Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/399

 TRANSACTIONS OF THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY. Vol. XV.] DECEMBER, 1904. [No. IV.

THE EUROPEAN SKY-GOD. II.

BY ARTHUR BERNARD COOK.

The primitive Greek king, as I showed in my last paper,^ was the human representative of the sky-god Zeus, and in that capacity was not only called by his name but also believed to act as his vice-gerent. Thus he was expected to control the sun and to feed its flames, partly by kindling periodic bonfires on a mountain-top, partly by maintaining a perpetual fire on his own hearth. Again, he was rain- maker for the district, and could^ when he so desired, evoke a sudden thunder-storm. Further, he was responsible "^or the crops, and to him all eyes turned as often as the fruits of the earth were injured by drought or blight.

It must not, of course, be supposed that these were the sole obligations of the king. The accepted classification of his functions is that propounded by Aristotle,^ who saw

' Folk-Lore, xv. , 299 ff.

- Aristot./^/., 3. 14. 1285 b. 22, (TTfjarrjyog t£ yap ijv ical SiKaaTrjQ 6 (SaffiKive Kai TtLv TTpoQ ToiiQ QeovQ KvpiOQ, ib,, 1285 b. 9, Kvpioi 0' 7jcrav riis re Kara.

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