Themis, a study of the social origins of Greek ... - Warburg Institute

392 From Daimon to Olympian [ch.
between ra p,erdpaia and ra fierecopa. The Stoic writer Achilles 1
going back probably to Poseidonios, writes thus
Ta perecopa are distinguished from ra peTcipcna thus : ra ptTeapa are the
things in heaven and the ether, as e.g. the sun and the other heavenly bodies
and ouranos and ether : ra perapcna are the things between the air and the
earth, such as winds.
The gist of the distinction lies in the difference between aer
and dither; ra p,erewpa are the holy blaze of aither which is
uppermost, ra /xerdpaia, thunder, rain, clouds, wind, are of the
damp cold aer, the lower region of earthy mist. Of all the
heavenly bodies the moon with her dew and mists is most akin
to ra /xerdpaia.
From the sequence of /Eschylus ra fxerdpaia are missing.
He was probably only half conscious of the moon and sun elements
in Phoibe and Phoibos, and of the disorderly phenomena of the
weather as sanctities he took no account. In our previous chapters
on the Thunder-Rites and on Bird-Magic we have seen how
early and large a place ra /xerdpaia held in Greek religion, but
ra /xerdpata were among the elements that Olympian religion
tried, though somewhat vainly, to discard. Even however at
Delphi traces remain, for we find the weather birds perching at
either side of the omphalos of Gaia, and Zeus is obliged to
acknowledge them as his eagles.
In the light then of comparative religion iEschylus is seen
to be right. At Delphi, as elsewhere, broadly speaking man's
LA reactions and hence his interests or emotions focus first on earth
^/as a source of food, then successively on the moon and sun as
(U^| fertilizers and regents of the season. In every rite and every
mythological figure these elements must be reckoned with. In
analysing a god we must look for traits from earth, from
'weather,' from moon, from sun. The earth stage will show him
as a snake or a bull or a tree or in human form as Megistos
Kouros or Thallophoros. The moon 2 will give him horns afresh,
1 wepl