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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#0979

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Zeus and the Hail

Palladius in the fourth century gives several of the foregoing
recipes (nos. 3, 4, 5, 8) and prefixes others of his own:

1. 35. 1 For the prevention of hail numerous remedies are current.—
Meal is covered with a russet cloth1.

Again, bloodstained axes are raised in a threatening manner
against the sky2.

Again, the whole garden is surrounded with white vines3.

Or else an owl is nailed up with wide-spread wings4.

Or the iron tools to be used are anointed with bears' suet.
1. 35. 2 Some keep by them bears' fat pounded with oil and anoint the
hooks with it when they are going to prune. But this cure must be
worked in secret so that no pruner may be aware of it. Its efficacy,
they say, is so great that no harm can be done by a frost or cloud or
any wild beast. It is well to add that the thing, if bruited abroad, is
useless6.

Magic of this sort might be worked by anyone. But for its
proper performance some skill was needed, and the later Greeks
had recourse to professional ' cloud-chasers' (nephodidktat), who
knew the right spells to use6. At Kleonai in the Argolid official
'hail-guards' {chalazophylakes) were employed, as we gather from
an interesting passage in Seneca7:

' I will not refrain from exposing all the follies of our Stoic friends. They
say that certain men are specially skilled at observing the clouds and can tell

(Lipsiae 1781) at first suggested HiiAct Safaris Kal irapde'vov Kvr)p,as (a maiden's shin-bones)
Karbpv^ov. Els eKaorov de K\rjfia XPV ehal re Kal xfiircu, but concluded in favour of
Safaris, robs irap8hov pvqvas (a virgin's menses), dXKibpt^av (or better dXKibpL^ov, for
dXKlou pl^av) els 'e'Kacrov K\rj/na XPV BeivaX re Kal x&trat. I should myself prefer ^i/X*
Safaris, dairaXdOov Kvripas (sprigs of thorn), dXKlov pl£av rijs Se dXwijs Ka6' eKafftoV
K\r)p.a xpy deivai re Kal ^wtrai or the like (cp. Colum. de re rusL 8. 5 plurimi etiam infra
cubilium stramenta graminis aliquid et ramulos lauri nec minus allii capita cum clavis
ferreis subiciunt: quae cuncta remedia creduntur esse adversus tonitrua, etc.).

1 Supra i. 58 n. 1, ii. 522 n. 2. See now the careful study by Eva Wunderlich D*1
Bedeutung der roten Farbe im Kultus der Griechen und Homer Giessen 1925 pp. 1—
and an interesting review of her book by S. Eitrem in Gnomon 1926 ii. 95—102.

2 Supra ii. 704.

3 Colum. de re rust. 10. 346 f. utque Iovis magni prohiberet fulmina Tarchon | saepe
suas sedes praecinxit vitibus albis.

4 Supra p. 793.

5 Geopon. 5. 30. 1 dpKeiai cr^an rbv faKoibv eirixpie, Kal ov iroL^oeL (pdetpas ij a/ifi"^05'
ij apKe'up ariari ra Spiirava xpie p.rjSevbs eldbros, iv oTs ras dp-iriXovs ripveis- rj yap
d\elpp.aros yvGxns KaraXiei rr\v wfaKetav ■ Kal ovre tpBeipes oiire irayerbs dStKTj<rei
dp/jreKov.

6 Supra p. 33 with n. 4. ^

7 Sen. nat. quaestt. 4. 6. 1—4. 7. 2 Haase. Cp. Clem. Al. strom. 6. 3 p. 446) 11
Stahlin avrlKa <paal rods ev KXew^cus p,dyovs <pvkdrrovras ra p.ere'copa r(ov xaXa^o/So^7^'
p.e\kbvTuv vefajv irapdyeLV ipSals re Kal 96pa<TL rijs bpyrjs rr)v diteChr)v. dp,€kei Kal ei ^
diropia '{ipov Kara\dfioi, rbv atpirepov alp-d^avres SaKrv\ov dpKovvrai r(p 8tip.ari.

See further Frazer Worship of Nature i. 45 f.
 
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