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)

952 General Conclusions with regard to

originally regarded as himself a potential god1. Hence we hear,
not only of Zeus Hikfeios 'the God of Suppliants,' but also of Zeus
Hiketas, himself 'the Suppliant2,' and even of Zeus aldstor, Zeus
'the curse3,'—a daring and desperate identification of the deity
with the sinner. These things are strangely suggestive. Simple
souls dwelling round the Mediterranean were prepared to believe
that any day a god might appear in their midst in the likeness of
a man4. Why not as 'the man Christ Jesus5'? Further, it would
not stagger them to think that such an one might somehow con-
descend to identify himself with the sinner and even to 'become
a curse for us6.'

Other 'august anticipations7' may be detected, by those who
have ears to hear, in all parts of the ancient world. If for cultural
and religious purposes Greece as a whole be divided into three zones,
northern, central, and southern, it will naturally be found that of
these the first and third were to a large extent independent and
pursued their own lines of development, while the second lay open
to influences received from either side. But in all three the same
upward trend is observable.

Thus in the north the Thraco-Phrygians8 recognised a sky-god
Dios, an earth-goddess Zemela, and their offspring Dios Nysos, Dios
'the Younger.' The son was held to be a rebirth of the father9,
whose name and nature he duplicated. Hence the ill-understood
association of the Anatolian mother-goddess with a partner con-
ceived at once as her husband and her child10—Kybele, for example
having a youthful consort invoked as Attis, 'Daddy,' or Pdpas<
'Papa11.' And hence too the success with which Christianity was
propagated in Phrygia and Thrace among a people who already
believed in a Father manifesting himself anew in the person of hlS
Son12. Even the rites and formulae of Attis might pass muster as
quasi- Christian13.

In central Greece Dios, Zemela, and Dios Nj>sos became
naturalised as Zeus, Semele, and Dionysos14. But again there were

1 Supra ii. 1096 n. 4. 2 Supra ii. 1096 n. 1.

3 Supra ii. 1098 n. 5, cp. ii. nn. 4 and 6.

4 Supra ii. 1096 n. 4. 5 1 Tim. 2. 5. 0 Gal. 3. 13.

7 R. Browning Paracelsus 5 sui Jin. ' But in completed man begins anew [ A tendency
to God. Prognostics told | Man's near approach ; so in man's self arise I August anticipa-
tions, symbols, types | Of a dim splendour ever on before | In that eternal circle I1 e
pursues.'

8 Supra ii. 277 ff., 842. 0 Supra ii. 294 with n. 1, 842.
10 Supra ii. 294, 842. 11 Supra ii. 292 ff., 842.

12 Supra ii. 288 ff., 303, 842. 13 Supra ii. 303 ff. 14 Supra ii. 277 ff. 842-