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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#0976

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Zeus and the Hail

875

(j) Zeus and the Hail.

At this point something must be said about one special form
of rain, the frozen pellets that we term hail. For hailstones provide
an obvious transition from the soft beneficent raindrops to the
harder and more formidable aerolites.

Hail bulks big in modern folk-lore1. It could scarcely be other-
wise : fruit-grower and farmer know what damage it may do and
are quite ready to try any and every superstitious recipe that
promises to avert the threatened mischief.

Similarly in ancient times the peasant had recourse to a singular
variety of expedients, which have been admirably collected and dis-
cussed by E. Fehrle2.

Pliny the elder (25—79 A.D.), a man of vast erudition, is shy
about mentioning irrational or indecorous detail, but here and there
drops a significant hint, while on occasion his love of the marvellous
prompts him to include this or that item of folk-belief. He says,
for example:

nat. hist. 17. 267 Most people hold that hailstones can be averted by a charm,
the wording of which I should not seriously venture to
quote.

28. 29 There are charms against hailstorms and against various
diseases and against burns, some even attested by experi-
ence, but 1 am prevented from giving particulars by a feeling
of extreme diffidence in view of the great variety of men's
minds. So each must form his own opinions about them as
he may feel inclined.

Attes! Hyes Attes ! " which was raised by the worshippers of Attis, may be neither more
"or less than "Pig Attis! Pig Attis! "—hyes being possibly a Phrygian form of the
*reek Ays, "a pig." ' Id. ib. n. 4 says that this suggestion was made to him in con-
versation by R. A. Neil of Pembroke College, Cambridge.

I note one scrap of evidence which might be pressed in favour of Frazer's etymology.
At the Weber Sale in 1919 the British Museum bought the bronze statuette (-075m long
y ■°55m high) of a boar standing on a thin base-plate. The figure is of poorish work-
^anship and is inscribed along the left side of the body in late lettering MYPTI N H0£ |
^ABAZICO. May we infer that Myrtine thought of Sabazios himself as a Boar?

Two monographs are deserving of special mention: (1) G. Bellucci La grandint
n-W Umbria, con note esplicative e comparative e con illustrazioni (Tradhioni popolari
Ualiane no. 1) Perugia 1903 pp. 1—136 (now out of print). (2) The rich collection
0 classified facts contributed by Stegemann to the Handwdrterbuch des deutschen Aber-
Saubens Berlin—Leipzig 1930/1931 iii. 1304—1320 ('Hagel, Hagelzauber').

E. Fehrle ' Antiker Hagelzauber. Ein Kapitel der Geoponiker' in Alemannia
reiburg i. B. igI2 Dritte Folge iv. 13—27, id. Sludien zu den griechischcn Geoponikern
TOIXEIA iii) Leipzig—Berlin 1920 pp. 7—26 {Geoponika 1. 14 ' Schutz gegen

II

agel').
 
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