Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

I
Zeus Dolichaios and Iupiter Dolichenus 625
it as the flower of the planet Zeus. For example, Konstantinos
Manasses, who in the middle of the twelfth century composed a
universal history in '
the stars :
political
'
verse, thus describes the creation of
Then first the sky beheld the mighty stars,
Fair spheres that vied one with another and decked
Its surface, as do flowers in the fields 1 .
Kronos was somewhat dark and leaden of hue ;
Zeus shone like silver 2 ; Ares glowed like fire;
Helios beamed bright as thrice-refined gold ;
The globe of Aphrodite had the glint
Of tin ; like bronze the red-rayed Hermes flared ;
Clear as a crystal was Selene's light.
Thus many-coloured was the sky's robe seen.
Kronos was blue as is the hyacinth ;
Zeus like a lily shone ; a violet, Ares ;
The golden Helios was a crimson rose 3 ;
The morning star, a white-flowered pimpernel;
Hermes shot rays, a blossom steeped in red ;
Selene, a narcissus with fair petals.
Such was the flower-bed that adorned the sky;
Yea, such a pleasance, diverse, gracious, gleaming,
Was planted there upon the face of heaven,
And made a star-set garden of the sky
With God for gardener, and for plants and herbs
And flowers pied the flashing of the stars 4 .
Another Byzantine scholar drew up in prose
planets, to each of which he assigned its appropriate
a list of the seven
metal and
plant : a later hand added a series of corresponding animals 5 .
1 I do not remember to have met with this conceit in classical literature. It occurs,
of course, in modern poetry, e.g. H. W. Longfellow Evangeline 1.3' Silently one by one,
Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the
in the infinite meadows of heaven, j
angels.'
- For Zeus 'Apytipov see supra p. 25 n. 2.
3
J. Millingen Ancient Unedited Monuments Series ii London 1826 p. 36 pi. 19, 2
figured a terra-cotta disk, which represents the head of Helios emerging from the petals
of a rose— a type probably based on coins of Rhodes {e.g. Brit. Afits. Cat. Coins Caria,
etc. p. 250 pi. 39, 16 the sun rising out of a rose, Hunter Cat. Coins ii. 441 no. 38).
4 Konst. Manass. comp. chron. 113 — 134 Bekker.
5 Piccolomini in the Rivista di Filologia ii. 159 published the following among other
Planudean excerpts : t&v eirra irXavrjTwv to. xpunara T&v r * peraWuv
6fos aero?
Kai tivwv avdiwv
avaKoyovat. rots '
00"' x^M Kpbvos fi.lv fj.o\v^d(f) Kai iiaKlvdq, Zet)s 8i apyvpy Kai Kplftp,
Avko? Ae'ui' irepiarepa
"Apr/i cridriptfi Kai l(f, "HXtos XP V