Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

24 Death by lightning as euthanasia
subsequently apotheosised^ Erechtheus, slain by Zeus with a
thunderbolt at the request of Poseidon", was venerated as a god in
the Erechtheion at Athens. Romulus likewise was caught up to
heaven in a thunderstorm, and afterwards appeared to Proculus
lulius in more than mortal beauty and announced that he had become
the god Quirinus^ And sundry kings, who posed as Zeus or
lupiter during their life-time, are said to have met their death by a
thunderbolt launched from the hands of the offended deity*—
moralising statement which has probably obscured the real signifi-
cance of their fate''.
Semele too was blasted by lightning (pi. i and figs. lo— 12)®.
Fig. 10.
1 See Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. ii. 1654. Note especially Min. Fel. Oct. 22. 7
Aesculapius ut in deum surgat fulminatur.
^ Hyg./a(5. 46. See infra § 3 (c) iv (7).
3 Liv. I. 16. I ff., Ov. fast. 2. 475
56, alib.
ff., Plout. v. Rom. 27 f., Dion. Hal. ant. Rom. 2.
* So Salmoneus {infra Append. M), Periphas {infra Append. M), Romulus Silvius
(Ov. met. 14. 6r7f., cp. Dionys. attt. Rom. i. 71).
^ Infra Append. M.
« Vase-paintings that portray Zeus, brandishing a thunderbolt, in pursuit of a terrified