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)

974

Conclusion

beginnings, its slow mental and moral growth, its adolescent com-
plexities, its later multifarious advances, approaches, contacts, over-
lappings, fusions, and identifications? That is a grave question,
which I find hard to answer unless, like Browning's Ixion,

' Out of the wreck I rise—past Zeus to the Potency o'er him.'

Let us be bold to assert that throughout all ages and in every clime
God has been making his mute appeal to men, drawing them, Jew
and Gentile alike, with the cords of love nearer and nearer to
Himself. Progressive illumination has been given them from above
as they were able to bear it. The poets and thinkers of Hellas
were receptive souls, and to them were vouchsafed glimpses and
more than glimpses of eternal truth. If Pherekydes1 taught that
Zeus transformed himself into Love when he created the world, if
Aischylos2 found in Zeus the only possible solution for the problem
of evil, if Aratos3 said that 'always we all have need of Zeus,' if
Dion4 described Zeus as 'the common Father and Saviour and
Keeper of mankind,' then Pherekydes and Aischylos and Aratos
and Dion were not far from the Kingdom. And, unless I am
greatly in error, the cult of Zeus took them one stage, one long
stage, on the road thither. Platon5 in the Phaidros speaks of those
who follow Zeus and all the gods by an uphill path to the summit
of the heavenly vault, the right view-point of the universe. What
is the panorama that greets their purified eyes? A vista of ideal
verities, says Platon6, such as 'no earthly bard has ever yet sung or
ever will sing in worthy strains.'

K€i NCON 6PAMAI, K6I0I rGNOIMAN7.

is entitled 'Maria vergine sempre prega el figliolo per gli peccatori.' Christ, seated on
the globe of heaven {supra i. 50 f.), is distinguished from Zeus or Iupiter only by the
wounds in his hands and feet. The virgin, baring her breast in a last appeal (supra ii.
206 n. 2), is almost equally pagan.

1 Supra ii. 316. 2 Supra i p. v.

3 Supra ii p. v. 4 Supra p. 963.

5 Supra ii. 43 f.

G Plat. Phaedr. 247 b—c hda. 5?? wdvos re /cat ayu>v eVxaros ipvxZ Trpo/cetrat. al p.ev
yap aB6.va.T0i KaXovpievai, t)vIk' av irpbs a/cpy yivojvTai, e^w Tropevdeiaai ^ar-qcav irrl rep rod
oupavou vwTip, aT&o~as 5e auras irepidyeL t) irepupopu, al 5e Oecjpouo'i ra e^u) tou oupavou. rbv
de urrepoupdviov tottov ov re rts u/Avrjat iroj r&v rjjde TronjTris oii re" ttoQ' v}xvi)o~ei /car' d^lav.
£?Xet 5e ojde. To\/j,r)r£ov yap ouv r6 ye dXrjdes cIttuv, #\\ojs re /cat irepl d\rj8eias Xtyovra.
The Christian equivalent will be found in 1 Cor. 2. 9 and 10.

7 Eur. ap. Aristoph. vesp. 751. The schol. ad loc. says Kelvoiv lpa,aaf e'£ 'IttttoXutou
EvpiirtSov. F. H. M. Blaydes, after L. C. Valckenaer, supposes a quotation from the
earlier T?T7r6\i'ros KaXvirTopievos. In any case the meaning of the original may be divined
from Eur. Ale. 867 f. f>;Xw (pdifit'vovs, ndvwv 'epafiaL, | /ce?c' e-mBufiu dii/iara valeiv.