Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

Apollon and Artemis 481
it is permissible to conjecture that the Eridanos, which—as I shall
subsequently argue^—appears to have meant '
River
of Life,' was at
the outset none other than the Milky Way, and that, when a different
conception of this starry phenomenon gained ground and drove out
the old appellation, room was still found in the nocturnal sky for the
constellation Eridanus-. Moreover, if we may rely (as we are fully
entitled to do) on the statement of Hyginus'* that some authorities
spoke of this constellation as the Nile, and that many called it
Oceanus, certain further consequences immediately present themselves.
The Nile is described in the Odyssey* by the remarkable
adjective Diipetes, which properly denotes a river ' that falls in the
Zeus,' 'in the clear Skyl' This description would apply with strict
accuracy only to the Milky Way, but might be extended to all
rivers*' conceived as rillets of that great flood'. Pursuing the same
line of thought we can hardly avoid another conclusion, viz. that
' back-flowing Okeanos^,' the very '
^ Infra Append. G.
source of the gods^,' was not
'^ R. Brown Eridanus: river and constellation London 1883 p. 44 would connect the
Milky Way '
with the heavenly Eridanus, subsequently reduplicated in the particular
constellation of that name '
: cp. ib. p. 71.
* Yiyfg. poet. astr. 2. 32 ERIDANUS. hunc alii Nilum, complures etiani Oceanum esse
dixerunt.
* Od. 4. 477 ( = 4. 581) kh/vvToio, Auirerioi iroTafioio with schol. ad loc. According to
schol. E.H.Q., 7iriv6doTos...ypd(p6i StetTrereos 5id tt^s ei ditpdoyyov. Supra i. 349 n. 2.
F. Solmsen in the Zeitschrift fiir vergleiehende Sprachforschung attf dein Gebicte der
indogermanischen Sprachen 1911 xliv. 162 f., followed by F. Bechtel Lexilogus zu Homer
Halle a. d. S. 1914 p. loi, would write SteiTrer^os, holding that the dative Atei-, correct in
such a formation as Ai/4i(^t\os, forced its way at an early date into other compounds, in
which it was incorrect, Aifel-de/mis, Aiet.-Tp€ris, 5tei-7reT7js. But the locative Au- in
AuneTrji, explained as in the text, gives a perfectly satisfactory meaning. H. Lehmann
Zter Lehre voin Locativ bet Homer Neustettin 1870 p. 8 renders :
' in der Helle fliessend.'
^ Cp. the analogous formation Autt^tjj, 'that flies in the Zeus,' 'in the clear Sky'
(k. Aphr. 4 oiwj'ot/j re AiiTrereas. So H. Ebeling for SaTrer^aj codd. W. Schulze Qttaes-
tiones epicae Gueterslohae 1892 p. 237 f. proposes SietTrereas).
^ Skamandros (//. 21. 268, 326), Spercheios (//. 16. 174), a river in Phaiakia {Od. 7.
284), a river in some unidentified locality (Hes. yV-af. 212 Flach, 217 Rzach ap. schol.
Ap. Rhod. I. 757), a river in a simile (//. 17. 263). For later developments in the
meaning of AtiTrerTjs see Stephanus Thes. Gr. Ling. ii. 1527 c— 1528B. The earlier
significance may perhaps be traced in its application to the thunderbolt (an oracle ap.
Euseb. praep. ev. 6. 3. i^Cougny Anth. Pal. Append. 6. 146. 23 irvpawv alupaiffi
Ainreriecrffi Sa/j.iji'at, cp. el. mag. p. 275, 19).
^ Cp. Yjx%€q. praep. ev. 3. 11. 51 6 NeiXos, hv ki, ovpavov KaTacpipeadai olovrai..
* //. 18. 399, Od. 20. 65, Hes. theog. 776 d\j/opp6ov "O/ceacoto.
^ //. 14. 201 and 302 'fi/ceaj'oy re deCov yiveaiv /cat fXTjrepa Tr;^!/;', cp. ib. 245 f. Torafioio
piedpa I ^K€avov, 6% irep yivecii wdnTfaci rirvKrai, Orph. /i. Okean. 83. i f. ^Q,K^avhv...
\
a.dav6.T(jiv Tt OiCiv yivtaw dvTqrQiv r' dvOpwiruiv. The use of the word yivtcii in this con-
nexion is peculiar, and may imply that Okeanos was at one time regarded as the very seed
of the sky-god, giving rise to a whole succession of divine forms (cp. the Tarragona tablet
infra Append. G med.). Certain pundits in antiquity declared that Homer was borrowing
from the lore of Egypt, and went about to prove that Okeanos and Tethys were
C. II. 31