Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

504 Lightning as a flash from an Eye
shot from the jealous eye of Zeus. And, when we remember that the
'jealous eye' was another name for the evil eye^, it becomes highly
probable that the Greeks sometimes considered lightning as an
exhibition of the evil eye on the part of Zeus.
Now W. Wundt^ in his masterly Vblkerpsychologie has shown
that the superstition of the evil eye^ presupposes a belief in the
eye as the seat and doorway of the souH. Primitive man regards
reflections on the cornea as due to an inward fire and, since this fire
is dimmed or extinguished by death, connects it with the soul's
activity^ The pupil of the eye he takes to be a hole through
which the soul can pass outwards to work its will at a distance.
Parenthetically I may add that this explanation accounts, not only
for the evil eye, but also for the good eye**. If the glance of the eye
^ O. Jahn ' tjber den Aberglauben des bosen Blicks bei den Alten ' in the Ber. sacks.
Gesellsch. d. Wiss. Phil.-hist. Classe 1855 p. 31 n. 9.
^ W. Wundt Volkerpsychologie Leipzig 1906 ii. 2. 27 f.
^ For recent investigation of the evil eye see Gruppe Myth. Lit. 1908 p. 358. To the
articles cited by him must now be added the important volumes of S. Seligmann Der hose
Blick und Verivaiidtes Berlin 1910 i. i-— 406, ii. i —526 (reviewed by R. Wiinsch in the
Berl. philol. Woch. Jan. ii, 191 1 p. 75 ff. and in the Archiv f. Rcl. 191 1 xiv. 546, cp.
K. T. Preuss ib. 1910 xiii. 453 ff.) and the very thorough-going monograph of B. Schmidt
'Der bose Blick und ahnlicher Zauber im neugriechischen Volksglauben ' in the N(ue
Jahrb. f. Mass. Altertitvi 1913 xxxi. 574— 613.
* On the eye as seat of the soul see E. Monseur 'L'ame pupilline' in the Revue de
rhistoire des religions 1905 Ii. i— 23, L. Deubner in the Archiv f. Rel. 1907 x. 319,
O. Waser in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 3209 and in the Atxhiv f. Rel. 1913 xvi. 381,
G. Elliot Smith The Evolutio7t of the Dragon Manchester 1919 pp. 52—55.
^ Cp. e.g. Plin. nat. hist. 28. 64 augurium ex homine ipso est non timendi mortem in
aegritudine, quamdiu oculorum pupillae imaginem reddant, lul. Capit. v. Pert. 14. 2
ea die, qua occisus est, negabant in oculis eius pupulas cum iniaginibus, quas reddunt
spectantibus, visas.
^ Examples of 'Der gute Blick' are collected by S. Seligmann op. cit. i. 244— 251,
cp. ih. ii. 493 Index s.v. 'Gutes Auge.' 1 have it from Prof. P. Gardner that the modern
Greek peasant believes in the influence of a good eye as well as in that of an evil eye.
I have noted the following ancient allusions to the good eye of deities : Kallim. h. Ap.
50 ff. p€i.o. Ke povp6cnov re'Kidot irXeov, oiide Kev alyes \
'AttoWwv I
(piXai • oOs yap dpeuvri |
l3or oiiK airldevro (piXovs, where yUTj
Xo^(^ is read by schol. Hes. theog. 82, 8.xpi- ^lov by Aiith. Pal. 7. 525. 6), cp. Pind. 01.
7. II f., Pyth. 3. 85, Hdt. I. 124, Alkiphr. ep. i. 36, 3. 44, Aristain. e/. i. ir, i. 19, Hor.
od. 4. 3. I ff. See further C. Sittl Die Gebdrden der Griechen und Rbiner Leipzig 1890
p. 343
n. 5. In the case of men I have no certain instances, but cp. Pind. Pyth. 5. 14 ff.
rd /xeV, 6rt j3aai.Xevs \ iaal /neyaXav -koXIwu •
| l^u (rvyyevr]s | d(f>6aX/j.6i aldoLdraTov yepas, I
Teq. TovTo fxiyvvfj-evov (ppevl. ' The eye born with ' Arkesilas of Kyrene, which brought him
worship and honour as an inalienable prerogative, may well have been his good eye. It
seems to have been hereditary : ib. 51 ff. 6 'Bo.ttov 5' 'iirerai iraXaibi oX/3o5 ^fiwav ra Kal to.
v^fxuv, I
TTopyos
da-reos 6/j,fj.aTe (paeuvoTaroi' \
^ivoKTc.
J. Bridge 'STITENH2 0OAAMOS'
in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 1900 xi. 141 ff. gives a different explanation
{(!vyy^vr\% 6(jidaXix6s — (T\jyy€VT)% TrdTfxos, 'the guardian spirit of the race,' cp. Aisch. cho. 934