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 955

of gold being inwrought with living creatures and lily-flowers1.
His throne, decked with gold and jewels, ebony and ivory, had upon
it numerous figures painted and carved. It was surmounted by
groups representing the daughters of Zeus—three Charites2 and
three Horai3. Each throne-leg showed four dancing Victories
above, and two others below4. On the two front legs were Sphinxes
grasping Theban children5, and beneath them Apollon and Artemis
shooting down the Niobids6. The throne-legs were connected by
four bars. The front bar carried seven, originally eight, figures
illustrative of ancient athletic contests7. The other three bars had,
all told, twenty-nine figures—Herakles and his allies, Theseus
among them, engaged in fighting the Amazons. The throne was
supported not only by four legs, but by four pillars between them.
The space beneath it, however, could not be entered, being pro-

1 lb. rif 5£ itmrlip ftuSid re Kal twv av6S>v ra Kplva iarlv efnreiroLTj/jJi'a. The fwSia
Perhaps typified fertility in the animal world; the Kpiva (supra i. 622 ff.), in the vegetable
world.

2 Supra i. 155. 3 Supra ii. 37 n. I, 94 n. 2.

4 H. Bulle in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 328 and 338 ('Es ist das erste bezeugte Beispiel
einer ausgedehnteren dekorativen Verwendung der Niken an einem monumentalen
Kunstwerke, woftir die zahlreichen kleinen dekorativen Bronzefigiirchen von der athen-
■schen Akropolis und die Verdoppelung der Nike auf Vasenbildern kaum als Vorlaufer
angefiihrt werden dUrfen.' Etc.).

5 F. Eichler ' Thebanische Sphinx' in the Jahresh. d. oest. arch. Inst. 1937 xxx.
75 no figs. 19—32 has made it probable that two fragmentary groups in a blackish
stone ('Diabastaff ("Schalstein")') found by the Austrians at Ephesos and now in the

epot at Vienna were copied from one of the ebony (?) arm-supports of Pheidias' Zeus.

6 Supra ii. 475 n. 7.

Paus. 5. 11. 3 adds that the man binding his head with a fillet was said to resemble
antarkes (cp. 6. 10. 6, 6. 15. 2), an Elean youth who won a victory in the wrestling-
match of 01. 86 (436—433 B.C.) and was the ttoxZikA. of Pheidias.

Later writers affirm that Pheidias inscribed UavrapKris koXos on the finger of Zeus
(Clem. Al. protr. 4. 53. 4 p. 41, 18 ff. Stahlin, Arnob. adv. not. 6. 13, Phot. lex. and
°wd. s.v. 'Pafivovtrla NV/ie<ris). But Gregory of Nazianzos tells the same tale of Athena
arthinos (Greg. Naz. poemata 1. 2. 10. 863 f. (xxxvii. 742 A Migne)); and Libanios, of
^Phrodite (Liban. ap. schol. Clem. Al. protr. p. 313, 7 f. Stahlin)—perhaps meaning the
^etnesis of Rhamnous {supra i. 275) iv 'AippodiT-qs axn/laTl (Phot, and Souid. locc. cilt.).
astly, Eunapios, if his text be sound (v. Acacii 177 p. 101 Boissonade p-r/re *eiSt{t rod
°" $&ktv\ov Trapa\aj3eiv kcU rbv waT5a irpbs tiraivov ttjs Seas), appears to connect the
ncident with a goddess ; but D. Wyttenbach's cj. tr6Sa for iraida may well be right
m. F' -Boiss°nade ed. 2 Parisiis 1878 and W. C. Wright ed. London 1922). On the
tha ''1'S ^amous anecdote, if not absolutely incredible (it might conceivably be argued
tha ?" 0IymPic victor was an embodiment of the Olympic god (Folk-Lore 1904 xv. 399 ff.),
■ ^eus mindful of Ganymedes might make allowance for the sculptor, that UavrapK-ris
u a be explained away as iravTapn-qs—an epithet worthy of Zeus himself (Aisch. Pers.
^55 . TavTapKiis d/cd^as &p.axos fiatnXetis, | l<r6deoi Aapeios (cp. supra ii. 853), Hesych. s.w.

apK4a- Tratri ^orjOov, TravrapK-qs • 6 vaaiv airapKuv), etc.), is at least highly improbable,
not n ^ CaSe ■Pneidias' statue of a boy binding a fillet on his head (Paus. 6. 4. 5) is
H Vr rC"1 'See Furtwangler Masterpieces of Gk. Sculpt, p. 40 n. 1, Sir J. G. Frazer and
' Wltzig-H. BlltmneraaT/w.).