Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

850
Retrospect
thunderbolt was anthropomorphised into a youthful male divinity',
in the west skeuomorphised into a barbed or hamate missile-. In
discussing these various transformations we touched incidentally
on the symbolism of the lotos', collected the names of thunder-
flowers*, and examined the singular cult of Zeus Apomyios^.
Our next business was to consider whether the thunderbolt of
Zeus bore any ascertainable relation to the trident of Poseidon, or
to the alleged fork of Hades. With regard to the first question we
concluded (i) that Greeks and Romans of the classical age doubt-
less took the trident of Poseidon to be the fish-spear of a sea-god
but (2) that originally Poseidon had been a by-form of Zeus" and
his trident almost certainly a lightning-fork^ The latter contention
was supported on the one hand by parallels from India^ on the
other by the similarity of the hypaethral trident-mark at Athens
to the hypaethral lightning-shrines of Rome". Besides, if Poseidon
had been ab origine a lightning-god, we can understand why he
was represented as fulminant on a fifth-century coin of Zankle",
and we can see some fitness in the later fusion of Zeus-Poseidon
into a single syncretistic type 'I
With regard to the second question it appeared (i) that no
valid evidence could be produced for the fork as an attribute of
the Greek Hades'*, but (2) that lupiter lutor was actually depicted
with thunderbolt, trident, and fork—this last implement being prob-
ably borrowed from an Etruscan god of the Underworld'*.
In short, it was argued that the bident of Italy and the trident
of Greece were respectively descended from the bipartite and tri-
partite forms of Mesopotamian lightning '^
A bunch of cult-titles designated Zeus as god of the Thunderbolt
{Keraunos, Keraunobolos, Kerm'uiios) or god of Lightning
{Storpdos, Astrapaios, Astrdpto?ty^. The cults in question had their
features of interest. The Arcadians in s. v B.C. worshipped Zeus
Storpdos under the form of an aniconic pillar topped by a small
pyramid". Sling-bullets used in Sicily by the slave-troops of
Athenion (103— 100 B.C.) bore the device of a thunderbolt and the
name of Zeus Kerm'inios'^^. Coins of Seleukeia in Syria showed his
bolt bound with a fillet and resting on a cushioned stool'"—a type
that recurs on the Roman mintages of Vespasian, Titus, and other
' Supra p. 783 f. ^ Supra p. 784 f. ' Supra p. 771 ff.
* Supra p. 774 n. 4. ^ Supra p. 781 ff. ^ Supra p. 786.
^ Supra pp. 582 ff., 786 f.
** Supra p. 789 ff. ^ Supra p. 790 ff.
'0 Supra pp. 789, 792 ff. " Supra p. 794 f. '^ Supra p. 796 ff.
" Supra p. 798 ff. 1* Supra p. 803 ff. '^ Supra p. 806.
'fi Supra p. 806 ff. 1' Supra p. 814 f.
1** Supra p. 809.
^** Supra p. 812 ff.