Zis Batas is the thundering aspect of the Messapic sky-god, worshipped at the cave-sanctuary of the Grotta Porcinara on the headland of Leuca, the southernmost point of Apulia. The epithet batas is usually rendered 'the Thunderer' (or 'the speaker'), and the god functioned as a controller of storms and protector of seafarers who passed the dangerous cape. His is among the earliest and most enduring Messapian cults: dedications begin in the archaic period and the cult was taken over by Greek-speakers as Zeus Batios and by Romans as Iupiter Batius (sometimes Iuppiter Optimus Maximus Batius), persisting at the same shrine into the third century AD.