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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#0525

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Zeus descends in rain to fertilise the earth 453

Virgil's description, according to J. Conington1, was evidently
suggested by certain lines of Lucretius:

Lastly rain perishes
When downward dropped by the sire, the Burning Sky,
Into the bosom of mother Earth2.

Lucretius in turn, according to H. A. J. Munro3, may have had
ln view a remarkable fragment from the Danaides of Aischylos, in
Which Aphrodite says:

The pure Sky yearns to pierce the soil, and Earth
Yearns likewise for that wedlock. Whereupon
Rain falls from the bridegroom Sky and wets the Earth;
And she brings forth her brood for mortal men—
Grass for their sheep and grain, Demeter's gift,
While trees from that same watery brilliance grow
Their fruits to fullness. And I help them all4.

gUt indeed the thought was a commonplace in classical poetry5.
riPides in words often cited by ancient writers expresses it thus:

Earth yearns for rain, whenever her parched field
Lacks moisture and a drought destroys the corn.
The great Sky filled with rain is fain to fall
Into the Earth through Aphrodite's might.
Soon as the two are one, they generate
And nurture for our sake all things whereby
The race of mortal man may live and thrive0.

2 £ Conington on Verg.georg. i. 325.
Terra; r- V 25° f- postremo pereunt imbres, ubi eos pater Aether | in gremium matris
lo. 2o ^ec'Pitavit. Cp. the Lucretian colouring of a fine passage in Colum. de re rust.
amores i •' rnax'mus ipse deum posito iam fulmine fallax | Acrisioneos veteres imitatur
atn°rem 1,n^Ue s'nus matris violento depluit imbre. | nec genetrix nati nunc aspernatur
totus d™' J sed patitur nexus flammata cupidine tellus. | hinc maria, hinc montes, hinc

8 H munt'us I ver aS't: etc- (note 218 rerum causas).

4 Aisch Munro 011 L"cr. 1. 250.

25 ff. ; Ban-aides frag. 44 Nauck*- ap. Athen. 600 A—B and Eustath. in II. p. 978,
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5 Pl0ut S iaT'" ™$' iyu vapcUrios.

0 Eur aniator. 24 outw yap ipav S/j.j3pov yaiav oi Tron\ral \iyovai Kal yrjs obpavbv.
» achsmu'th £' 898' 7 ff' NauckS ap. Athen. 600 A, Stob. eel. 1. 9. 1 p. HIi 17 ff.
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ya'0-" 'A^poj^ "°JiS°s ecSefis lXV I W 5' 6 (re/ivbs oipavbs Tr\r)po6p.evos | b^pov irtativ els
» ^""ch. ^J^* Vlr°' I °Tav Si <jVMj.Lx6ijTov is rairbv 5vo, \ cpvovaiv V'" (travel iuv i.e.
Z ^6ev cod'' |Jt0b''1 7rivTa Kal Tpi(pov<r (Kal iKrpicpovir' i.e. K&KTpi<pov<r' Stob.) apa, \ Si
etland./ra" ' ^tob- o0€v Kal cod. F. Stob.) fipbreiov {rj re Kal ddWei yivos. Cp.
S-fab. incert. 44o Meineke ap. schol. Hes. theog. 138 ipg. p-i" op-^puv 7010.
 
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