Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

The Elysian Way 37
Again, in an equally arresting fragment Pindar says
Themis the wise, the heavenly, afar
From Ocean's founts on golden car
Up the dread stair the Fates first bore
Alon^ the gleaming way to Olympos' height,
That Zeus the Saviour might
Have her to wife of yore :
The mother she of the unerring Hours,
Gold-frontleted, gay-fruited powers ^
What was this 'road of Zeus,' this 'gleaming way'? If I am not
mistaken^, it was the broad path of dim and distant splendour that
stretches across the abyss of the midnight skyl Our forefathers
called it ' Watling
the '
Milky
Streef' or 'London Road'.' We know it as
Way.' And a collection of names for it such as that
got together by H. Gaidoz and E. Rolland'' proves that all the
world over it has been regarded as a celestial track. Further, as
E. B. Tvlor' observed, this track is often held to be the road
traversed by the gods or the souls of men :
^ Pind.y>-^^. 30 Schroeder ap. Clem. Al. sti-om. 5. 14 p. 418, 23 ff. Stahlin irpwrov
(sic Hephaist. 15. 11 p. 51, 6 Consbruch, irpGiTa Clem. Al.) fiev eSjBovXov Qf/iiv ovpaviau \
XpvcreatffLV {xpv(Tlai(nv Clem. AL, xpvaecncn.v cj. D. Heinsius) tTTTrois [linroi.ai.v Clem. Al.,
i'TTTTOis cj. G. Hermann) 'HKtavov irapa. irayav (irdyov Clem. Al., irayav cj. A. Boeckh) |
Motpat ttotI K\lfj.aKa aefivdv \
ayov
Xnrapdv /ca^' 656v {Kddo5ov Clem. Al., corr. C. G. Heyne) |
^pLfaev {e/j,fj.(vaL Clem. Al., corr. C. G. Heyne) |
Schroeder) xpiicrd/xTruKas dyXaoKdpirovs \
(dyov Clem. Al.) 'OXij/jlvov {Ov\ijfj.Trov cj. G. Hermann)
auTTipos apxciav aXoxov Atoj
A 5e ras (aSirds Clem. Al., a 5^ rds
rlKrev d\a6^as"Qpas (dyadd (Tujrrjpas Clem. AL,
ayadd (rojr^pos