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)

462 The myth of Danae and analogous myths

on a picture of Danae1 may well refer to the work of Nikias, with
which the poet must have been familiar. But certainty is unattainable-
Variations on the same theme occur in Pompeian art2. The
simplest and finest of these, which—I should suppose—perpetuates
the scheme of Nikias with the addition of a conventional3 landscape
background, is a fresco from the Casa di Pansa (fig. 298)* Danae,
recumbent, is half-draped in a purple garment. Zeus is represented

Fig- 298- . 1 accept

1 Mart. ep. 14. 175 Danae picta. cur a te pretium Danae, regnatot OlymP1'

gratis si tibi Leda dedit? jjonn!ie

2 F. Knatz Quomodo Persei fabulam artifices Graeci et Romani tradaver ^ .^te(-
1893 p. 7 gives a list of four paintings, which—along with others of more dou ^ ^ j.
pretation—are figured in Reinach Rip. Peint. Gr. Rom. p. 10 nos. 2, 4> 7 a" V>raecl°s'!'

3 Hardly to be explained from Hyg. fab. 63 Acrisius earn in muro lapweoJg^oftW

4 Helbig Wandgem. Camp. p. 34 no. ns, G. Bechi in the Rial et P'"t
Napoli 1825 ii pi. 36, 1 ( = my fig. 298) with text pp. 2—4, Roux—Barre /« '^Jga^ '
iii Peintures ie Serie p. 57 f. pi. 122, W. Zahn Die schonsten Ornamente ^ ^e%nc
igsten Gemdlde aus Pompeji, Herkulanum und Stabiae Berlin 1829 1 1

—see Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus p. 407 f. no. 4).