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)

s

518 Pyre-extinguishing rain

the Euripidean Alkmene. Indeed, in another play'Plautus actually
uses Euripides' title as a synonym for a prodigious storm1, an^
makes Labrax threaten to burn alive Palaestra and Ampelisca who
have taken refuge on the altar of Venus2,

Accordingly we may without reservation accept Engelmann s
view that the argument of the Alkmene was as follows. Amphitryon*
angered at the reception given to him by Alkmene, resolves to take
vengeance on her. She flies for sanctuary to an altar, followed by
him and his friend Antenor. Instead of dragging her away from the
altar, they proceed to sacrifice her upon it. They build a pyre
wood in front of it and fetch torches to kindle it. Alkmene in
extremity appeals to Zeus, who comes to her aid, hurling h)S
thunderbolts and sending a tempest of rain to put out the fire.

One further point. Vases and comedies alike prove that
original purpose of the golden shower, still discernible in Pindar
ode4, was completely misconceived by later Greeks and Roman ^
Pindar made Zeus come to Alkmene 'at midnight in a snow of g° '
just as he consorted with Danae5 or Himalia6. Python used _
downpour merely as a convenient method of putting out the fhe ■ ^
Hyades might be well-drilled members of a modern fire-brig3^
Plautus, or his Greek source, transforms the procreative shower ^
a punitive thunderstorm, and works in the Pindaric gold as a t0
of unearthly glamour. _ -a

Another example of a pyre extinguished by timely rain occui
the story of Kroisos, king of Lydia. According to Hero ^
when the Persians captured Sardeis, Kyros built a great pyre

1 Plaut. rud. 86 non ventus fuit, verum Alcumena Euripidi.

2 Id. ib. 761 ff. , han £tudts

3 Supra p. 510 n. 1. See further the admirably careful chapter of l. Sec ia^2__-248
sur la tragtSdie grecque dans ses rapports avec la ciramique Paris 1926 pp' . jj_ 6>4
('Alcmene') with pi. 5 and fig. 73. He holds with Preller—Robert Gr. My 0{
that, in Euripides' version, Amphitryon's wrath was roused, not by the c ^ g(;,
Alkmene, but by her all too apparent infidelity. He also insists, in view of "laU ' ted by
that the Euripidean thunderstorm was represented on the stage rather than J ^ d-
a messenger. And, with regard to the contention of N. Wecklein in the St z * ^jght
kais. bayr. Akad. d. Wiss. Phil.-hist. Classe 1890 i. 39 that, whatever Aisc ljremai*s:
have done, Euripides would not have tolerated an actual apparition of Zeus, ^ pjus
'Zeus n'apparait jamais, en effet, dans aucune tragedie subsistante d'Eunp ^ a
que, d'ailleurs, dans les ceuvres conservees d'Eschyle et Sophocle. Mais ce^ sUpr<t >'•
un pur effet du hasard.' For Zeus on the theologeton in Aisch. *vx°«Taa a

734 n. 3, and for Zeus in Phrynich. llipcreu (?) supra ii. 853 f. pi- xxxvin-

« Supra pp. 477, 5°7- 5 Supra p. 476. 0 *f * £ ^

7 Hdt. 1. 86f. See also O. Meiser Vom Ende des Kbnigs Kroesos r ^ % it.,

pp. 1—43, P. Soedel De fabellis ad Croesum pertinentibus Gottingae

F. Hellmann Herodots Kroisos-logos Berlin 1934 p. 103 ff.