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)

Zeus and the Hail

879

when a hailstorm is likely to come. That they might have realised from
experience pure and simple, having noted the colour of the clouds commonly
followed by hail. But this is hard to believe, that at Kleonai were public officials
called chalazophylakes, posted to look out for the coming hail. When these
persons had signified the hail's approach, what think you? That folk ran for
their cloaks or leather capes? Not a bit of it. They offered sacrifice for them-
selves, one man a lamb, another a chicken. And forthwith the said clouds,
having tasted blood, took themselves off! You laugh ? This will make you
laugh louder. If anyone had neither lamb nor chicken, he did what he could
without serious damage—he laid hands on himself. Do not imagine that the
clouds were greedy or cruel. No, he just pricked his finger with a sharp-pointed
pen and made his offering with this drop of blood. And lo, the hail turned aside
from his plot of ground quite as much as from that on which it had been begged
off by greater sacrifices.

They want a rational explanation of this practice. Some, as befits truly wise
men, declare that it is impossible to bargain with hail or buy off storms with
trumpery gifts, though indeed gifts vanquish the very gods. Others affirm their
suspicion that there is some virtue inherent in blood, which has the power to
turn aside and rout the cloud. But how in a little drop of blood could a force
reside potent enough to penetrate on high and influence the clouds? F'ar
simpler to say, "This is a lie and utter nonsense." But, if you please, the men
°f Kleonai1 passed judgment upon those who had been entrusted with the duty
of foreseeing the storm, on the ground that through their negligence the vine-
yards had been beaten down and the crops laid low.'

One step more, and magic passes upward into religion. A stone
built into a wall at Amaseia in Pontos bears an
Ascription in late lettering2 (fig. 715), which H.
Gregoire3 was the first to interpret as a dedication A£X I XA
to Aither Alexichdlazos, 'Averter of Hail.' This is Af\7(j)
the only known case of an actual dedication to .
Either, though the Orphic hymn to that deity4 pre-
scribes saffron as an offering appropriate to him5. However, since
Either is invoked by the Clouds of Aristophanes6 as their father,
be may well have been asked on occasion to ward off the cloud
that threatened hail.

1 F- Haase read decuriones with cod. Ea. But A. Gercke restored Cleonaei from
cleone (or deone) of codd. * and deonis of codd. S.

2 T. Reinach in the Rev. £l. Gr. 1895 viii. 84 no. 24 bis with facsimile on p. 78.

' In J. G. C. Anderson-F. Cumont—H. Gregoire Recueil des inscriptions grecgues et
Wines du Pont et de I'Armtnie (Studia Pontica iii) Bruxelles 1910 i. 138 f. no. 114 a with
facsimile ( = myfig. 715) TMipt 4|XeJtx«l*<HV- See further O. Kern in Hermes 1916 li.
566, id. Die Religion der Griechen Berlin 1926 i. 95 n. 3. Cp. the title 'AXefko/cos applied
to Zeus (supra i. 422 n. 7; Plout. adv. Stoic, de commun. not. 33, Orph. lith. I, SchSU—
^tudemund anecd. i. 264 'Eiriflera A«5s no. 7, ib. 266 'Eiriflera AiAs no. 8) and other
deities (see G. Wentzel in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. i. 1464 f.).

4 Supra i. 33. 6 Orph. h. Aith. 5 lemma. 6 Aristoph. nub. 569 f.