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)

General Conclusions 943

§11. General Conclusions with regard to Zeus as god of the

Dark Sky.

We have now gone the round of our subject, surveyed its main
lines, and explored in detail some at least of its ramifications. It
remains in a few concluding paragraphs to gather up results and
attempt some estimate of their significance.

Starting from the primitive belief in an animate Sky, we
surmised that already in remote pre-Homeric times 'Zats, 'the
Bright One1,' had developed from Sky to Sky-god and was con-
ceived after the fashion of an earthly weather-making monarch2.
He dwelt in isolated splendour where the summit of Mount Olympos
(pi. lxviii)3 towers up through the cloudy air into the cloudless
aither1. Universally recognised as head of the Hellenic pantheon,
he came in the Hellenistic8 age to be connected more or less closely
with sun6, moon7, and stars8—other manifestations of the same
celestial brightness9.

Even when the sky was dark with a lowering storm, 'the Bright
One' might be seen to flash downwards in a dazzling streak10. This
was regarded sometimes as his destructive glance11, more often as
his irresistible weapon12—a double axe13, a spear14, a sword15, a
lightning-fork or thunderbolt16. Zeus, who thus sent the lightning
and the thunder, was naturally thought to send all kinds of weather,
rain, snow, or hail17. Indeed, any phaenomenon of a meteorological
sort was apt to be dubbed Diosemla, a ' Zeus-sign,' and viewed as
an omen of serious import18.

Prominent among such Diosermai was the Earthquake19, attri-
buted either to Zeus or to Poseidon, a specialised form of Zeus20,
whose trident was originally the lightning-fork of a storm-god21.
Clouds, again, played a certain role in the ritual and mythology of
Zeus22, as Aristophanes was aware when he wrote and rewrote his
Nefikelai2* or elaborated that brilliant extravaganza his Nephelo-

^ Supra i. i ff. 2 Supra i. 9 ff.

gj Jvitka, the highest peak of Mt Olympos, photographed from the Ridge by Mr C. M.
e^man, Sept. 3, 1926. See further supra ii. 904 n. 6.
8 Supra i. 101 with pi. ix, 1 and 2. 6 Supra i. 777 f.

Supra i. 186—730. 7 Supra i. 730—740. 8 Supra i. 740—775.

„ SuPra i. 777- 10 Supra ii. 11. 11 Supra ii. 501 ff.

w Supra ii. 505 ff. W Supra ii. 513 ff. 14 Supra ii. 704 ff.

l8 SuP'a ii- 712 ff. is Supra ii. 722 ff. 17 Supra ii. 1 ff.

20 SuPr<* 4 ff. 19 Supra iii. 1 ff.

B Supra i. 7I? n. 2< ;i 3, n 8> 5g2 ff> ?g6 f., 846, 850, 893 n. o, iii. 20.

Supra ii. 789 ff., 850, iii. 20. 22 Supra iii. 30 ff. 23 Supra iii. 69 f.