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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#0969

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868 The thunderbolt of Zeus

She discloses her design to Poseidon and explains what will
happen

When homeward bound they sail from Ilion.
On them will Zeus send rain and endless hail
And darkling storm-winds from the upper sky —
Saith he will give me too his fiery bolt
To smite the Achaeans and to burn their ships.

Sundry later writers state that in the event Athena struck Aias
with the lightning1, and Heron of Alexandreia2, taking his cue from
the Nauplios by Philon of Byzantion3, describes how the story was
staged for his marionettes. In the fourth scene of their little play
Nauplios the wrecker raised his torch, while Athena stood beside
him. In the fifth and concluding scene Aias was shown swimming
towards the shore, when, with a crash of mimic thunder, the fatal
bolt fell4 and the puppet hero disappeared in the waves.

It is not, however, till the third6 century B.C. that Athena is
actually represented with the thunderbolt in her hand. Antigonos
Gonatas (277—239 B.C.)—or, less probably6, his nephew Anti-
gonos Doson (229—220 B.C.)—issued imposing tetradrachms with
the reverse type (figs. 702, 703)7 of an archaistic Athena, seen from
behind, who bears a Gorgon-shield on her left arm and brandishes

1 Verg. Aen. 1. 39 ff., Hyg. fab. 116. See further J. Toepffer in Pauly—Wissowa
Real-Enc. i. 938 f.

2 Heron aiTO/xaTowouKd 22. 3 ff. (i. 412 ff. Schmidt).

3 Id. ib. 20. 1 (i. 404 Schmidt), 20. 3 (i. 408 Schmidt).

K. Tittel in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. viii. 996—1000 contends that Heron's life
should probably be dated in the beginning of s. i B.C., ib. 997 f. that he was a younger
contemporary of the mechanician Philon, and ib. 1051 that, with a few alterations, he
simply took over Philon's representation of the Nauplios-myth.

4 We are not told that Athena herself flung the bolt. But that is because the text at
this crucial point is defective: 22. 6 (i. 414 Schmidt) 7; rwv ve&v iKTrruxris i(palvero koX 0
Atas V7]X&fJ-&>os < i] 5e 'AOrjva eiri [suppl. H. Diels) > [xrixavys re Kai avuidev rod TrtvaKO*
e^pdr/, Kal fipovTrjs y€vop.£vt]5 iv avTLp ti£ vlvctKt Kepavvbs £irea€v etri rbv Afaira, ^
7}fpavi(y8T} avrou rb fydtov.

5 Browning was guilty of more than one slip when, confusing the third-century
demagogue Lachares with the fourth-century sculptor Leochares, he made Aristophai'eS
declare that 'Lachares the sculptor' had carved a naked Pallas and remark: 'Moreove'i
Pallas wields the thunderbolt | Yet has not struck the artist all this while' [Aristophai,eS
Apology ed. 1889 p. 232). The whole context has been convincingly cleared up W
C. T. Seltman in a paper on 'The Dismantling of the Pheidian Parthenos' read.to tIie
Cambridge Philological Society on Nov. 3, 1932 [Cambridge University Reporter I02
—1933 P- 337 f-= Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society 1932 cli—cliii. 13 ^

6 Head Hist, num.'2 p. 231 f.

7 Hunter Cat. Coins i. 340 pi. 23, 19, McClean Cat. Coins ii. 70 pi. 134, 2 and
Head Coins of the Ancients p. 75 pi. 41, 5, id. Hist, num.- p. 231 fig. 144, id. Co"lS f
the Greeks p. 62 pi. 35, 3, C. Seltman Greek Coins London 1933 pp. 223, 260 pi. 5°'
Figs. 702 and 703 are from two specimens in my collection.
 
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