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)

496

Rain of food

'Yet he commanded the skies above,
And opened the doors of heaven;
And he rained down manna upon them to eat,
And gave them of the corn of heaven.
Man did eat the bread of the mighty :
He sent them meat to the full.
He caused the east wind to blow in the heaven:
And by his power he guided the south wind.
He rained flesh also upon'them as the dust,
And winged fowl as the sand of the seas:
And he let it fall in the midst of their camp,
Round about their habitations.
So they did eat, and were well filled;
And he gave them that they lusted after1.'

'He rained down manna...,' 'He rained flesh also....' It may
doubted whether classical authors can furnish a complete parallel to
the Hebrew tradition. There is, however, reason to think that t e
same naive belief in food, at first let fall by the sky-god, and latej.
simply dropping from the sky, long haunted the imagination
Greeks and Romans alike.

W. H. Roscher2, in a dissertation published half a century s'n1^
succeeded in proving two relevant points. In the first place>
Greeks and Romans, the Indians, the Germans, and the FipnS
held that honey falls as a dew from the sky3 on trees and floWe1^
and consequently viewed it as a sort of celestial diet. In the seC°^
place, ambrosia, the gods' food, and nektar, the gods' drink

1 Ps. 78. 23—29.

2 W. H. Roscher Nektar und Ambrosia Leipzig 1883 pp. 13—22 and 22 ^'j^ller)

3 Hence the names aep6p.e\t (Arayntas frag. 1 (Script, hist. Alex. Mag. p- l^0^^01

loc. cit., cp. Verg. eel. 4. 30 roscida mella, Plin. nat. hist. 16. 31 rores melle°s e ^plsh

■ fraS- 1 (,PraS- Sr- Hist. ii. 627 Jacoby) ap. Athen. 500 D, Galen. ire/>i rpo<p"> jQalefl-
3- 39 (vi- 739 Kuhn), cp. Verg. georg. 4. 1 aerii mellis caelestia dona), 5po<ri^1 ut

diximus (ii. 11. 30), cadentes), ,u<?\i aypmv (Diod. 19. 94, Matthew 3. 4, Souid- s#
vov p.£ki (Polyain. 4. 3. 32, cp. Ail. de nat. an. 15. 7 Serai ti'IvSwv yv Sl® T0V

^P®- • .. Anint^

A curious story is told by Hadrianus Junius (Adriaan de Jonghe) m nis # p0liW110'

Roterodami 1708 p. 170 f. (lib. 3, cap. 9): 'Locum accepi fuisse in regno j^intf"'

prKStantissimi mellis aerii (quod dypiov Suidas, &epwv Galenus, vulg"s ^gbilefi><

Manna nominat a voce Hebraea Man, quae generice donum significat) Proven 0usarn> S'V!

quern Neapolitani reges perpetuo muro claudendum curaverant, incertam ob c* j^la*'.''

uberior proventus atque inde opimus reditus, sive purior ejus

collectio eos hu^ do0ui»
quacunque tandem de causa denegato illius contactu, cceleste illud Kai 5""r.e^er;eS, iet^.Q
universum cadere desiit: mox quum jussu Regum interrupta fuisset munmagno st ^
labi affluenter, & a pube rustica colligi passim coepit. Repetitur iterum "^^j lor>c^
cingendi loci propositum, sed temerarium: siquidem circunquaque prseclu rr>acer1'
stetit melleus ille imber, neque manavit amplius, donee, dissipata disjec nian
illius crate, libero ingressu potitus rusticus ccetus, avidissime defluvW
colligere permissu regum potuit.'