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 as god of the Dark Sky 947

Doliclienus ' Best and Greatest, the Eternal' is hailed as ' the
Preserver of the Whole Sky, a Godhead Pre-eminent, a Provider
Invincible1.'

More and more, as time went on and men's sympathies widened,
the cosmic character of such a god tended to find expression in
poetry, philosophy, and art. Homer began his Iliad with the
parenthetic hint that its plot was but the progressive fulfilment of
the will of Zeus2. Sophokles3 ended his Women of Trachis with
the reflexion—

In all which happenings is nought but Zeus—

and we are left with that impressive monosyllable ringing in our
ears. An Orphic fragment paraphrased by Platon said:
Zeus first, Zeus midmost, Zeus hath all things made4.
And later Orphists under Stoic influence, or Stoics with a leaning
towards Orphism5, expanded the same theme into hymns of a
definitely pantheistic sort6. Theokritos7 and Aratos8 have echoes of
the opening line, which for Cicero9, Virgil10, Ovid11, and Calpurnius
Siculus12 passes into a poetical commonplace. Aratos13 in his great
exordium dwells on the ubiquity and helpfulness of the god. The
haunts of men are ' full of Zeus'—all the streets, all the markets,
the sea and its harbours. Zeus distinguishes the seasons by his
signs in the sky above and thereby determines the labours of the
earth beneath. And all this with beneficent purpose. So men do
well to worship him ever first and last; and the poet in a burst of
gratitude cries-
Hail, Father, mighty marvel, mighty boon !
Even the dry-as-dust pedant with his faulty philology attempts to
Persuade us that Zeus gets his name Zina as being the giver of

1 Supra i. 608, 633. 2 Supra i. 14 n. 1.

Soph. Track. 1278 KovSh toIituv S n Zeis. 4 Supra ii. 1033 n- !•

R. Harder 'Prismata' 1 in Philologus N.F. 1930 xxxix. 243—247 argues that
/«5P ' fraS- 21 a Kern is not only not early (Kern), nor even merely Stoic in tone
llamowitz), but is actually a Stoic forgery (Class. Quart. 1931 xxv. 216).
? Supra ii. 1027 f.

^ v Theokr. 17. if. £K Aios apx^^ada KaX es Ala Xriyere, Moiatu, | adavaruv rbv apusrav
K\elu/ifv doiSais.
g Arat-phaen. 1 ix Aids apxdi/J-eaffa (supra ii p. vi).

10 i ' * leSS- 2- 7 'a love Musarum primordia'—sicut in Aratio carmine orsi sumus.

u ^erg- eel. 3. 60 ab love principium, Musae, Aen. 7. 219 ab love principium generis.

no "'et' IO' H8 f. 'ab love, Musa parens,—cedunt Iovis omnia regno— j carmina

us^fa move.'

13 <^f^>' ^'c- 4- 82 ab love principium, si quis canit aethera, sumat.
Afat.phaen. 1 ff. (supra ii p. vi).

60—2