Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

of the thunderbolt 777
were soon transformed into naturalistic flames issuing from the
floral (fig. 665)^ or c^uast -f\ora.\ calyx (fig. 741)-. The vases render
such flames in red, and it may be presumed that this variation on
the lotos was introduced by some painter with an eye to effective
colouring. It spread to other arts because of its obvious suitability.
After all, lightning-flashes are more like flames than flowers.
Secondly, the sepals of the calyx developed into wings. At first
the calyx itself was feathered. This might happen either to the
single calyx, as e.^: on the bronze reliefs of the chariot at Perugia',
or to the double calyx, as e.g: on a red-figured kotyle signed by
the potter Hieron^ Later, a pair of wings was detached from the
calyx, as on many vase-paintings of the fifth century (figs. 10,
666)^ And ultimately a second pair of wings was added to
balance the first, as on the coins" and vases of south Italy {supra
i- 337 fig- 269)". There can be little doubt that the winged
thunderbolt, repeatedly mentioned or implied in Attic poetry^, was
originally modelled on the eagle, the recognised lightning-bird of
the Greeks*. Aischylos in an extant fragment of his Niobe makes
Zeus himself declare
1 Supra p. 733
'Yea, Amphion's house'
Will I burn down with eagles bearing fire'".'
fig. 665.
^ From a red-figured kylix at Berlin (E. Gerhard Gricchische und etrtiskische Trink
schalen des kdniglichen Museums zu Berlhi Berlin 1843 p. 14 ff. pi. 8, 2 (interior: Selene)
p. 20 ff. pi. 10— II (exterior : Gigantomachia, part of which = my fig. 741), Overbeck Or.
Kunstinyth. Zeus p. 361 f. no. 14 Atlas pi. 4, 12 a, 12 b, Furtwiingler Vasensarnml.
Berlin ii. 589 ff. no. 2293) attributed to 'the Brygos painter' (J. D. Beazley Aitic Red-
figured Vases in American Museums Cambridge Mass. 1918 p. 94, Hoppin Red-Jig.
Vases i. 124 no. 19), who was at work during the first third of s. v B.C. Zeus, in chiiSn
and chlamys, steps on to his four-horse chariot and quits Olympos (pillar), escorted by
Herakles, with tricot-cosinm^, chiton, lion-skin, bow, etc., and by Athena, who already
spears Enkelados.
' E. Petersen 'Bronzen von Perugia' in the Rdiii. Mitth. 1894 ix. 274 fif. fig. 3 and in
Ant. Denkm. ii. 2. 3 pi. 14, Brunn—Bruckmann Denkm. der gr. und rotn. Sculpt.
pis. 588, 589 with text by A. Furtwiingler, Reinach R^p. Reliefs iii. 102 no. i. Date :
s. vi B.C.
* Brit. Mils. Cat. Vases iii. 137 ff. no. E 140, R. Kekule in the Ann. d. Inst. 1872
xliv. 226 ff., Mon. d. Inst, ix pi. 43, Wien. Vorlegebl. A pi. 7, A. Baumeister in his
Denkm. iii. 1856 f. fig. 1958, J. D. Beazley Attic Red-figured Vases in A7//erican Museums
Cambridge Mass. 1918 p. 102, Hoppin Red-fig. Vases ii. 60 f. no. 13 fig. Date : first third
of J. V E.G.
" Supra-p. 24 fig. 10, p. 735 fig. 666 (with which cp. the stdmnos in the Louvre (G 370)
noted sufra p. 735 n. 4).
* P. Jacobsthal op. cit. p. 37 n. r.
'' Id. ib.
^ Soph. O.C. 1460 f., Eur. suppl. 860, H.f. 177 fif., Bacch. 90, Aristoph. av. 1714
with schol. ad loc, cp. Lucr. 6. 383, Verg. Aen. 5. 319 with Serv. ad loc, Val. Flacc. 6.
55 f., Claud, de raptu Proserpinae 2. 228 f. " Supra, p. 751 n. 2.
'" Aisch. Niob. frag. i6o Nauck- ap. Aristoph. av. 1247 f. with schol. ad loc.