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

82 The Precinct of Zeus Lykaios

The altar of Zeus forms the apex of Ae Lids. It is circular in
shape and flat like a threshing-floor, measuring 97 ft 6 ins. across.
It is composed mainly of the remains of sacrifices, the rock being
covered to a depth of 5 ft with a layer of ashes etc. In this layer
are numerous bones, mostly those of small animals, but also of
oxen and pigs : no human bones were recognised. All the bones
had been burnt. Among the debris are large charred stones at

Fig. 50.

irregular intervals, lying singly or gathered together in small heaps.
These served to prevent the ashes from being blown away from the
exposed and wind-swept height1. Small fragments of phidlai and
skyphoi dating from the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. were found
in the sacrificial stratum, also two small kotyliskoi, sundry portions

A P

of lamps, chips of roof-tiles—one inscribed qE) in lettering of the

1 Cp. Plin. nat. hist. 2. 240 in Laciniae Iunonis ara sub diu sita cinerem inmobilem
esse perflantibus undique procellis (quoted by Kourouniotes) and the evidence collected
infra p. 103 nn. 1—4, with regard to the summits of Olympos, Kyllene, and Athos.

Proof of the sanctity attaching to ashes has come to light at Orchomenos in Boiotia.
Inside the houses of the second pre-Mycenaean stratum H. Bulle found numerous /36dpoi,
carefully lined with yellow clay. These pits were circular in plan and U -shaped in
vertical section. They were for the most part filled with ashes, which appear to have
been kept for religious reasons (H. Bulle Orchomenos Miinchen 1907 i. 25 ff.).