Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/298

 274 '^J^^ European Sky-god.

as a sun-charm.'^- For the mainland of Greece the evidence of a solar Zeus is less conclusive. But an inscription from Thoricus, a town on the south-eastern coast of Attica, speaks of a Zeus A^vavrrip, Zeus " the Scorcher." ''^ And there are some grounds for supposing that Zeus Au/cato? was a solar deity : Lycosura, high up on the side of Mount Lycaeus was "the first city that ever the sun beheld" ; '^'^ and in the precinct of Zeus no shadows were cast by man or beast. ^^ However that may be, it is undeniable that there was a tendency among the Greeks, especially among' the Greeks of the Archipelago and Asia Minor, to connect Zeus the "bright" sky-god with that most striking mani- festation of his brightness — the sun. Rapp,^^ following the lead of Sonne and Roscher, argues that Zeus the daylight- god was naturally also a sun-god to begin with ; but that, as the conception of Zeus developed, his solar character- istics split off from the rest of his attributes and were attached to a fresh sun-god, Apollo: that this process was repeated, Apollo becoming more and more spiritual until his physical function as a sun-god was taken over by yet another personification, Helios, who in turn was endued wdth traits that are at least anthropomorphic and ethical. Without insisting upon every stage of this evolution we may well grant that Zeus had, so to speak, a solar side to his character. Now the nightly passing of the sun through the western " Gates of Helios " "'' seems to have led to the belief that the solar Zeus had his dwelling beneath the earth. Zeus "A/x./aoji', for example, was identified not merely with the sun but with " the setting sun of Libya " ; ^^ and

'- Class. Rev., xviii., So.

''^ See Jessen, in Pauly-Wissowa, ii., 2264, s. v. " Auanter." ^< Paus., 8. 38. I.

'* Paus., 8. 38. 6; Theopompus a/. Polyb., 16. 12. 7. "^ In Roscher, Lex., i., 1994 f. ■'' Od., 24. 12, 'HcXioio TTvXaQ.

"* Macrob., Sat., i. 21. 19, Ammonem, queni deum solem occidentem Libyes existimant.