Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

Zeus Zbelsourdos 823
These tentatives, however, are at best unconvincing. Indeed,
scientific etymology is hopelessly handicapped by our comparative
ignorance of the Thracian tongue. But, if the name of the god
escapes us, his nature does not, Zeus Zbelsourdos was at once a skypower
and an earth-power— witness on the one hand his thunder-
bolt, on the other his snake. His consort was a goddess perhaps
akin to Demeter or to Semele. His offspring was lambadoi'des,
Dionysos in the likeness of the Thracian rider-god ^ For further
knowledge we must be content to wait till Thrace yields up more of
her buried secrets.
Thus much I had written, in some despondency, when I re-
ceived (Jan. 24, 1922) a most encouraging communication from
Mr B. F, C. Atkinson of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Knowing
him to have made a special study of things Illyrian, I had challenged
him to furnish me with a possible derivation of Zbelsourdos.
I append his reply : 'With regard to the variant form Zibel- of the
first part of this compound, it has occurred to me'—he says— ' that
we may have here simply the root div- with suffix -el-. There is some
reason to believe that original unaspirated voiced stops became in the
Thracian and Illyrian dialects spirants ; and it is reasonable to sup-
pose that zeta was the symbol used by the Greeks to represent this
sound (similar to the initial sound of English theii), which did not
normally occur in most Greek dialects. If this is the explanation
of the zeta used in the Elean dialect in words such as zlkaia, ze (in
three early inscriptions), where delta would be normal, we have a
parallel use of the sound and of the symbol zeta to express it. We
may compare the much later similar development oi delta, which is
a spirant in Modern Greek. As to the suffix -cl-, I suggest that
Zibel- is a parallel form to h°ivil-B.s, several times occurring in dedi-
catory inscriptions in Campania (vd. Conway Italic Dialects i. loi fif).
The use of beta to express a w- or z^-sound is of course comparatively
common.
simumque direptum est Turnebus cj. lovis [veh'] Uri, J. H. Mordtmann in the Kev.
Arch. 1878 ii. 302 cj. lovis velsttri ; G. Seure in the Rev. Et. Gr. 1913 xxvi.
243 ff., 249 divides lovis vel Sari—a restoration more ingenious than probable.
1 This conception of Dionysos may account for the use of the word r/'pojs as applied
to him in the chant of the Elean women (carm. pop. 5 Hiller— Crusius ap. Plout.
quaestt. Gr. 36 eXOeiv, ijpo} At-dvvcre, \
k.t.X.).
My former attempt to re-cast the line (in
Miss Harrison's Themis Cambridge 191 2 p. 205 n. i eXdelv -qp , c5 Aioci^cre, |
I now think, ill-advised.
k.t.\.)
was,
Since Dionysos was essentially a younger form of his own father (supra p. 287 ff.), it
|
is not surprising to find that the word ripw attached to the older god likewise : ( r) Corp.
inscr. Lat. iii no. 7534 = Dessau Inscr. Lat. set. no. 4063 (Tomoi) i. o. m. Heroi |
Q. Trebellius |
f. (F)ab. Maxilmus Roma, | 7 leg. v Mac. | trecenarius | coh. in pr. |
Q.
V. s. (2) G. Seure in the Jiev. Et. Gr. 1913 xxvi. 239 n. 10 (Pannonia) 1. o. m. Heroni.