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

68 Wolf-god or Light-god ?

Olympos as described in the Odyssey1, and was itself called
Olympos. Pausanias says : 1 They speak of it also as Olympos,
while others of the Arcadians name it the Sacred Peak2.' This
Olympic glory, though not, as Theopompos presumably held and
as Roscher3 certainly holds, the true explanation of the shadowless
precinct, would be in thorough keeping with the character of Zeus
Lykaios as a god of light.

(b) Peloponnesian coin-types of Zeus Lykaios.

It is almost certainly Zeus Lykaios whose figure appears on the
federal silver coinage of Arkadia throughout the greater part of
the fifth century B.C.4 These coins bear on their reverse side the
legend Arkadikdn, more or less abbreviated, and appear to have
been struck by the Heraeans as presidents of the national Arcadian
games held on Mount Lykaion5. Early specimens show Zeus
seated on a throne with a himdtion wrapped about his waist:
he holds a sceptre in one hand, and over the other flies an eagle
(figs. 39, 40)6. On later specimens the back of the throne terminates
in a swan's neck (figs. 41, 42)7, and the eagle occasionally flies to-
wards Zeus (fig. 43)8. Sometimes a thunderbolt is held on the
lap of the god (figs. 43, 44)9. Sometimes, but rarely, he is repre-

1 Od. 6. 41 ff. Eustath. in Od. p. 1550, 63 alyXrjepra yap ra e/cet /cat fieara atdprjs /cat
ve<pe\aLs dcrKLacrTa.

2 Paus. 8. 38. 2. An Arcadian Olympos is mentioned by schol. Ap. Rhod. 1. 598,
cp. Serv. in Verg. Aen. 8. 352, Ylyg.fab. 225 p. 132f. Schmidt. Roscher {Jahrb.f. class.
Philol. 1892 xxxviii. 706) and Mackrodt (Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 848, 24 f.) understand
Apollod. 2. 5. 8 to \eybfjievov opos"0\vfiwou of Mount Lykaion, cp. Pedias. 21.

3 W. H. Roscher 'Die Schattenlosigkeit des Zeus-abatons auf dem Lykaion' in the
Jahrb.f. class. Philol. 1892 xxxviii. 701—709.

4 Head Hist, num.12 p. 447 f., Babelon Monn. gr. rom. ii. 1. 843 ff. pi. 38, 8—18,
Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Peloponnesus p. 1691!. pi. 31, 11—24, pi. 32, 1—9, P. Gardner
Types of Gr. Coins pi. 3, 15, 16, 43, Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus pp. 26f., 155,
Miinztaf. 2, 1—3. Cp. infra p. 90.

5 This was first shown by Imhoof-Blumer Monn. gr. p. 196.

6 Babelon Monn. gr. rom. ii. 1. 8436°. pi. 38, 8, 9, 12, Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Pelo-
ponnesus p. 169 f. pi. 31, 11—15, P. Gardner Types of Gk. Coins pi. 3, 43. I figure two
specimens from my collection.

7 Fig. 41 is from a specimen in the British Museum, fig. 42 from another in my
collection.

8 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Peloponnesus p. 171 f. pi. 31, 23 (fig. 43), pi. 32, 3,
Imhoof-Blumer Choix de monn. gr. (1871) pi. 2, 76, id. in the Zeitschr. f. Num. 1876
iii. 291 pi. 7, 3 and 4, Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus Miinztaf. 2, 2 a.

9 Babelon Monn. gr. rom. ii. 1. 845 ff. pi. 38, 13 describes a specimen in the Luynes
collection on which Zeus holds corn-ears (fig. 44). I take the object in his right hand
to be a thunderbolt, as did F. Imhoof-Blumer in the Zeitschr. f. Num. 1876 iii. 290 pi. 7, 2.