92 no. 591, ib." p. 144 no. 1267 pi. 18. See also O. KeHel
Thiere des classischen Alterthums in culturgeschichtlicher Beziehung Innsbruck 18
p. 275 'wo Zeus mit zwei Adlern fahrt372 wie der Jehova des Psalmisten, der im Wet e
Sturm mit Keruben (Greifengespann) einherfahrt373 [373 Psalm 18, 11]' with p. 4S2 n" *'
My fig. 207 (scale f) is from a cast kindly supplied by Mr H. B. Walters.

1 'Brit, 'Mus. Xitt. Gem* p. 144. ' rida

3 Tib. 1. 7. 25 f. te (sc. Father Nile) propter nullos tellus tua postulat imbres, I
nec Pluvio supplicat herba Iovi. The last five words are cited, but wrongly attribu
Ovid, by Sen. nat. quaestt. 4. 2. 2. Stat. Theb. 4. 758 f. tu (sc. Plypsipyle) nunc ven
Pluvioque rogaris | pro love. Anth. Lat. 395. 46 Riese (in a description of Decern
Pluvio de love cuncta madent. essau

4 Corp. inscr. Lat. ix no. 324 = Orelli—Henzen Inscr. Lat. sel. no. 5641 = .£]arl
Inscr. Lat. sel. no. 3043 (found at Naples) Iovi | Pluvia[li]. See further Preller J0"
Rom. Myth? i. 190 n. 2, Wissowa Bel. Kult. Bom.2 p. 120 n. 10.

delta'

iit>

" Babelon Monn. rip. rom. i. 426 fig. describes the obverse design of a fje
struck by L. Cornelius Lentulus c. 49—47 B.C. at Ephesos (?) as 'Tete nue et bai
Jupiter Pluvius a droite' (my fig. 208 is from a cast of the specimen in the British M«* ^
But this description, presumably suggested by the fact that the reverse type sl1 „
cult-statue of Artemis Ephesla, is highly conjectural. And other conjectures nav£serljie
made. Morell. Thes. Num. Bam. Bom. i. 120 pi. Cornelia 3, 6 says: 'Caput ^ot)is
barbatum Herculis, ut credidit Ursinus, Jovis Olympii, ut sentit Vaillantms, u
videtur, Jovis Eleutherii sive Liberatoris.' H. A. Grueber in the Brit. Mus. Ca ■
Coins Rep. ii. 4^7 P1- IIO> r5 has merely: 'Head of Jupiter r., with long beard. cj,e

Equally illusory is the coin said to bear the legend ZEYC OMBPIOC I
Lex. Num. iv. 1222, xi. 1261)—perhaps a misreading of ZEYC 0AYMTTI^^/j-.f//^
6 On this great Germanic tribe see the monograph of H. Kirchmayr Der " ^ gniith
Volkstamm der Quaden Wien 1890 (pp. xv, 173 with 13 figs.) and L. Schmi ygj/af
Diet. Geogr. ii.689, M. Schonfeld Worterbuch der altgermanischen Personeft- * jn
namen Heidelberg 1911 p. 181 f. s.v. 'Quadi,' Liibker Reallex? p. 878>
Hoops Reallex. iii. 431 f. s.v. 'Quaden.'
 
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