Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

viii
Preface
worth putting into a book at all is worth putting into the body of
it.' But in self-defence I may plead that I have made the foot-
notes serve three distinct purposes. First and foremost, I have
used them for documentation. As a rule, I have been content with
bare references, which I have^ of course, always verified by actual
perusal. But, where the precise wording of the authority, whether
ancient or modern, was of importance, I have not scrupled to give
it in full. I have also, with hardly an exception, cited all Greek
and Latin inscriptions, these being less readily accessible to the
general reader than the literary texts. Secondly, I have sometimes
relegated to the notes extra details which, though themselves of
interest, seemed more or less irrelevant to my immediate theme.
I have repeatedly found such excrescences of ritual or myth to
possess a significance unsuspected at first and only later appre-
ciated when the other half of the indenture had been brought to
light. In fact I have come to hold that in deciphering religious
records irregular edges should not be hastily trimmed off. One
.should rather cherish a healthy distrust of over-neat hypotheses
and explanations that leave nothing to be explained. Life is
seldom so simple and symmetric as our interpretation of it.
Thirdly, I use my notes deliberately for the mention or discussion
of side-issues and subsidiary points, provided that these arise
directly out of the text. I shall no doubt be told that I am
pursuing hares. But hares, after all, may be caught and are worth
the catching. Their pursuit is to be regretted only if it hinders
the main march of the argument—only, that is, if the chase crosses
the text. The footnote saves the situation.
Naturally, if these side-issues are too long, they must be handled
in Appendixes. The Second Part of Volume II contains a dozen
' such, of which four belong by rights to Volume I, viz. A Kairos,'
' ' B The Mountain-Cults of Zeus,' E The Kyklops in
' F The
Folk-Tales,'
Dioskouroi and Helene in modern Folk-Tales.' Appendix C
' Korinthos son of Zeus' and Appendix D 'The Wheel as a Coin-
type ' have been again omitted through lack of space. The remaining
eight Appendixes are properly attached to Volume II, viz. G
' ' Orphic Theogonies and the Cosmogonic Eros,' H Zeus Kiesios,'
I 'Zeus Agamemnon,' J 'Zeus Amphidraos,' K 'Zeus Trephonios or
Trophonios^ L 'Zeus Asklepios, M 'Zeus Meiltchios,' N 'Zeus
Philios! Seven out of the eight discuss specialised forms of Zeus to
which allusion is made in the text. Anothercaseofthesort, Appendix
O ' Zeus (9/j/;«/m,' will be moreconveniently postponed toVolumelll.