Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

and the trident of Poseidon 793
they occur, there is a tendency to explain them as the imprint of
this, that, or the other superhuman power. P. Sebillot^ has collected
man\' cases of such popular interpretations. For example, at
Pont-d'Aisy a 'cup-marked' stone is known as 'the Fairy's Kettle'
or 'the Kettle of Giant Galaffre'-'; and at Faux-la-Montagne the
impress of the Devil's spoon and fork is yet visible on a dolmen
where he dined-'. Similarly the Greeks regarded these mysterious
marks beneath the Erechtheion as the traces left by the trident of
Poseidon, when he struck the Akropolis-rock and thereby created
his 'sea'*.'
But Poseidon was not the first occupant of the Erechtheion.
Before him, as H. Usener^ showed, came Erechtheus, the true lord
and owner of the building. And who was Erechtheus? Lykophron
in one passage probably*, in another certainly", uses ErechtheiU as
a synonym of Zeus. More than that, a learned scholion on the
second passage states quite definitely that both at Athens and in
Arkadia Zeus was called Erechthei'is^. There is therefore much to
be said for E. Petersen's contention' that Erechthei'is, the 'Cleaver^",'*
was in fact a lightning-god like Zeus Kataibdtes^^, who during the
fifth century B.C., if not earlier, was identified with Poseidon i". Two
' P. Sebillot Le Folklore de France Paris 1904 i. 395 ff.
2 Id. ib. i. 396.
^ Id. ib. i. 398.
* A good parallel is furnished by the sacred rock that juts up in the centre of the
Kiibbet es-Sachra in Jerusalem. Certain round holes, apparently 'cup-marks,' on its
west side are said to be the finger-prints of the angel Gabriel : others of a like sort in the
south-west corner are explained as the foot-prints of the prophet Muhammed (R. Kittel
Sludien zur hebrdischen Airhdologie und Keligionsgeschichte Leipzig 1908 p. 19).
' H. Usener Gotternatnen Bonn 1896 p. 139 ff.
^ Lyk. Al. 156 ff. Si/ (sc. Pelops) hr\ Sis rj^rja-ai'Ta, Kal papiiv vbdov \