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

Dionysiac traits in the cult of Zeus iog

horns, the goat, the feast of raw flesh, all suggest a religious con-
text resembling that of the Cretan Kouretes.

Fig. 80. Fig. 81.

Elsewhere too the Kabeiroi were marked by the same character-
istics. One of Strabon's sources, after identifying the Korybantes,
children of Zeus by Kalliope, with the Kabeiroi, states that the
latter departed to Samothrace, previously called Melite, and adds
that their doings were of a mystical nature1. The names borne by
the Samothracian Kabeiroi—Axieros, Axiokersa, Axiokersos—
are probably to be connected with a word for ' axe'2. An amulet
found at Vindonissa ( WindiscJi) represents the head of a double-
axe or hammer inscribed with these three names reduced in each
case to the significant abbreviation AXI (fig. 82)3. The initiates
wore purple waist-bands4 and rings of iron
and gold5. Statius definitely compares
the sacred dances of the Samothracians
to those of the Kouretes6. A relief of
imperial date from Hierapolis in Phrygia,
now at Berlin (fig. 83)7, shows three youths
advancing side by side : they have bushy
hair, a thick ring round the neck, a loin-
cloth about the waist, and a heavy double- 0

. Fig. 82.

axe or hammer resting on the right

shoulder; part of a fourth youth is visible beside them. O. Kern

1 Strab. 472. See further R. Pettazzoni ' Le origini dei Kabiri nelle isole del mar
tracio' in the Memorie della R. Accademia dei Lincei. Classe di Scienze Morali, Sto-
riche e Filologiche. Serie Quinta. Roma 1909 xii. 635 ff. summarised by R. Wiinsch in
the Archivf. Rel. 1911 xiv. 575 f.

2 So at least I have argued in the Transactions of the Third International Congress
for the History of Religions Oxford 1908 ii. 194, infra ch. ii § 3 (c) i (0).

3 Orelli Inscr. Lat. sel. no. 440, Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 742, Daremberg-Saglio Diet.
Ant. i. 759 fig. 900. Besides the threefold axi ( = Axierus, Axiocersa, Axiocersus) the
amulet is inscribed casm (= Casmilus) and, in scattered letters, YPe|A {'Tyieia).
T. Mommsen in the Mittheilungen der Antiquarischen Gesellschaft in Zurich 1854 x. 115
no. 30 says : 'vide ne lusus magis quam fraus subsit huic Cabirorum enumerationi.'

4 Schol. Ap. Rhod. 1. 917 cod. Paris.

5 Lucr. 6. 1044, Plin. nat. hist. 33. 23, Isid. orig. 19. 32. 5.

6 Stat. Ach. 1. 831 f. (2. 157f.).

7 Ant. Skulpt. Berlin p. 386 f. no. 953, inscribed ......s $i\ovfievos and aTnras.