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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#0403

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3 3 ^ The relation of rain to Zeus

flings through the clouds into the sea, fills with water, carries up to
the sky, and empties in turn on the earth through sieves of varying
size. His finest sieve produces a drizzle, his ordinary sieve rain, his
wide-meshed sieve heavy rain, while his skin bottles poured out
all at once cause a regular deluge1. The interval between ancient
and modern times may be bridged by a passage from Michael
Psellos, who states that in his day (s. xi A.D.) most people ignorantly
supposed rain to be water strained by God through a sieve-like sky2-
In view of this long-lived superstition it is probable that a primitive
Greek rain-charm consisted in pouring water though a sieve3. And
that may well have been one reason for the use of a sieve4 in
divination {koskinomanteidf'. In any case the matter calls f°r

1 Id. ib. after N. 'EXX. dp. 35.

2 Psell. irpbs padyTas dpeXovvras p. 150 f. Boissonade roaovros yap avxpbs o~o<p'<-as '
roO Kad' ii/xds filov iyivero, Kal ovtw irdvres iirl tt)v tov dp-aOeardrov TavTijv (■Kio-TilV-P
kolv&s &vvT)\ddri<jav, wore Toits iroXXoiis o'te&dai pi] Kal tov verbv eK twv vecp&v KaTappT)yvv<*®°'lj
dXXd, Kara to 'YipaTocr&^vovs Xeydpcvov koctklvov, dtaTeTpijo~8aL tov ovpavdv, KaKeldev rfl'?
Xtpciv dirodXifHovTa < tov debv > to vdoip diriBetv. 'The sieve of Eratosthenes' was an
arithmetical table for the discovery of prime numbers (F. Hultsch in Pauly—Wissp**
Real-Eric. ii. 1094, G. Knaack ib. vi. 364) and is here merely a learned allusion broug
in by association of ideas. J. F. Boissonade ad loc. says justly: 'aptius et oppoi'WllluS
poterat alludere Psellus ad cribrum Strepsiadae.'

3 E. O. James in J. Hastings Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics Edinburgh i°3
xi. 506s quotes modern parallels from the Ainus, Russian peasants, Buddhist monks, e
(after Frazer Golden Bough3: The Magic Art i. 251 and 285).

On ancient sieves see E. Saglio in Daremberg—Saglio Diet. Ant. 1. If

figs-

def

2070—2072, Forrer Reallex. p. 736, H. Bliimner Technologie zind Terminolog>e
Gewerbe und Ktinste bei Griechen nnd Rdmern Leipzig—Berlin 1912 i2. 49 ff-> J- , f
in his Reallex. iv. 171 f., Hug in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. xi. 1483 f-; -,c
Reallex.2 ii. 389 f. pi. 96. \axAi
5 G. Pictorius Villinganus 'De speciebvs magiae caerimonialis, qvam goetiam V°Ccap,
Epitome' in H. Cornelii Agrippae ab Nettesheym Opera Lvgdvni s.a. (1531 ?) ^jujna-
xxi ' Hvc etiam Coscinomantia scribenda venit, quae daemone vrgente, per cribrum
tionem suscitari docet, quis rei patratae author sit, quis hoc commiserit furtami qu
dederit vulnus, aut quicquid tale fuerit. Cribrum enim inter duoru astantiurn ^
digitos, per forcipem suspendunt, ac deieratione facta per sex verba, nec sibi 'PSIS' vs,
aliis intellects, quae sunt: dies mies ieschet, benedoefet, dovvina, ENir' .
daamonem in hoc compellunt vt reo nominato (nam omnes suspectos nominare 01 ^
confestim circumagatur, sed per obliquum instrumentum e forcipe pendens, v ^
prodat: iconemhtc ponimus [= my fig. 210]. Annis ab actis plus minus triginta, e ^
diuinationis genere sum ipse vsus, primo furti patrati causa: secundo proptei 1
casses quibus aues capiuntur a quodam inuido mihi diflectos. Et tertio amissi ca ^
studio, vbi semper pro voto aleam cecidisse comperi, in posterum tame quieui, ^pijuS
daemon veritate quae praeter naturam, in me vsus fuerat, os mihi subliniret & ^ gfap
seducendo illaquearet. Hanc diuinationem caeteris arbitrabantur veriorem, slC bej0I1gs
Erasmus scribit in prouerbio: Cribro diuinare.' The charm here quoted proba ^.^if...
to that 'crazy assemblage of formulas no longer understood even by the *eclter v jcj) tntf
obviously debased learned materials, taken from Mediterranean collections Yi ^ggerty
well go back to the magic-saturated last days of the Roman Empire' (A- ol(j be
Krappe The Science of Folk-lore London 1930 p. 189). On this showing 1 %
 
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