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)

Significance of the birth of Athena 739

can effect, sends him to crack the shell. Out pops Helen to the
amazement of Tyndareos, while Leda herself, mindful of the
celestial swan, peeps shyly through the doorway.

(«) The superannuation of Zeus.

If the foregoing analysis be sound, one element in the complex
myth of Athena's birth was the primitive persuasion that Zeus,
king of the gods, must like all other kings in due course be super-
seded by a stronger than he. But—it will be said—what right have
Xv'e to speak of Zeus being superannuated? Was he not looked
upon as a power permanently supreme1? To this the true answer
ls both Yes and No2. Philosophical and ^^'-philosophical writers
certainly regarded Zeus as eternal, or at least everlasting, ruler of
fte universe. But the populace, heirs of the mythopoeic age, did
n°t3. Even Aischylos, who in his moments of deepest insight
aPproximates to the philosophers' view, speaks of succession to the
divine throne as the prize of a grand Olympian wrestling-match,
ar,d tells how Ouranos was overthrown by Kronos, and Kronos in
turn by Zeus:

He who of yore was great

And boldly challenged all
Hath lost his former state
Nor cometh at the call.
And he who thereupon
Rose in his stead is gone—
He too hath met his fall.
But if a man with glad triumphant cries
Hail Zeus as victor, verily he is wise4.

^ 1 Soph. 0. T. 903 ff. dXV, w Kparvvuv, etirep opff' aKoieis, | ZeO, tclvt ivkoowv, p.r]
^ I at tclv tc aav aOdvaTOv alkv dpxav is typical.
Lact. div. ins/, i. n has a trenchant passage on the subject of Zeus being super-
• 'atquin divinum imperium aut semper inmutabile est aut si est mutabile, quod
'°n potest, semper utique mutabile est. potest ergo Iuppiter regnum amittere, sicut
1"uer eius amisit? ita plane.'

int am no1 nere concernea with the progressive senescence of art-types—a matter
/'/erestlnyly handled by E. Pottier ' La vieillesse des dieux grecs' in the Antuudre de
fgw titui de I'hilologie et d'Histoire Orientates 1934 ii (Mflanges Bidez) 729—743- In a
2*tts PUt ParaBraPns (PP- 73°—733) ne traces the gradual change that comes over
SuCc as. cor>ceived by sculptors etc. from early Hellenic to late Hellenistic times. We see
p), essu'ely a warrior brandishing his bolt or a king sitting on his throne, a man of fine
'ttia <1Ue altack'ng h's foes or pursuing his amours, the more mature and pacific ruler
"orir'ned by Phei(,ias> the ideal of philosophers and poets, and the anxious thinker
11oral>et' 1>y tllC 0tricoli 1,ust• In short> brute force, youthful vigour, active benevolence,
'C'es ^Wndenr, providence, and at the last pensiveness deepening into melancholy.
<lu']j Un Zeus vieilli, en qui Ton aurait peine a reconnaitre I'epoux triomphant
( °n,ere nous depeint dans les bras de Hera, sur un lit de lotus et d'hyacinthes.'
A'sch. Ag. 167 ff.

47—2