Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

8 The Diosemia or ' Zeus-sign '
regarded the Zeus-sign as positive not negative, hortatory rather
than minatory. We have reason to think that in the far past Greek
magicians and kings claimed to be weather-makers. Salmoneus
with his thunders is the stock example. That primitive belief did
not pass away without leaving sundry traces of itself in the national
literature. Among these I would reckon the encouraging thunder-,
peals^ and lightning-flashes- vouchsafed to epic heroes. The kings
of Troy traced their lineage through Dardanos back to Zeus, for
whom they had special reverence^ and more than one scion of the
royal family appears to have been an adept at eliciting Zeus-signs.
Ilos the grandfather of Priamos prayed Zeus for a sign and found
next morning the Zeus-fallen Palladion lying before his tent^
Priamos asked Zeus for an omen of his favour, and Zeus sent a
black eagle in response to his prayer'. Hektor too relied on Zeus
and his lightning-signs^—indeed he himself bore the same title as
Zeus, for Sappho spoke of Zeus as Hektor'. Again, when Odysseus
prayed Zeus for a portent, forthwith there came thunder from a
cloudless sky". Similarly in an ode of Bakchylides^ Minos, to prove
that he is the son of Zeus, prays :
Zeus my father, great and strong, hearken, if in very truth
Phoinike's white-armed maid bare me to thee,
Now send thou forth from heaven a swift
Flash of streaming fire,
A sign for all to know.
Whereupon
Zeus great and strong heard that immoderate prayer
And planted honour infinite for Minos,
Willing for his dear son
To make it seen of all,
Ay, sent the lightning.
Such scenes imply an underlying belief that the divine king could
evoke a thunderstorm at will'". In early days this would have been
done, not by a prayer to Zeus, but by mimetic means :
1 //. 8. 170 ff., Od. 20. 98 ff., 11. 4t3 ff.
-^
//. 2. 350 ff., 9. 236 f.
•* I have elaborated the point in the C/ass. Rev. 1904 xviii. 77 f.
^ Apollod. 3. 12. I. 5 //. 24. 283 ff. e //. 9. 236 ff.
nor
would
' Sapph. /r(Z,^. 157 Bergk* ap. Hesych. j.z/. "E/cTopes- wdcaaXoL iv pv/xt^ {11. 24. 272
Uropi with v.l. ^KTopi in schol. G-, et. mag. p. 383, 26 f.), SaTr^o, U tov Ma., Aeuvidrii tov
KpoKVfjiavTov. Presumably Zeus "EKrwp was Zeus 'the Holder,' cp. ttoXjoOxos (Plat. lege.
921 c), rpoTraioOxos (Aristot. de mund. 7. 401a 23), yueXioOxos (C. Wessely Griechische
Zatiberpapyrm Wien 1888 p. 103, 6, F. G. Kenyon Greek Papyri in the British Museum
London 1893 i. 65 no. 46, 5, supra i. 190), /cepaui/oOxoj (Philon Byzantius de sept. mir. 3),
o-KijTTToDxos (Orph. h. Zeus 15. 6, Heliodoros apolyt. ad Nicoin. 3 ap. Galen, de antidotis
2. 7 (xiv. 145 Kiihn)).
» Od. 20. 98 ff. 9 Bakchyl. 16. 52 ff.
^'' Folk-Lo)-e 1904 XV. 311 f.