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)

94 8 General Conclusions with regard to

'life' to all things1, and Dia as being the cause 'through' which
they came to be2. Zeus enthroned as cosmic lord is a frequent
theme of imperial art. So he appears, surrounded by all the host
of heaven, in a fine ceiling-fresco of Nero's Golden House3. And
analogous designs were used to decorate minor works of art, an
onyxphalera"', a terra-cotta lamp5, or what not? Anything circular
would serve. Thus handsome bronze coins struck at Nikaia in
Bithynia6 and Perinthos in Thrace7 show Zeus seated in the midst
with smaller flanking figures of Sun and Moon, Earth and Sea, the
whole enclosed by a broad band exhibiting all the signs of the
zodiac—an irrefutable witness of his claim to world-dominion.
Martianus Capella had indeed ample warrant for his hymn to
Iupiter as ruler of the starry universe8. Small wonder that the type
of the infant Zeus seated on a globe surrounded by stars9 was
adapted for figures of the Father and the Son in church-mosaics of
the fourth and following centuries10, or that the similar type of Zeus
enthroned with the globe as his footstool11 is found on a fourth-
century gold-glass simply lettered CRISTVS12.

Meantime morality was on the march, indeed was on the war-
path. But reflexion shows that patristic satire on the chroniqui
scandaleuse of Zeus13, however excusable in the heat of controversy,
is not to be taken too seriously. It consists mainly of misdirected
attacks on the alleged amours of the god with this, that, or the
other mortal maiden. But in reality such liaisons point to the
legitimate union of the sky-god with the earth-goddess, who i11
divers places had divers names and on occasion faded from goddess
to heroine14. It might even be urged that this notorious character-
istic of Zeus was a virtue rather than a vice, proving his permanence
and adaptability in the face of changing conditions. The earth'
mother ' of many names15' took on a score of shapes: the sky-fathe1"
remained constant to her in them all.

It was precisely this moral stability that made Zeus, not merej}
the wedding-god par excellence on account of his own hierbs gdm°s '

1 Supra i. 29 n. 4, ii. 259 n. o, 855 n. 2, 1102 n. 8.

2 Supra i. 29 n. 4, ii. 855 n. 2. a Supra iii. 39 pi. v.

4 Supra iii. 39 ff. fig. 10. 5 Supra iii. 41 with fig. 15.

c Supra i. 752 fig. 551. 7 Supra i. 752 f. fig. 552. 8 Supra i. 75''

9 Supra i. 51 f. figs. 27 and 28. 10 Supra i. 50 f. figs. 23 and 24.

11 Supra i. 47 with fig. 20. 12 Supra i. 49 fig. 22.

13 Supra i. 167 n. 1. 14 Supra i. 779 f.

15 Aisch. P.v. 210 (cited supra ii. 176 n. 1). lS

16 Souid. s.v. TeXe(a- "Hpa TeXefa Kal Zei>s TAeios irijA&VTO iv rots ydfiois, t!>s irp^ ^

ovTes tOiv yafiUf. reXos Si 6 yd/xos. Sio Kal wporiXeia e'/ca\eiTO rj ffvala i] vpb tuic

yir