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

122 Sequence of the Mountain-cults

in Messene ; but the statue of the god, made by the famous Argive
sculptor Hageladas, was kept in the house of a priest annually
appointed for the purpose1. At last Zeus was installed in a house
of his own. And splendid indeed must have been the effect of a
Greek temple with its ivory-white columns and its richly-coloured
entablature seen against the dazzling blue of a southern sky.
Hardly less beautiful would it appear when its marbles glimmering
in the moonlight contrasted with the mysterious shadows of its
colonnade2. The first temple built upon a height for Zeus of which
we have any record is the temple of Zeus Polieus constructed by
Phalaris in the first half of the sixth century on the Akropolis of
Akragas some 1200 feet above sea-level. Polyainos3 tells the
following tale with regard to its foundation:

' Phalaris was a contractor of Akragas. The citizens of that town desired to
make a temple of Zeus Polieiis at a cost of 200 talents on their Akropolis : the
site was rocky, the foundation very solid, and moreover it would be the right
thing to establish the god on the highest available point. So Phalaris tendered
an offer that, if he were appointed as overseer of the work, he would use the
best craftsmen, furnish materials without extravagance, and provide satisfactory
sureties for the funds. The people, considering that his life as a contractor had
given him experience in such matters, entrusted him with the task. On receipt
of the public moneys, he hired many strangers, purchased many prisoners, and
brought up to the Akropolis plenty of materials—stones, timber, and iron.
While the foundations were being dug, however, he sent down a crier with this
proclamation : "Whosoever will denounce those persons that have stolen stone
and iron from the Akropolis shall receive such and such a reward." The people
were angered at the theft of the materials. " Well then," said Phalaris, " suffer
me to fence in the Akropolis." The city granted him permission to fence it in
and to raise a circuit-wall. Hereupon he freed the prisoners and armed them
with his stones, axes, and double-axes. He made his attack during the festival
of the Thesmophoria, slew most of the citizens, secured the women and children,
and thus became tyrant of Akragas.'

Again, on the summit of the Larisa or Akropolis of Argos, a
rocky cone rising abruptly from the plain to a height of 950 feet,
there was a cult of Zeus Larisaios. Pausanias, who visited the spot

1 Append. B Messene.

2 Time has broken and defaced all existing Greek temples. Among the least imperfect
are the ' Theseum' at Athens, a temple of unknown dedication at Segesta, the temple of
' Concordia ' at Girgenti. But though these have preserved the form, they have lost the
colour, of a Doric structure. Nor is there to be seen any really accurate model or even
complete picture, say of the Parthenon, showing its shapes as they were, optical corrections
and all, and its colouring as it probably was. Doubtless some details would be conjectural,
but the facts are so far certain that an attempt at adequate representation might be, and
ought to be, made.

3 Polyain. 5. r. 1. See further Append. B Sicily. The site of the temple is shown in
W. Wilkins The Antiqviities of Magna Graecia Cambridge 1807 Agrigentum pi. 1 view,
Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. i. 1189 f. plan.