Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

The Diosemia or ^ Zeus-sign '
the operator have been content to be called the son of Zeus ; he
would have passed for Zeus himself. The epic tradition survived
into later times. To be struck by lightning was no small honour^
to be slain by it meant apotheosis^. Euthymos the boxer had a
statue in his native town, the Italian Lokroi, and another at
Olympia :
both were struck by lightning on the same day—a fact
which stamped the worship of the living man with the approval of
Zeus^ Even to a dead man's tomb lightning added the lustre of
divinity. According to Plutarch,
Aristotle declares that the honours paid to Lykourgos in Lakedaimon were
less than he deserved. And yet those honours were very great ; for he has a
sanctuary there, and men sacrifice to him yearly as to a god. It is also said that,
when his remains were brought home, his tomb was struck by a thunderbolt—
thing that has happened to hardly any other famous personage except Euripides,
who died later and was buried near Arethousa in Makedonia. Indeed, lovers of
Euripides quote as strong evidence of his merit the fact that he alone after
death met with the same fate as the greatest favourite of heaven, the holiest
character of the past*.
Bianor the Bithynian {c. 17 A.D.), not content with this, makes the
lightning strike his poet's grave three times over
In Macedonian dust thou liest low,
But burnt by Zeus o' the Bolt hast done with clay.
Thrice flashed his sky, Euripides, and so
The tomb's tale of mortality purged away^
Among the Romans too the fall of lightning was diversely
interpreted, being sometimes at least regarded as a presage of good^
When a statue of Horatius Codes in the Comitium was struck,
Etruscan haruspices bade move it to a lower position, where it
would never be shone upon by the sun. But for this they were
denounced and put to death. The statue was promoted to a higher
place in the Area Volcani, and prosperity resulted for Rome". In
172 B.C. the Columna Rostrata, erected on the Capitol to commemorate
the sea-fight of 255 B.C., was shattered by a lightning-
flash at night. The decemviri ordered a lustration of the city, a
1 Inf7-a p. 22 f. - hifra p. 23 ft".
^ Plin. nat. hist. 7. 152. See further Class. Re?). 1903 xvii. 275.
•• Plout. V. Lycurg. 31.
•' Anth. Pal. 7. 49 \
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