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)

526

Zeus Ombrios

the district1. It may well be, then, that in Elis too the same
desperate means were on occasion adopted to propitiate the reluctant
rain-god. And if in Arkadia King Lykaon was said to have served
up his son or his grandson as a dish at the table of Zeus2, we can
hardly rule out the possibility that Molpis' body was likewise cut
up in the rites of the Elean Zeus Ombrios. His noble birth3 and
his well-omened name4 would make him a most suitable victim-
Perhaps in Elis, as in Arkadia5, blood-guiltiness was avoided by the
expedient of a communal meal.

On Mount Parnes in Attike stood an altar at which sacrifices
were made, sometimes to Zeus Ombrios, but sometimes also to Zeus
Apemios*, the god 'who Saves from Harm7.' Mount Hymettos too
had an altar of Zeus Ombrios*. And a large round base of marble,
found in 1900 on the site of the Agora at Corinth, still bears in late
lettering part of an elegiac couplet in which one Heliodoros honours
Zeus Ombrios'3. To these or other such monuments Plutarch is
alluding, when he protests that the abolition'of food would inv°lv(j.
the abolition of agriculture, and asks what would then become 0

1 Supra i. 76, iii. 315. 2 Supra i. 78 it . buS

3 Cp. Lamprid. v. Heliog. 8. 1 cecidit et humanas hostias lectis ad hoc pueris nobu' ^
et decoris per omnem Italiam patrimis et matrimis, credo ut maior esset utrique pare"
dolor.

4 F. Bechtel—A. Fick Die Griechischen Personennamen2 Gottingen 1894 pp. lu'j°\\e
F. Bechtel Die historischen Personennamen des Griechischen bis zur Kaisert&t...
a. d. S. 1917 p. 323 f. M6\iris occurs as an actual name in Thera {/user. Gr-

no- 337, 5 M6A7TIOS koX KXeu... 'A0(p)o5i<7iaj< in lettering of s. ii B.C., Collitz—-»tC p
Gr. Dial.-Inschr. iii. 2. 154 no. 4700, 5). For MoXiraydpTjs at Abdera see Appenc'
fig-

6 Supra i. 76, 80. « Supra ii. 897 n. 6. <$f,

7 On the strength of this Attic cult A. Boeckh in the Corp. inscr. Gr. ii no. »37+^ cj.
read Aei«ca\Za>c tovs | o/xfipovs l<pvyev ey XvKoipeias eis 'A0?}ras Trpb[s Kpava]bv (Patoe
jrp6[repo^]), ml tov Ai6[s to]u '0[p.pplov 'Attv]p[1]ov to Ipbv ld[pu<raT]o [ical] ?a ^ 3
(8v<jev—a reading defended by J (= Hans). Flach Chronicon Parium Tubingae I» 4 ^
n. 7. But R. Chandler's restoration Ai6[s to]0 'O[\u]^[7r(]ou (cp. Paus. I. i8- 8) '.S fnS(r.
accepted by Preller—Robert Gr. Myth. i. 121 n. 3, F. Hiller von Gaertringen J"

Gr. ins. v. 1 no. 444, 6 f., and F. Jacoby Das Marmor Parium Berlin 1904 P'4'ierjcans

8 Supra ii. 897 a. 5, 1226. The inscribed 'Geometric' sherds found by the Am ^
near the top of Mt Hymettos have now been published by C. W. Blegen m \ncised
fourn. Arch. 1934 xxxviii. 10—28. No. i fig. 1 is a small one-handled cup' bed

N([>6]5e^os #[----]t<5es naraviyov Aeo[.... ]5es epi No. 11 fig. .5 is a small bowl sc ^

with the start of an abecedarium aba Nos. 13 and 14 fig. 6 are parts of a sma' e(
incised am and PP and x, perhaps from another alphabet. No. 15 7 1S ^^ese
portion of a small jug inscribed on its bottom aa£$, probably for r°' ^cerne<3-
inscriptions, of c. 750 b.C., hardly suffice to determine the name of the deity j^j

— /T-i---- r. 24' J

But the connexion of Zeus Ombrios with Gaia is not impossible (Paus- I
[yaXjxo. Ikctcvovc
9 Inscr. Gr.

&ya\p.a iKmvoio-iji mat ol tov A(a, k.t.\.). ,
s Inscr. Gr. Pelop. i no. 1598 — - = AC] "OpppiiV ('B)MW5'