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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#0710

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Zeus as an ox; Zeus Olbios

627

aPpealed, not only to artists and craftsmen, but to poets1 and

c*mpanUcht Wandmalerei Leipzig 1873 p. 224 ff., id. in Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 14121!".

&■> id. Fiihrer durch die bjffentlichen Sammlungen klassischer Altertiimer in Rom*
■Leipzig 19x3 ii. 395 f.. Reinach Rep. Feint. Gr. Rom. p. 12 no. 1). The bull (white,

acted with brown) is already in the sea, escaping towards the left, with Europe scantily

raped in a himdtion (deep orange, shaded with red) on his back. Her adventure is
etched with astonishment and interest by two female figures (local Nymphs?) on the
sea-shore. Above are seen five of Europe's playmates fleeing in alarm towards the right.
- le of them look back as they run. And finally from behind a rock advances a grave

earded man in a himdtion (red) with a long staff (yellow) in his hand. Overbeck op. cit.
^• 456 would see in him Zeus, at whose sudden appearance the nearest of the maidens is

fath "8 'n a s"'oon ! Jahn °P- ciL P- 8 had

more sensibly taken him to be Agenor the
er of Europe or Kadmos her brother. Helbig Fiihrer3 p. 395 f. notes that, apart
j,°m minor injuries and repairs, there is something wrong about the whole composition,
is p°'De S cornpanions are n°t looking at the elopement, but forwards or backwards; nor
w UroPe herself being carried off from their midst. All would be well, if the mosaic
^6re bisected and rearranged with its lower half on the left, its upper half on the right

420). Accordingly he conjectures that the original design was an oblong fresco,

Th'C "le Praenestine craftsman compressed into a square (o'82ni) to fill a given space,
'hus V att'tudes and the fine colouring point to an artist of marked ability. We are
by ^n(C. towar(Js the conclusion that this mosaic is a modified copy of the famous painting
p n Polios, a rival of Apelles, whose 'Kadmos and Europe' was to be seen in the
3. 2^CUS P°mpeia at Rome (Plin. nat. hist. 35. 114, cp. Mart. ep. 2. 14. 3, 5, 15 ff.,

I ' 12 *•> 1 1. 11). See further A. Reinach Textes Feint. Anc. i. 385 n. 2.
near^tVi a'most equal interest and of even greater beauty is the mosaic found in i860
rollers E ^atriedral at Aquileia on the estate of Count Cassis and thence removed on
(==niy ° llls Museum in the Castle of Monastero (O. Jahn op. cit. p. 52 ff. with pi. 10
■^Sujari X'v'"' ^rom a coloured drawing carefully executed on the spot by the painter
pi. ? under the direction of von Steinbiichel, Overbeck op. cit. Zeus p. 456 f. Atlas
Gr. » ^' <~>* ^asiolo / mosaici di Aquileia Roma 1915 pi. 1, 2, Reinach Rip. Feint.
eolow7r.P" 12 no- 2)- The divine bull is here figured as a sea-beast, brown to grey in
as he frislT f°re^eet P'unge m 'he brine; his hindquarters end in two fish-tails flung aloft
naked . s along. Europe, wearing a blue fillet on her blond hair, but otherwise stark
^-fos, w.|t] gracefully on his back, resting one hand on his head, the other on his flank.

ri'ght f! winSs coloured blue and red, leads the way, holding a flowery halter in

°n ''is d J/? ant! a burning torch in his left. Lastly, Poseidon, a wreath of green weed
size as ha brown hair, rides on a big grey dolphin and is followed by a second of smaller
is seen ccompanies the bridal cortege and calms the sea for his brother. His right arm
Possibl'e k ' swimming, through the clear water (cp. Nonn. Dion. I. 74 f.)—an effect made
IriUsthave a °'ever use OI"hlue glass tesserae. The mosaic, badly cracked and damaged,
V°n Steinb^6'1 Service *°r many years before Attila captured Aquileia in 452 a.d. Indeed,
llr>der Tra'liC'K' and Jabn ass'Sned reasonably enough, to the palmy days of th~ town
^'ght notJ]an an<i Hadrian- Jann P°ses 'he question whether this rider on a marine bull
£ur°Pe (v laVe been meant for Aphrodite or some Nereid, say Galateia, rather than for

thelast; and" D'°"' '" ff''cp- stt^ra P-133L figs- s2'53^* but decides riehtly for

S°are their h °verbeck »ys 'eine sichere Entscheidung ist nicht moglich.' I do not
a8reemetu °n" The obvious intention to represent a wedding train and the general

SUctl COnfitm* °tller pictures of Europe really leave no room for doubt, not to mention
£**P4» *tt4?at°ry deta'ls as those recorded by Ach. Tat. 1. 1 "E/mjs el\tce rbv /SoD*- "Epois,
bltt^ola j*' v»A<i*a to TTep6f,...(KpdTei to wvp- (ireo-TpaiTTo Se us iirl tov Afo ral
' ThJ on\.P a{,T00 ^^y^"' o" S< yiiovt /Sous.

0C6' 8Te><ir11US10n l° EuroPe in the Homeric poems occurs in the Aids airaT-q (II. 14.
s boW(j| . Kovp-qs TTj\tK\eiToio, I 17 Tint moi MiWc re Kal ayrWeov 'VaSanavdw).

erizing (?) episode omits the actual name of the heroine and ignores the bull.

40—2
 
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