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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#0595

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Pyre-extinguishing rain 519

Placed upon it Kroisos bound with fetters and twice seven Lydian
boys beside him. On hearing Kroisos recall the warning of Solon,
Kyros repented of his purpose. But the fire was already kindled,
ar>d his servants tried in vain to stay the flames. Kroisos as a last
resource called upon Apollon, 'and suddenly in a clear and windless
sky clouds gathered and a storm burst and there was a deluge of rain
'nsomuch that the pyre was put out.' Now this, though romantic
eriough and edifying to boot, was from a strictly theological stand-
Point all wrong. Apollon had no business to control the weather:
that was the essential prerogative of Zeus1. Herodotos' account,
admittedly drawn from a Lydian informant2, perhaps the logo-
§rapher Xanthos (465—425 B.C.)3, has points in common with the
narrative of Ephoros4 as preserved by Diodoros5 and was certainly
main6 source of the long rhetorical description given by
^kolaos of Damaskos7. Ktesias too, though he says not a word

* °ut the pyre, like Herodotos makes much of Apollon's aid8.
al<chylides, however, an older contemporary of Herodotos, in an

which commemorates Hieron of Syracuse as victor in the
ar'ot-race at Olympia (468 B.C.)9, puts a somewhat different
^plexion on the whole affair. Here it is not Kyros who dooms

• r°isos to the pyre, but Kroisos who, on witnessing the sack of
^ill S' k'^S a re ^e built in front of his palace and of his own
^ founts thereon with his wife and daughters. Here, again,

r°1Sos appeal, though obscurely worded, is addressed to Zeus

\ f"j>ra ii. j ff.
Hdt. j o„ -1 . , , . .„

4 g " ^hrist Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur" Miinchen 1912 i. 454.
6 r.'. Scl>wartz in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. v. 670.
• p!°t 9- 34-

'vSl- p'g ° ^ ^raS- gr. Hist, ii C p. 252 : 'zweifelhaft nur, ob das auftreten der Sibylle
■Hen oder' ^ erwsmnun2 Zoroasters (§ 12), die allein nicht aus Herodot genom-

8e'*"(E to ° C'ce't se'" konnen, als "antiquarische gelehrsamkeit der hellenistischen
m°gUcher Gd A ' -S°3' anzusehen

sind. Zoroaster kam bei Xanthos vor (Diog. L. I 2 ;
^hlecht fiir e'S£ a'SO auc'1 'Jei Ktesias); und was hier von ihni gesagt wird, passt nicht
tre'bt.' gtc lnen lydischen autor, der die wichtigkeit seiner heimischen geschichte liber-

i^' ^ami«k. frag. 68 (Frag. hist. Gr. iii. 406 ff. Miiller) =frag. 68 (Frag. gr.
, 8 Ktes'°r Jacoby) *P- t*c- de virtut. i. 34;, 19 ff.
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^• ed-Jebbp. I94ff.
 
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