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

The Precinct of Zeus Lykaios 83

fourth century—and an almost shapeless terra cotta bird. The
metal finds included a silver coin of Aigina (c. 500 B.C.), two small
tripods of beaten bronze, and an iron knife—altogether a meagre
and disappointing collection.

The precinct, which occupies the level called Tabe'ma, is
approximately 180 ft broad by 400 ft long. It is marked out
by a line of unworked stones, a boundary that men or beasts could
easily cross1. The earth here is blackish, but has no bones in it.
Kourouniotes believes that the discoloration is due to the blood of
animals slain as it were on the prothysis before they were burnt on
the altar. Perhaps a geologist or an analytical chemist could
supply a less gruesome explanation. In the soil of the precinct
were found fragments of roof-tiles, part of an iron chain, a large
key, a greave decorated with swans and serpents in relief and
inscribed fch AASANfc......AIA0ANAI2, a bronze statuette-
base, and two bronze statuettes. One of these was a beardless
Hermes (c. 490—470 B.C.) in chitontskos, chlamys, pilos^ and winged
boots; the other a later figure, probably of the same god, with
chlamys and petasos3.

A little lower down than the eastern limit of the precinct
Kontopoulos had discovered in 1897 two large bases about 23 ft
apart, undoubtedly those of the two eagle-bearing columns
mentioned by Pausanias4. In a gully north-east of the summit
he had found also one marble drum from a Doric column of
twenty flutes, and had erected it on the southern base (pi. viii)5.
Kourouniotes continued the search, and was rewarded for his pains.
He obtained other blocks belonging to the bases, which were thus
proved to have resembled the three-stepped statue-bases of the
fifth and fourth centuries B.C. The columns themselves were still
standing in Pausanias' day, but the gilded eagles had gone6.
Kourouniotes accounts for their disappearance as follows. He
points out that in the market-place at Megalopolis Pausanias saw
an enclosure of stones and a sanctuary of Zeus Lykaios containing
altars, two tables, and two eagles7; and he suggests that these

1 'E0. 'Apx- i9°4 P- 159 f- fig- i«

2 Kourouniotes restores [EurJeA/Sas dvt[dr)Ke r£ Au/ccuy Ad /ecu r]a 'AOdva.

3 'B0. 'Apx- 1904 pis. 9—10.

4 Supra p. 66 n. i.

5 'B0. 'Apx- i9°4 P- r 73 f- fig- 7> CP- P1- 8> i-

6 Paus. 8. 38. 7 irpb Se rod (3wp:od Kioves dtio ws eirl aviaxoVTa eCTrjKaaLv rj\LOV, derol 8e
ew' avroLS iir'Lxpvaoi. rd ye £ti TraXaidrepa eweiro'n)vto.

7 Paus. 8. 30. 2 7rept/3o\os 8e icrriv iv ravrr) \L6oiv kcll lepbv Avkcliov Atos, Zcrodos 8e is
avrb ovk &m* rd yap evrbs i<rri 8t] cnjvoTTTa, (3o}/xoi eitxc t6v Oeov Kai rpdire^ai. 860 koX
deroi rats Tpairefais taoi.

6—2