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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#0598

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522 Pyre-extinguishing rain

Apollon. The same is true1 of an engraved gem in the cabinet of

Monsieur le Comte Chandon de Briailles2, of which by the courtesy

of Mr C. T. Seltman I am enabled to figure

an impression (fig. 320,)3. According to the

very late Vatican mythographers4, Kroisos

subsequently boasted of his escape and was

rebuked by Solon. The same night he dreamt

that Zeus drenched him with water and that

the Sun dried him. His daughter Phania

explained the dream to mean that her father

would be crucified and so exposed to the

effects of rain and sun—a fate which ulti-

Fig. 329-

mately overtook him at the hands of Kyros5. _

A third case of a pyre opportunely extinguished by rain 1S ^
be found in the Love Stories of Parthenios6, who writes in the fi*s
century B.C.7 and is professedly quoting from local histories
Theagenes8 and Hegesippos9. Sithon, king of the Odomantoi, ^
a beautiful daughter Pallene, to win whose hand men came
far and near. At first Sithon bade each suitor take the giu
fight him—the unsuccessful fighter to be slain. In this way he .g
many; but, when his strength failed him, he resolved to glV
daughter in marriage. He bade two suitors, Dryas10 and ^e\fl
fight each other—the successful fighter to receive both the kw& ^
and the bride. Now Pallene herself was in love with Kleitos, a" cjj.
old servitor of hers bribed the charioteer of Dryas to omit the
pins of his master's chariot11. Thus Dryas was thrown, a11

1 Unless indeed the sign S in the field is meant for the initial of Zeus, or for a
bolt falling in response to the king's uplifted hand. But neither suggestion is Pr

2 At La Cordeliere, Chaource (Aube). 3 Scale f. . Vat' 1

4 Myth. Vat. 1. 196, 2. 190. The Thes. Ling. Lai. Index p. 74 dates y
'post Isidorum' and Myth. Vat. 2 'post mythographum I.' sferring t0

5 The mythographers, as A. Mai and G. H. Bode ad locc. saw, are tran
Kroisos the fate of Polykrates narrated in Hdt. 3. 124 f. by jCon°n

0 Parthen. ndrr. am. 6. 1 ff. The story is told, with slight variations,
narr. 10. Norm. Dion. 48. 90 ff. makes Dionysos beat Pallene in a wrestling' sboUld
afterwards slay Sithon with a blow of his thjirsos. In Theophil. ad Autol. *• ' A*0
perhaps read 'Apiadvus d.irb rrjs dvyarpbs Mlva yvvaiK&s S£ AiovvtxoV < *ff7.iejs <t,r
IlaXXr)i>r]S > 'iratSos 7rarpo0iXas' ttjs iiixBelaijs Aiovvaip 'iv ptoptpy yv/J-vdSi
(see the Class. Rev. 1894 viii. 246 ff.). ff.

7 W. Christ Geschichte dergriechischen Mfteratur* Mtinchen 1920 «• 3

8 Theag. HaKedovucdfrag. 11 (Frag. hist. Gr. iv. 510 Mtiller).

9 Hegesipp. TLaKktpiuLKdfrag. 1 (Frag. hist. Gr. iv. 423 Miiller). Qieece se

10 On the name Apvas as implying the cult of an oak-Zeus in northern
Class. Rev. 1904 xviii. 80 ff. >

11 An obvious doublet of the Myrtilos-myth at Olympia (supra i. 225 n.
 
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