Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/335

 The European Sky-god. 311

public hearth. At Aegae'^^-^ in Aeolis, for example, the oak-Zeus was worshipped side by side with Hestia, the per- sonification of the hearth: in the Odyssey '^^^ an oath is several times taken by Zeus and the hearth of Odysseus : Pindar-^^^ addresses an ode to "Hestia, goddess of the prytanea, sister of Zeus most high and of Hera who shareth his throne." Some of the titles of Zeus are drawn from the same connection. He is the god "who holds the hearth" {eariovxo<i)i^^'^ or "who is seated at the hearth" {i^ecmos:),^^'' or " who shares the hearth with men " [ofJueaTto'i ^poroiv)?^^ Secondly, the king represented Zeus as the god of the stormy or rainy sky. As such he could himself cause a thunderstorm or a shower. In a recently recovered ode of Bacchylides ""^'^ Minos proves that he is the son of Zeus by praying :

Zeus our Father, mighty in strength, hearken. If in truth the white-armed woman of Phoenicia bare me to thee, send forth now from the sky the swift lightning with its fiery curl, thy token that all men know.

Zeus in answer to " the immoderate prayer" at once hurled the lightning and thereby acknowledged his son. The scene, which is in fact a mythological commonplace, was probably based on the belief that the divine king could evoke a thunderstorm at will. In early days this would

^'^ Class. Rev., xviii., 78. So at Pergamum (Preller- Robert, p. 867).

3'* Od., 14. 158 f., 17. 155 f., 19. 303 f., 20. 230 f.

3'* Pind., Nem., 11. i f.

^'^ Eustath., 735, 61, 1756, 26, 1814, 10, cp. Hesych., ianaxog " o'lKovpoQ . oiKwva^. Koi Zevg Trap' "Iwfftj/. Eustath., 1575, 39, uses the form 'kttiovxoq.

^" Eustath., 1756, 27 ZstV tcpsffriog kuI eTrianog, 1814, 9 t^lorioc, 1930, 28 sv Ty Kar oIkov tariqi Ai'i iyivovro Qvaiai, ov 01 jxiv aXXoi icpsariov, 'RpoSorog Sk 'loiviKoig Xsyei ETricrriov, tov avrbv ovra Tip e(rTiovx^({->, Hdt., I. 44 iTria-iov.

^'* So^h. frag., 401 Dindorf, ap. Staph. Byz., s.v. Awowvi]: AujOwvl vaiujv TiEVQ bjikGTioQ ^poruiv. See Class. Rev., xvii., 183.

^'^ Bacchyl., 17. 52 ff., cp. llyg., poet, astroti., 2. 5.