Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 1): Zeus god of the bright sky (Cambridge, 1914)

62

The Blue Mantle

Lateran Museum repeats the type1, which was probably a stock-
pattern. A last trace of it may be detected in a painting at Lucca
by Fra Bartolommeo. God the Father, enthroned in heaven,
uplifts his right hand in blessing and holds in his left an open
book inscribed A CO. Beneath his feet is a small cherub over-
arched by drapery2.

That such drapery really represents the sky may be proved
by the fact that on a coin commemorating the consecratio or
apotheosis of the elder Faustina (fig. 37)3 the empress, carried up
to heaven by the eagle of Jupiter, has the same wind-blown
mantle spangled with stars. Again, the drapery held by Caelus
in a relief at Berlin (fig. 38)* is not merely an arc, but almost
a complete circle enclosing other concentric circles—an obvious
symbol of the sky.

central group in the upper register by F. Miinter Sinnbilder nnd Kunstvorstellungen der
Alten Christen Altona 1825 ii. 85, A. N. Didron Iconographie ckritienne Paris 1843
p. 256.

1 W. Lowrie op. cit. p. 266 f. fig. 102.

2 S. Reinach Repertoire de peintures du moyen age et de. la renaissance Paris 1905
i. 606, 1.

3 Cohen Monn. emp. rotn.'2 ii. 427 no. 185 fig. My illustration is from a cast of a
specimen in the British Museum.

4 Ant. Skulpt. Berlin p. 364 f. no. 900, a fragmentary relief of white Italian marble.
The subject is uncertain: two female figures approach Iupiter, and one of them clasps
his knees (in supplication ?); the god is seated on the top of a square pillar, Caelus
appearing below his footstool.

Fig. 38-