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 holed vessel in Egypt 353

finally Mr F. N. Pryce has furnished me with recent photographs
°f the four figures (pi. xxxiv), on which the faint markings have
been added in white paint.

The use of holed vessels as a rain-charm agrees well with what
We know of Libyan beliefs concerning the sky. According to
Herodotos, the Libyans who planted the followers of Battos beside
the fountain of Apollon at Kyrene addressed them in these words :
Men of Hellas, here it is fitting for you to dwell, for here the sky is
b°red through1.' My friend and colleague the late Dr A. Wright
Pointed out that this description furnishes us with an answer to the
c°nundrum propounded by Virgil's Damoetas:

Say in what lands—and be my great Apollo—
There is a hole in heaven three ells across2.

Ustathios takes Herodotos' words to mean that the sky resembled

reservoir, which though sound elsewhere was holed over Libye
j^d so dropped abundant rain to the advantage of Libyan vegeta-

n • It would seem then that the Libyans thus naively accounted
^r the torrential rain, which in point of fact commonly falls at

yene during the rainy season from the middle of November
^nWards4. It is also noteworthy that, according to Theophrastos,

. w°od near Kyrene sprang up as the result of a heavy pitchy
ain' and that sttphion had been produced for the first time from

t^rp,^^' avdpes "EMiyves, ivOavra vp.lv iTTLTTjScoi' oiicteiv ivBavra yap 6 oiptwbs

2 t^e analogous Semitic conception of 'the windows of heaven' (Gen. 7. II, 8. 2,
ig2y pS ^ 2> Is- 24- 18, Mai. 3. 10) see I. Benzinger Hebraische Archaologie3 Leipzig

"le dom^°SS'k'e l^at some sucn significance was attached to the louver or circular opening in
(DUrm &e Pantheon at Rome. For the coffered ceiling of that remarkable structure
£'vert ' f " nsl d- Rom? p. 550 ff., especially fig. 645. A fuller bibliography will be
cit,t p g_a P- 44i n. 7), spangled with rosettes or stars (?) of gilded bronze (Durm op.
T. Asi,u h J- Anderson—R. P. Spiers The Architecture of Ancient Rome rev. by
'he eff J ^ondon 1927 p. gj^ must have produced and been intended to produce much

2 Vere°f a miniature sky (CP- supra i. 751 f., ii. 354 f., 3601, 1150).

caeli su f- 3- 104 ^ ^c qu'bus in terris—et eris mihi magnus Apollo—| tris pateat
Chss. P non amPlius ulnas. Wright's solution of this well-known problem (in the
Serv arf1 ^°1 XV' 2 ^ aPPears to me much more probable than either of those advanced
136 wit, th I 'tlle grave of Caelius, the well at Syene—the former the guess of a would-
fol'ies rP C jatter a Pedantic attempt to improve upon the claims of Libye), let alone the

3 Eust°athed-in J' ConinSton's note-

fi^X(us 7^ ' '* II' P" ' + 22 ff- ° S* Tepi Tiva At^vKrjv yrjv rerpijirOaL rbv obpavbv 0d/xecos
Ttl's aX\ai 0""CUS cTtpa-TctaaTo. I8£ka yap direiv roe obpavbv u>s ola koL Tiva S^ap-ev^v £v p.bv
^Peiiwfl yatatt i(XT^yafhi<Teat, irtni Se top Tbwov ckuvov otov ovvTtTp^adai lis verb? ov%vbv

. Pao<U Kal |?«JS«„. _1 . . .

See M &p5ei" Th ^ Tpcxp^brnTa.
**« Steip nn uj*. __r. . . ,

em on Hdt. 4. 158, and A. W. Lawrence on Hdt. 2. 14, 22, 3. 10, 4. 185.
c- Hi.

23