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

130 The Mountain as the Throne of Zeus

draw near with gestures of acclamation. The whole scene takes
place in front of a curtained colonnade. Above it stands Apollon
in a cave with a kithdra in his hand and an omphalos at his feet:
against the omphalos lean the bow and quiver of the god, and one
of the Muses1 raising a roll stands before him. To the right of
the cave and immediately in front of a large tripod with domed
cover is the statue of a man holding a roll, which statue—as Goethe
was the first to suggest—probably represents a poet2 who has won

Fig. 97.

a tripod in some poetical contest3 and has celebrated the event by
dedicating this votive relief. To the left of the cave and above it,
winding up the mountain-height, are the eight remaining Muses,

1 This figure has often been called the Pythian priestess. Her true character was
determined by S. Reinach, and replicas were cited by W. Amelung: see C. Watzinger
op. cit. p. 6.

2 Others have interpreted the figure as Homer, Hesiod, Orpheus. But, had a famous
poet of ancient date been meant, his name—as in the case of 0MHP02—would have been
inscribed below him. The existing head is a restoration.

?' C. Watzinger op. cit. p. 21 cp. Paus. 9. 31. 3. Bruckner ib. cites a yet closer
parallel, viz. an inscribed slab from Teos (middle of 2nd cent. B.C.), now in the Fitzwilliam
Museum at Cambridge, which concludes a decree in honour of the flute-player Kraton
thus: 7rapaTi9e<rdai 5e /cat ev rats deais /cat ev rats irofxirah ir<x\pa top avbpLdvra top
Kparwvos, tov iv Til ffearpq) rpliro\8a re /cat 0vp.LaTiqpLov k.t.\. {Corp. inscr. Gr. ii
no. 3068, 22 ff. = Michel Recueil'd*Inscr. gr. no. 1016, 226°.).