Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/91

 reign of Zeus are attested by the awe in which men and cattle, trees and houses, which have been struck by lightning, are universally held—awe of that primitive kind which does not distinguish between the sacred and the accursed. It is sufficient that particular persons or objects have come into close contact with divine power; that contact sets them apart; they must not do common work or be put to common uses. In old days any place which had been struck was distinguished by the erection of an altar and the performance of sacrifice, but at the same time it was left unoccupied and, save for sacrificial purposes, untrodden ; it was both honoured and avoided. In the case of persons however the sense of awe verged on esteem. 'No one,' says Artemidorus, 'who has been struck by lightning is excluded from citizenship; indeed such an one is honoured even as a god .' The same feeling is still exhibited. The peasant makes the sign of the cross as he passes any scorched and blackened tree-trunk; but if a man has the fortune to be struck and not killed, he may indulge a taste for idleness for the rest of his life—his neighbours will support him—and enjoy at the same time the reputation of being something more than human.

But in spite of the reverent awe which the victim of the lightning excites, the thunderbolt is often viewed now, as in old time, as the instrument of divine vengeance. The people of Aráchova, when they see a flash, explain the occurrence in the phrase [Greek: kapoion diabolon ekapse], 'He has burnt up some devil,' and the implied subject of the verb, as in most phrases describing the weather, is undoubtedly God. The same idea, in yet more frankly pagan garb, is well exhibited in a story from Zacynthos , which is nothing but the old myth of the war of the Titans against Zeus with the names of the actors omitted. The gist of it is as follows.

The giants once rebelled against God. First they climbed a mountain and hurled rocks at him; but he grasped his thunderbolts ([Greek: tsakônei ta astropelek[i(]a tou]) and threw them at the giants, and they all fell down from the mountain and many were killed. Then one whose courage was still unshaken tied reeds to-*