Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

830
Thunder as a sound
(c) Thunder as a sound caused by the Chariot of Zeus.
According to another popular belief, thunder was the noise made
by the chariot of Zeus as it rattled across the sky. Of this concep-
tion there is no certain trace in epic versed But Pindar began one
of his lost poems with the words :
On which Hesychios comments :
' Thunder-driving son of Rhea-.'
' The
thunder is thought to be the
chariot of Zeusl' A second Pindaric exordium was as follows :
'Driver on high of the tireless-footed thunder,
Zeus,' etc.*.
Hereupon one scholiast remarks: 'Recent writers assign the thunder
to Zeus as his chariot and say "O Zeus the Charioteer."' Another:
' Pindar takes the thunder to be the horse of Zeus, and so calls it
" tireless-footed." ' A third :
' Recent writers after a manner of their
own hold the thunder to be the chariot and horse of Zeus'.' The
reference to recent writers is meant to include such poets as
Horace*. But we can hardly doubt that the Thunderer's chariot was
genuinely Greek. For, not only does it occur elsewhere in literature''
^ Zeus in the JUadhas his ' well-wheeled chariot and horses ' (snp7-a i. 338 n. i, where
—as Mr C. T. Seltman points out to me— I should have noted //. 8. 41 ff. rather than //.
8. 438
ff. as the earhest allusion) ; but they are not said to cause thunder.
'T\pil;vyos, an epic epithet of Zeus (//. 4. 166, 7. 69, 11. 544, 18. 185, Hes. 0. d. 18,
Cougny Anfk. Pal. Append. 2. 373. i), might conceivably be rendered ' who driveth his
team aloft ' (though it would describe horse or chariot more naturally than driver) and
viewed as a virtual equivalent of vtpi^pe/xiTrji, ' who thundereth aloft' (//. i. 354, 12. 68,
14. 54, 16. 121, Od. 5. 4, 23. 331, A. Her/n. 329, Hes. o. d. 8, theog. 568, 601, Aristoph.
Lys. i~,l, Orph. Arg. 1278, Cougny Aiith. Pal. Append. 6. 95. 3, 6. 210. 2, Tzetz. alleg.
Od. 5. 75! cp. Orph. h. Ker. 19. i, where J. Pierson cj. v^i^po/mov for v\pi5poixov). But
vxf/i^vyoi is traditionally taken to mean ' who sitteth aloft ' (H. Ebeling Lexicon Homeri-
citni Lipsiae 1880 ii. 396)—an epithet appropriate to a steersman (Noumenios ap.
Euseh. praep. ev. 11. 18. 24, Euseb. de land. Const. 10 p. 223, 12 f. Heikel), which may
well have descended to Homer from the days of the ' Minoan ' thalassocracy.
- VmA. frag. 144 Schroder ap. Souid. s.v. ^Xaai^povr dvapprjyvvs iirrj (=schol.
Aristoph. eq. 624) " iXaai^povra wai'I'^as."
^ Hesych. s.v. fXaal^povra- ...iirel SoKel oxvf^"'- ''oC Aios -^ ^povrrj elvai..
* Find. 01. 4. I f. eXaTTjp inrepTare ^povrai aKaixavrowoSos \
^ Schol. Pind. 01. ^. 1 d, i k, 1 a.
® Hor. od. I. 34. 5fTf. Diespiter | ...per purum tonantis ]
ZeO.
egit
equos volucremque
currum (cp. ib. i. 12. 58 ff.) with Porphyrion aa? /^(T. dicuntur tonitrua strepitusessecurrus
et quadrigarum lovis.
^ Eur. II. f. 177 ff. Atos Kepavvbv 5' qpo/nrit' Tiffpnnrd re, ]
^Xaar-qixaaL \
Tiyaa,
irXfupois Trr^v' ifapfxoffas ^^Xt], \
rbv
eu
oh ^e^rjKws Toiai 777s
koXXIvlkov fxera deiJbv eKW/xacre,
Bellerophontes frag. 312 Nauck^ ir^' apfiar' eXdwu Zr]vbi a.