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 elsewhere

445

Saturnus, Sol, Luna, Mars, Mercurius, Iupiter, Venus1. Now at the
Very summit of this great rotunda, at a height of 43-20m (144 ft.)
above the coloured pavement, was a circular opening some 9m
(29 ft.) across, surrounded by an ornamental cornice of bronze.

1 "rough that opening rain fell, and still falls, unheeded. Is it
fenciful to suggest2 that such an arrangement of the louver5 points

°> °r at least accords with, a long-standing belief that rain
habitually fell through a hole in the sky?

iv. The holed vessel elsewhere.

An analogous Semitic conception, the 'windows of heaven'
\ rubbotJi hashshamaywi), has been mentioned in a foot-note4, but is
serving of fuller treatment5. The Hebrew phrase is rendered by
SOrne the 'lattices of heaven6,' and the late Dr A. Wright reminds
cnat m Egypt and Libya the open windows of the harem are

TheUlady fitted

with lattice work containing minute perforations'.'
e transition in meaning from a window to a sieve8 was therefore
difficult. Hence we may explain the vulgate version of an
pla°Ure Passa&e m trie Old Testament: 'He made darkness a hiding-
as r°Und about him, sending waters from the clouds of the skies
through a sieve9.' Hence too Theodoret in s. v A.D. could
and'1"''36 aS ra-*nmS fr°m the clouds...and separating the drops
par^ett'ng them fall now in fine rain, now in copious streams, and
& as it were with a sieve the offspring of the clouds10.' The

the seve^ ^>l.ctlonary °f Ancient Rome Oxford 1929 p. 382 f.: ' Mommsen's conjecture that
ttow c nicnes were occupied by the seven planetary deities is attractive, and' Hiilsen is
^ r°fit'

3 l1tvV\69f' 2 SutraV- 353 ". 1.

■Babylonian a ^ touched upon ceilings made to represent the sky in the case of
^"P>-a\i n Pa'aces (supra i. 262 ff.), Egyptian tombs (supra i. 752 n. 1), Mycenaean thdloi
'• 752 n. 0\ T,' Ul' 3°4> infra 458), Greek temples (supra i. 751, 752 n. 1) and porticos (supra
^e subject V°manarc"es (supra ii. 354 ff., 359 ff.), temples, and palaces (supra i. 75m. 8).
^"""elszeii M rea<^''y be expanded into a monograph (R. Eisler Weltenmantel und
Sllch treatllle t Uncben 1910 has shown the way and collected much relevant material); for
^ecOratiVe ent' 'os'nS its significance, passed into the repertory of renaissance and modern
a ''niberej roof • ^'VC *3U' a s'n^e ,nstance> ,ne hall of Queens' College, Cambridge, has

* Supra Painted blue and spangled with stars of lead-gilt round its central louver.

b 5 Se«s. p 3,53n-

I J' A. Letro'n on Gen- 6- Tne v'e«'s of the early church fathers are collected

°ctriries philos06 °Pmi°ns cosmographiques des peres de l'eglise, rapprochees des

" So prof °^°Pbiques de la Grece' in the Revue des deux mondes 1834 i. 616 f.

7 A- Wit-S- Peake on Is- 2+-i8-

de 2 Sam. 22 m Cla"- Rev- 1901 xv- 258- * S"/'ra P- 335 ff'

nubibus 12 ( = Ps- 18. 11) posuit tenebras in circuitu suo latibulum, cribrans aquas
0 Ti, aelorum.
^cucn, ne0(loret dp +

K P^uv Kal " ™ providentia 1. 34 (lxxxiii. 572 Migne) iiuv U veipCiv...Kai ras fenabas
'""■"V 6ltu , -fe" "'MU-pas a<puh vvv be ntydXas Kcd KpowqSbv (pepofie'vas Kai oUv tivi