Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/32

 18 GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY storm accompanying every volcanic eruption and those mighty forces of the depths which, at the end of the eruption, seem to sink back through the crater into the interior of the earth. 23. The victor in all these battles, the mighty god of the thunderstorm, a god, however, kindly disposed toward mankind, who sends down the fructifying rain, is Zeus (Lat. Juppiter). The stem of this name, which appears in the genitive Ai(f)o's, goes back, like the Indian Dyaus, the German Ziu, and the Latin Juppiter (which is composed of Diovis or Jovis and pater), to the root div (' sky ') ; i.e. the name of the god of the thunder- storm is derived from the sky itself, of which the thunderstorm is a principal phenomenon. Correspond- ing to this idea, the chief attribute of Zeus, who is further characterized as the lightning god by the epithets Keraunios and Kataibates, is the lightning itself; and closely connected with this is the Aegis (' goatskin'), a representation of the thundercloud surrounded by ser- pentine lightning, which is usually pictured in later times as a shaggy skin with a border of serpents. 24. The victor in the battle of the storm came to be regarded as a powerful ruler of earthly combats (Zeus Agetor, Stratios, Areios), who held victory (VLKTJ) in his hand ; a conception which led Phidias to place the winged Kike on the outstretched hand of his statue of the Olym- pian Zeus. In his son Ares this side of Zeus's nature was developed into a god of war pure and simple. On ac- count of the rain that falls during a thunderstorm, Zeus appears, on the other hand, as a rain dispenser bestowing fertility (Hyetios, Ombrios). In this capacity he begot from his sister Demeter, who is the female representative