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 953

obvious points of contact between Dionysiac and Christian practice.
The former like the latter made much of collective emotion1,
treated the inspired devotee as one with his god2, transcended the
narrow limits of Hellenism3, and taught the mystery of life through
death4. It is notorious that the Christus Pattens, a play written in
the middle ages on the supreme tragedy of Calvary5, was composed
largely of lines and half-lines culled from the Bacchae6.

In the south we have a similar but older triad—the sky-god
Kronos7, the earth-goddess Rhea8, and their youthful son Zagreus
or the Cretan Zeus, whose death and resurrection were annually
celebrated as a means of reviving the life of all that lives9. Zeus
Idaios in the fifth century had mystics, who by their sacraments
assimilated themselves to their god and thereafter, clad in white
raiment, led a life of ceremonial purity10. Zeus Asterios of Gortyna
seems early to have taken on a solar character, but in the Hellenistic
age is viewed as god of the starry sky11. Aratos, when about to
describe the whole series of constellations, starts with the Bears
and tells how once in Crete they hid the infant Zeus in a cave and
nurtured him there for a year, while the Dictaean Kouretes were
deceiving Kronos12. Now Aratos was a native of Soloi or, some

1 Supra i. 667, 672, 688, etc.

2 Supra i. 648 ff., 673, 675 ff., 705.

3 The Dionysiac nomenclature was syncretistic. Diotiysos came from Thrace (supra
'■ 695, 780, ii. 268, etc.). Bdkchos perhaps came from Egypt, where at Hermonthis men
worshipped the bull Bakha (supra i. 436 ff., ii. 268 n. 4). Zagrei'ts probably came from
Mt Zdgros or Zdgron in Assyria, passing first through Phoinike and then through Crete
(s"pra i. 651, ii. 268 n. 4). Thus elements drawn from north, south, and east combined
to form a religion of well-nigh universal appeal.

Dionysos, the life-god of the Thracians (supra ii. 1024 f.), dies only to rise again,
nose who took part in his drdmenon, those who witnessed his drama, thereby became
Partakers of his immortality (supra i. 663 f., 673).

^ Krumbacher Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur* Munchen 1897 p. 746 ff.,
• Christ Geschichte der gricchischen Litteratur6 Munchen 1912 i. 353 n. 12, Munchen
I0H ii. 2. 1420 n. 2.

K. Krumbacher op. cil." p. 746 'Ein voiles Drittel der 2640 Verse (ausser den
eteinzelteii Anapasten V. 1461 ff. nur Trimeter), aus welchen das Drama besteht, ist
guides Eigentum. Den grossten Teil dieses Lehngutes lieferten sieben Dramen des
gUriPi<3es, namlich Hekabe, Medea, Orestes, Hippolytos, Troades, Rhesos und
^acchen; dazu kommen einige Dutzend Verse aus dem Prometheus und Agamemnon
je^Aeschylos und aus der Kassandra des Lykophron.' As to the Bacchae, Sir
Dn f'anc'ys in m's edition of that play (ed. 3 Cambridge 1892 p. Ixxxv) says : ' a large
^Umber of its lines were appropriated by the compiler of the dreary cento known as the
r'stus Patiens, once attributed to Gregory of Nazianzus.'
, SuP>-a ii. 548 ff. 8 Supra i. 649 n. 3, ii. 515, 548.

a s"pra i. 646. 1° Supra i. 648. 11 Supra i. 547.

Am.phaen. 30 ff. (cited supra ii. 928 n. o).