Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

lanus an older lupiter 337
being either the father of Aion^ or Aion's very self^. Now if we
assume—as, I think, we are justified in assuming—that lanus, like
lupiter^ was, to begin with, simply the divine Sky, we can under-
stand, not only all the foregoing attempts to interpret him in terms
of space and time, but also the very remarkable description of him as
' god of gods ' contained in an extant fragment of the Salian hymn*.
1 Lyd. de mens. 4. i p. 64, 6 ff. Wiinsch Ao77ri'os 5^ Aluvdpiov avrbv epirrjvevaai. ^id-
i^erai. (h 6 MecrcraXas (supra p. 335)
Alwva vofxi^et.' Kal yap eirl rrjs irepLTTTris tov ixyjvb'i Toirov (jc. Jan. 5) ioprrjv Atajfos eTrereXovv
ol -rrdXai. Cp. Plin. nal. hist. 34. 33 et aevi esse deum indicent. Supra i. 192 n. i.
^ Supra i. 3 n. 2, 6 n. 3, 10 f. See further Folk-Lore 1905 xvi. 260 fif.
^ Varr. de ling. Lat. 7. 27 ab eadem voce canite, pro quo in Saliari versu scriptum
est cante, hoc versu: 'divum empta cante, divum deo supplicante.' The line thus printed
by G. Gotz and F. Scholl (1910) requires emendation. In the first half of it T. Bergk
cj. em pa, E. Bahrens parentcin, S. Linde lanem patrem, B. Maurenbrecher patrem : in
the second half Grotefend cj. supplicate, C. O. Midler supplice cante. The most satis-
factory reading is that of E. Bahrens {Poet. Lat. min, vi. 29) : diuom
parentem cante, |
diuom deo supplicate. Cp. Macrob. Sat. i. 9. 14 Saliorum quoque antiquissimis car-
minibus deorum deus canitur (sc. lanus), i. 9. 16 cur Geminum invocemus, supra iam
diximus: Patrem, quasi deorum deum, etc., and Paul, ex Fest. p. 52, 12 f. Muller, p. 45,
24 I^indsay cited supra p. 335 n. 9.
Fortunately doubt does not extend to the words divom deo [pace C. M. Zander Car-
minis Saliaris reliqtdae Lundse 1888 p. 54
fif.), and we may take it as certain that lanus
was styled ' god of gods.' My friend Mr W. Warde Fowler, who has given us two of the
best books in existence on the religion of Rome, comments :
' The phrase " Deorum " or
" Divum deus " is indeed remarkable, and unparalleled in Roman worship ; but no one
acquainted with Roman or Italian ritual will for a moment suspect it of meaning " God
of gods" in either a Christian or metaphysical sense' {The Religious Experience of the
Roman People London 1911 p. 140). H. Jordan Kritische Beitrdge zur Geschichte der
lateinischen Sprache Berlin 1879 P- -22 renders 'der Gott aus der Zahl der ungezahlten
Himnilischen,' comparing the epic Sia d(.dwv [Ennius ann. f-ag. 51 Baehrens sancta
dearum, Verg. Aen. 4. 576 sancte deorum]. S. Linde De lano stcmino Romanorum deo
Lundae 1891 p. 27 ff. argues that we have here a common Indo-European phrase for 'greatest
of the gods': he cites the Sanskrit locution devo deva-ndm ('god of gods'), the Old
Y&x^xz.-R. khsh&yathiya khsh&yathiydndm ('king of kings'), the Greek /SacrtXei)? paii>,
and such passages as Aisch. suppl. 524 fif. dva^ dudKrwy, fxaKdpcov |
/xaKapTare
Kai reX^aji/
Te\\u6TaTov Kpdros, oX^u ZeO, Pers. 666 d^cnrora SeairoTov cpdvriOi {sc. Dareios, master of
our master Xerxes), 675 Svvdra dwdra (so cod. M. with schol. durl tov Bvvdcrra. SwdcTTa
SwdcTTa cett. M. Haupt cj. Bvi^aaTa dwacrTav. S. Linde cj. dvvdTa BwaTav), Plaut. capt.
825 regum rex regalior, Trin. 309 victor victorum cluet, Hor. epist. i. i. 107 rex denique
regum. The fact is, these cumulative expressions are found, not merely with adjectives in
the superlative (Soph. O. T. 334 w KaKUJu KUKKjTe, Tlor. sat. i. 3. 136 magnorum maxime
regum: other examples in R. Kiihner— B. Gerth Ausfiikrliche Grammatik der griechischen
Sprache Hannover— Leipzig 1898 ii. i. 21, 339)
or even in the positive degree (Soph.O. C.
1237 f. 'Iva wpbiravTa KaKa KaKuv ^vvoiKel: other examples in Kiihner—Cjerth locc. citi.),
\
but also with substantives (O. Riemann— ^H. Goelzer Grammaire comparee du grec et du
C. II. 22