Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

6 The Diosemia or ' Zeus-sign '
Magistrates, can you stand it ? And am I
In my own country by barbarian hands
To be thus handled ? No, to pay the Thracians
There shall be no assembly. See, there is
A Zeus-sign— I distinctly felt a rain-drop^
Hereupon the herald without further enquiry terminates the sitting:
Thracians, begone : come back in two days' time.
The magistrates hereby adjourn the assembly^.
The Diosemia doubtless afforded fair sport to the comedian ;
but to the majority of his fellow-countrymen, as also to the Romans*,
it was no laughing-matter. ' When
armies gather for battle,' says
Dion Chrysostomos, 'and a sudden Zeus-sign appears or an earthquake
takes place, men straightway turn back and abandon hos-
tilities, since the gods are against their fighting-*.' The suddenness
of the sign appears to have been an essential feature'. If foreseen,
it was robbed of its terrors—witness an anecdote told by Polyainos
the Macedonian :
Leonidas was about to join battle, when he noticed storm-clouds collecting
and remarked to the generals that they must not be surprised if it lightened and
thundered—that was bound to happen in the dog-days. So, when numerous
Zeus-signs occurred, Leonidas' men being forewarned held on their way with
no fears for the future, but the enemy in dire dismay were cowed by the danger
and consequently beaten^.
Another name for the meteorological omen was echesainia, a
'stop-sign,' and this is defined by Hesychios as 'a summer drizzle
1 Aristoph. Ach. 167 ff. ^ Aristoph. Ach. iy2{.
* Appian. de bell. civ. i. 30 6 5e ttoXitlkos o'xXos 6/36a cos yevofxivyj^ iv eKKXrjaig. ^povriji,
odev oi di/J.LS icrrl 'Pco/xatots ovdev eVt Kvpovu bri. ovk ^v aW(ov awdvTuv 7) iirirpeTre Trpaxdrjvai riva, Kal iylyvero fxriSevos ^ti Kad' eKaffrov
oiwvlafj.aro's iirayofx^vov, r) eKwXve, Kal dvexeLpLl^eTd Tt, rets Se drj toO Sr/piov 5ia\f/7]