Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

Zan an older Zeus 341
of a better name, I should term Illyrian^—and was retained by the
incoming Latins, despite the fact that their own lupiter was a god
of essentially similar character. Further, I should be prepared to
find that, corresponding with Dianus (lanus) and Diana (lana)
the ancient sky-god and his consort of the Italian peninsula, there
was a similar divine pair of kindred origin on the opposite side of
the Adriatic. And here we are struck by the fact that the name
Dianus (lanus) occurs both as an c-stem {lajins) and as an z'-stem
(Ian)" in the Salian hymn. In our search for a Greek equivalent we
naturally turn to the scanty remains of Doric literature and to Doric
inscriptions, coins, etc., since the Dorians, as Sir W. Ridgeway
rightly insists, were a/? origine an Illyrian tribe I Now the phonetic
counterpart of the Salian Ian is Zan, which R. Meister* has proved
to be no hyperdorism for Zcn^ but a genuine Doric form attested
by all dialect-sources". lanus or Ian was equated with Zan by
I am not here concerned to controvert the main lines of Sir W. Ridgeway's ethnology
(which, however, I do not accept), but merely its application to the particular case of
lanus. To his contentions I reply: (i) Neither Varro nor Livy states that lanus was-
Sabine god, whose worship was introduced by Numa. What Varro (or rather L. Calpurnius
Piso Frugi/ra^. 9 Peter ap. Varr. dc ling. Lat. 5. 165) and Livy (i. 19) say is that Numa
introduced the custom of keeping the gate of lanus always open in war-time—a veiy
different matter. (2) Our most competent etymologist, Walde Lat. etyvi. Worterb.'^
p. 231, refers Didlis, not to Dianus, but to Dicspiter, the old nominative of lupiter, and
cites convincingly the forms aequi-didlis , noven-didlis. (3)
If the double face of lanus
implies the fusion of two gods, are we to explain in the same way the double face of
Hermes ? of Boreas ? of Argos ? and of all other Janiform deities from Babylonia to
Britain ? And what of deities with three heads, or four ? We must obviously rest our case
on some more comprehensive principle.
^ See now the succinct and well-documented account of G. Dottin Les anciens peuples
de VEurope Paris 1916 pp. 151— 156 ('Les Illyriens').
- For the nom. Ian see supra p. 328 n. 8 (9) and (10). The abl. lane is specially
noticed by TertuU. ad nat. 2. 12 (Saturnus) exceptus ab lano sive lane, ut Salii vocant
= id. apol. 10 (Saturnus) exceptus a lano, vel lane, ut Salii volunt {carmen Saliare
frag. 12 Baehrens).
•* Sir W. Ridgeway 'Who were the Dorians?' in Anthropological Essays presented to
Edward Burnett Tylor Oxford 1907 pp. 295— 308. See too C. H. Hawes 'Some Dorian
descendants?' in the Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1909— 1910 xvi. 258—280.
* R. Meister 'iiber die Namen : " Atuiy?;, Tii]v, Zkv"' in the Ber. sacks. Gesellsch. d.
Wiss. Phil. -hist. Classe 1894 pp. 199— ^202.
^ G. Meyer Griechische Grammatik^ Leipzig 1896 p. 420 f., E. Boisacq Les dialectes
doriens Paris—Liege 1891 pp. 44, 152 f., id. Diet. etym. de la Langue Gr. p. 308, H.
Ehrlich Zur indogermanischen Sprachgeschichte Konigsberg 19 to p. 42 f., K. Brugmann
A. Thumb Griechische Grammatik^ Munchen 1913 p. 260 n. i.
^ It will be convenient here to collect the evidence, which can be adduced for Zac,
Zaj'os, K.T.X. :
Nom. sing. Zd;' Aristoph. av. 570 jSpouTartj vdv 6 ni'^a'i Tikv (cp. Eustath. in II. p. 436,
17 f. 6/Uoiws 5^ KoX Tikv Zacos Kara, to ''' ^povraTW iJ.iyas Zac"), Anth.
Pal. 7. 746 (Pythagoras) w5e /xiyas Kfirai Zdv (t^dv A.L2. fac Pl"*^), Sv
Aia KiKXrja Kovffiv (to the variants given supra i. 158 n. 2 add Chrysost.
hom. 3. I (Ixii. 676 Migne) ivravda Tikv Kelrai, dv Aia kikKt)(Tkovci, Cramer