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)

Pyre-extinguishing rain 517

So much for the evidence of the vases. They portray the crisis
°f the drama, when Alkmene appeals from Amphitryon to Zeus,
and a helpful thunderstorm extinguishes the pyre. But Plautus'
-Ainphitruo at once clears up the antecedents of the scene and
Provides it with a satisfying sequel. Hercules, returning in triumph
*° Thebes, first rebukes his wife for her chilling reception of him1
and afterwards attempts to punish her for supposed infidelity by
bursting into the house and killing her on the spot2. Just in the
nicl< of time Alcumena, already in travail with twins, calls on the
S°ds to aid her; whereupon—

Roar, rumble, crash, and thunder :
Sudden, swift, strong the wonder3.

e whole house reels and glitters as though it were made of gold4.
lupiter has come to the rescue of Alcumena; and Amphitruo falls
l_f nse}ess to the ground. Finally, as deus ex machina, the god explains
e situation and all ends well. Plautus' comedy, based of course
a Greek exemplar, almost certainly preserves the main outline of

Paris' ' • ^' 20 a t>ronze com °f Skepsis, struck by Caracalla, which has the judgment of
firth 'akjn£ Place before a seated mountain-god): see
J) ^r Wieseler 'Einige Bemerkungen iiber die
KUris* . der Berggottheiten in der classischen
Gotr W tlle Nac,lr- d- ton. Gesellsch. d. Wiss.
Wtf PhiI-hist- Classe 1876 pp. 53-85- I Ml
by p eief°re on the view expressed a century since
r6l>iisch^' ^Velclcer in E- Gerhard Hyperboreisch-
(^W'elcV dien fiir Archablogie Berlin 1833 i. 303
andern g^ ^enkm. hi. 300) 'der Gott auf der
rePtes sc'lemt Zeus zu seyn.' Zeus is elsewhere

%• 6stnt-d Wl* a chla"'ys (suPra «• 73i ng- 663, 744
pi. Xxxj. /4= Ph xxxi, 746 figs. 685, 687, 689, 690 and
With a ' tn°ugh hardly worn like this, and never
^sion \v^S°S' ^e Pecuiiar garb implies some con-
the par^ Hermes—perhaps a changed intention on

In g ° tne vase-painter. Was the ground-line originally a caduceust

°n tho n' erc- Oct. 169s ff. the Chorus ask whether Hercules, when about to be burnt
Pyre A'A

•riakes a]^s ' not pray to the gods above or think of calling upon lupiter. Philoctetes
Pater [ (je .1: lacuit sui securus et caelum intuens | quaesivit oculis, arce an ex aliqua
^ater> I t^SfIceret ilium, turn manus tendens ait: | "quacumque parte prospicis natum
A' c-) u'16 '">recor 1uern nocte conmissa dies | quaesivit (leg. creavit cp. supra p. 508 n. 3.
Pandit p0[Q )|--,spiritum admitte hunc, precor, | in astra...vocat ecce iam me genitor et

S ivr "'"

^"Wi^j 5^Ur-ay in tlle Jour>>- Hell. Stud. 1890 xi. 227, after citing Apollod. 2. 7. 7
f'lre\Vclly 0k T7>S VVPS-S ^eyerai vi<pos vwo<XTav juera ppovrfis avrbf eh obpavbv dca^/i^ai,
'n a s'orm >,Serves: '0ne might say of him [sc. Herakles), "he came in a storm and went
'mPulse of pand !f that view o{ nis life was current in antiquity we could understand the
QeatQ-. Uripides to do for the birth of Herakles what Sophocles had done for his