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

Sequence of the Mountain-cults 121

conjectures that the altar of Zeus mentioned by Pausanias was not
the gorgeous monument of Eumenes ii but this more homely
place of sacrifice1. If so, it was impressive from its sheer simplicity.
Like the altar of Zeus Olympios in the Altis at Olympia, it was
a mere heap of ashes, consisting entirely of the calcined thighs of
victims sacrificed to Zeus2.

The dedication of an altar with neither temple nor statue of the
god is characteristic of the early so-called aniconic stage of Greek
religion. But it must not be supposed that the absence of a visible
representation of Zeus was due merely to the backward state of
sculptural art at the time when the cult in question was founded.
Rather it must be traced back to the primitive conception of Zeus
as the Bright Sky, alive and potent, but not as yet anthropomorphic3,
and therefore not as yet represented by a statue.

With the change to anthropomorphism came the introduction
of statues into the mountain-cults of Zeus. Where- there had been
an altar and nothing more, there was now, if the cult moved with
the times, an altar and a statue of the god standing beside it. Thus
on the top of Mount Hymettos there was an altar and statue of
Zeus Hymettios^. On Mount Parnes Zeus was worshipped under

several names : as Ombrios and Apemios he received sacrifices on
one altar, as Semaleos on another; and, apparently beside this
latter, was a bronze statue of Zeus Parnethios5. Mount Laphystion,
near Orchomenos in Boiotia, had a precinct and a stone statue of
Zeus Laphystios: tradition told how king Athamas was here on
the point of sacrificing his own son and daughter, Phrixos and
Helle, when in the nick of time Zeus sent the ram with the golden
fleece to aid their escape6. The summit of Mount Athos was sacred
to Zeus Athoios, who had there one or more altars and a (bronze?)
statue7. Doubtless too the statue of Zeus Aitnaios on Mount Aitne8,
that of the Chaeronean Zeus on the crag called Petrachos9, and that
of Zeus Anchesmios on Mount Anchesmos near Athens10 had altars
of their own.

A third and final stage in the evolution of the cult was reached,
when the figure of the god came to be suitably housed in a temple.
But this was an innovation not brought about all at once. Zeus
Ithomdtas, for example, was worshipped on the top of Mount Ithome

1 Id. ib.

2 Append. B Mysia. On altars made of ashes see E. Reisch in Pauly-Wissowa
Real-Enc. i. 1668 f., J. G. Frazer on Paus. 5. 13. 8 (iii. 556 f.).

3 Supra p. i ff. 4 Append. B Attike. 5 Ib.

6 Ib. Boiotia. 7 Ib. Makedonia. 8 Ib. Sicily.

9 Ib. Boiotia. 10 Ib. Attike.