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Zeus Bremetes?

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n.igma:

--- Quote from: n.igma on February 12, 2022, 04:15:04 am ---I would have preferred a true epithet 'Zeus Stratios' (warlike) in this case - more accurately reflecting the times with Baktria under assault from the Parni led by Arsaces who Diodotos I eventually vanquished. Similarly, the Messenians having been freed from enslavement by the Spartans continuously on the defensive against their neighbor. Both Diodotos and the Messenians it appears invoked a warlike thundering Zeus to their protection.

--- End quote ---

A little off topic, but some interesting background I just uncovered on the 'Zeus Ithomatas' iconography .... 'The reverse type depicts Zeus Ithomatas, the god of Mount Ithome in Messenia. He symbolizes the Messenian will to resist enemies and looks back specifically to the events of 464 BC. In this year, the Messenians (still helots to the Spartans) took advantage of an earthquake to revolt against their Spartan masters. Many of the rebels took up their abode in a fort on Mount Ithome and took to raiding the Spartans. Unable to remove the Messenians from Ithome by force, the Spartans were forced to permit the Athenians to resettle them as free men in Naupaktos. When Epameinondas chose the site for the city of Messene, he chose that of Ithome due to its defensibility and especially due to its symbolic value.' (Numismatica Ars Classica NAC AG 124, 174).

Molinari:
I would check A.B. Cook’s Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion.  If it is a real ancient epithet he’ll have it listed and I believe you can view it free on Google books (it is three volumes, and I believe volume 2 studies Zeus as god of lightning and thunder).

Altamura:

--- Quote from: Molinari on February 12, 2022, 11:50:56 am ---... I would check A.B. Cook’s Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion. ...
--- End quote ---
That was among the first things I did :), but there was no Bremetes :(.

Regards

Altamura

n.igma:
Thanks. I now think it’s fairly safe to say that ‘Bremetes’ is not derived from an ancient epithet. Rather a modern creation of the marketing department - a pseudo-epithet which offers no insight into the basis of the religious iconography employed in the coinage.

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