B. THE GEEEK GODS I. THE DIVINITIES OF THE HEAVENS 1. REPRESENTATIVES OF THE PHENOMENA OF THE THUNDERSTORM 20. The most tremendous phenomenon in nature, and the first to attract the attention of mankind, is the thunderstorm. As this can be better compared to a violently raging battle than to any other event occurring on earth, it was first conceived of as a battle in which Zeus, the god of thunder and lightning, Athena, the goddess of lightning, the other Olympian gods that were friendly toward mankind, and the demigod, Hercules, are all arrayed against the monsters of the thunder- storm, the Gigantes (< Giants '). The latter, like the Cy- clopes (' Cyclops '), are in the Odyssey imagined to be an earthly race of giants, living in the far west, hurling rocks for missiles, a race which is annihilated by the gods for its arrogance ; but the later tradition, as in some other cases, seems to have preserved the earlier form. Accordingly in the art of the Hellenistic period, particularly, for example, on the frieze of the altar of Pergamum (now in the Berlin museum), they are repre- sented with serpentine feet (lightning?). Originally Phlegra, the place of burning, was commonly mentioned 16
