Universitätsbibliothek HeidelbergUniversitätsbibliothek Heidelberg
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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#0552

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47 8 The myth of Danae and analogous myths

A similar belief underlies the statement of Ovid that the
Kouretes were 'sprung from an abundant shower of rain1,' if
also the tradition preserved by the same author that at Corinth
'in the far past mortal bodies were born of rain-begotten mush-
rooms2.'

(f) Ominous rain sent by Zeus.

i. Rain of blood.

At critical moments Zeus expressed his mood by sending some
abnormal shower. Specially ominous was the fall of blood-red rain'
The Iliad makes it the prelude to a battle between Achaeans a
Trojans:

Then Kronos' son sent evil strife among them
And from aloft, out of the burning sky,
Let fall drops dank with blood; for he was fain
To hurl to Hades many a valiant head3.

Again, when Sarpedon the Lycian was about to be slain, Zeus-^

Shed gouts of blood upon the ground to honour
His own son, whom Patroklos was to kill
In fertile Troyland far away from home4.

The Hesiodic author of the Shield (c. 650—600 B.C.5) has a sim'
description of the fight between Herakles and Kyknos:

griechischen Litteratur*' Miinchen 1920 ii. 1. 217) who is named in the context (/^ ^
(Frag. hist. Gr. iii. 175 f. Miiller) ap. Diod. 5. 55 f.J, had said 7e>"^0 gethe cj'
Kaipbv tovtop iv roh irpbs ?u p.ipeo~i t?)s vi)<sov robs (cXijfleVras ylyavras (E- ^ fVpj^>>
lyv-qras)' ore 5tj Kal Zeis Xe^erai KaTairetroXefiTiKus Tiravas epaaBrivaL Tjj'a^ra''"'^
T/zaA£as dvo^a^ofiivtjs, Kal rpeis e£ auTrjs reKvuxxai iratSas, XTrapraiov (v-^ „ ytflP*1
Kp6vu>v, Kirov. Hence in Clem. Rom. horn. 5. 13 (ii. 184 a Migne) El'MP TVcorteci^

A. Schweglef

Ei'/J.a to 'I/j.a\la.

1 Ov. met. 4. 282 quoted supra p. 323 n. 1. . j^ede*''

2 Ov. met. 7. 391 ff. tandem vipereis Ephyren Pirenida pennis | contig" \

hie aevo veteres mortalia primo | corpora vulgarunt pluvialibus edita fungls- ^ ^iW1

This singular tradition perhaps implies the folk-etymology of MwwP"" hwejg i8?5

(W. Pape—G. E. Eenseler Worterbuch der griechischen Eigetmamen* Brauns\ -rfX^

ii. 958). Note especially Paus. 2. 16. 3 yKOvira 5e Kal ws SMvti [sc. t$ HeP ft

''6ero to

ave\to-6ai 01 fiiKijra ix rijs yijs, huivros 5e vbaros tti&iv Kal i)tr0eU IftvKrivas l" . jght
xwp'f?—an obvious piece of folk-lore. The inhabitants of prehistoric Mykenal ^ 4». 9'
pass for the earliest race of men. On the mushroom's womb see Pl>n- '"^ juteuin- n
vulvam enim terra ob hoc prius gignit, ipsum postea in vulva, ceu in ovo e
tunicae minor gratia in cibo infantis boleti. ,
3 II. n.5»ff. , Sarp^°ne

* //. 16. 459 ff., cp. Min. Feb Oct. 23. 4 Iovem narrat (sc. Homerus^• ^ ^
filium, quoniam morti non poterat eripere, cruentis imbribus flevisse. llf ■^ondi'11
5 H. G. Evelyn-White Hesiod: The Homeric Hymns and Hovienca
 
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