The European Sky-god. 291
gests that the three-headed hound of Sarapis symbolised the evil spirit that made its appearance " in water, earth, and air." The same explanation served for the three-eyed Zeus. Indeed, in his case it was peculiarly appropriate, since, as we saw at the outset, the primary conception of Zeus as a sky-god had actually given rise to the two secondary conceptions of Zeus as a water-god and Zeus as an earth-god. Hence Pausanias was no fool when, after describing the old image of Zeus on the Argive Larisa, he continued ^^^ : "The reason why it has three eyes maybe conjectured to be the following. All men agree that Zeus reigns in heaven, and there is averse of Homer which gives the name of Zeus also to the god who is said to bear rule under the earth : —
Both underground Zeus and august Proserpine.
Further, Aeschylus, son of Euphorion, applies the name of Zeus also to the god who dwells in the sea. So the artist, whoever he was, represented Zeus with three eyes, because it is one and the same Zeus who reigns in all the three realms of nature, as they are called." At Corinth the same thought seems to have found a less grotesque expres- sion. " Of the images of Zeus," says Pausanias, ^^'^ "which are also under the open sky, one has no surname: another is called Subterranean ; and the third they name Highest." It is commonly supposed, though the supposition is not quite inevitable, that here too we have a sea-Zeus, an earth-Zeus, and a sky-Zeus. ^^^
Zeus had a sacred tree, the oak.^^^ If we ask why the oak in particular should have been sacred to him, the later
IS'- Paus., 2. 24. 4, Frazer.
'^^ Paus., 2. 2. 8, Frazer.
'** For other possible examples of the Zeus-triad see Class. Rev., xvii. , 406 ff. (Cnossus), 416 (Aphrodisias), 417 (Mylasa), xviii., 75 f. (Xanthus), 79 (Phrygia and Galatia), 84 (Eleusis), 84 ff. (Athens).
'•'* Schol. Aristoph.,flz'. 480, Ittii ovv 1) vpiiS rov Aiog torij/, tirai^e irapa t))v
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