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

7<d Peloponnesian coin-types of Zeus Lykaios

be commonly supposed that the rock inscribed Oly- or Olym- was
the Arcadian Olympos, i.e. Mount Lykaion. Prof. Brunn alone
maintained that the inscription was the signature of the die-
engraver1. Since the publication of the specimens reading Chari-
Brunn's view has met with almost universal acceptance2. Recently,
however, Dr Head has suggested that Olym- and Chari- may be
abbreviated names of festivals for which the coins were issued3.
Still, the old view is not definitely disproved. It remains possible
that the name of the mountain, placed on the coin for purposes
of identification4, was afterwards replaced by the name of a self-
satisfied engraver.

(c) Human sacrifice to Zeus Lykaios.

Across the brightness of Mount Lykaion we have already seen
one cloudlet pass. Such was its awful sanctity that the wilful
intruder upon the holy ground was doomed to die, while even the
unintentional trespasser must needs be banished. But those who
knew more intimately the ritual of the mountain-top were aware
that a gloom far deeper than this habitually hung about it. There
is indeed a persistent rumour of human sacrifice in connexion with
the cult. For the said ghastly tradition Platon is at once our
earliest and our most explicit authority. Sokrates in the Republic
remarks that at the sanctuary of Zeus Lykaios he who tasted the
one human entrail, which was cut up and mixed with the entrails
of other victims, was believed to become a wolf 5. The author of
the Platonic Minos implies that human sacrifice occurred on Mount
Lykaion6; Theophrastos—as quoted by Porphyrios and Eusebios—
states that it was offered at the festival of the Lykaia7. Pausanias

1 H. Brunn Geschichte der griechischen Kiinstler Stuttgart 1859 ii. 437.

2 E.g. F. Imhoof-Blumer locc. citt., Head Hist, num.1 p. 373.

3 Head Hist, num.* p. 445 cp. oavn p i kon on coins of Elis, and suggests the
104th Olympiad celebrated by the Arcadians in 364 B.C. He interprets xapi of the
Charisia or Charitesia, festivals of the Charites, and notes that Charisios was the founder
of Charisiai in Arkadia (Paus. 8. 3. 4).

4 Cp. |~1 6 I fl n on a coin of Ephesos figured infra ch. i § 5 (b). It should also be noticed
that the reverse-type of a unique tetradrachm of Messana, now at Berlin, shows a similar
figure of Pan, with his lagobolon and a hare (symbol of the city): the god is seated on a
rock, over which he has thrown his fawn-skin, and by him is the inscription pan
(G. F. Hill Coins of Ancient Sicily London 1903 p. 130 f. pi. 8, 15). If pan describes
Pan, presumably oayaa may describe Olympos.

5 Plat. rep. 565 D, cp. Polyb. 7. 13. 7, Isid. origg. 8. 9. 5.

6 Plat. Min. 315 c.

7 Theophr. ap. Porphyr. de abst. 1. 27 and Euseb. praep. ev. 4. 16. 10. But see
infra p. 76 n. 3.