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

136 The Mountain as the Throne of Zeus

at some unknown date—possibly by the Hittites in the fourteenth
and following centuries B.C.—adorned with thrones, large or small,
cut out in the living rock. H. Gelzer records a 'throne of Nahat'
on a mountain in Armenia1. Near Ikonion in Lykaonia F. Sarre
climbed an isolated rocky mound named Tuzuk-Dagh, some 150
feet above the level of the plain, and found on the summit a rock-
cut seat or throne with traces of steps leading up to it2. On the

Kara-Dagh or ' Black Mountain,' an out-
lying ridge of Tauros, is an isolated hill
the Kizil-Dagh, which rises sharply from
the plain to a height of about 360 feet.
Here in 1907 Prof. Sir W. M. Ramsay
and Miss G. Bell found 'a pinnacle of
rock forty feet high, roughly carved into
the shape of a seat or throne with high
back' (fig. 101).. .'On the throne is incised a
figure of the god, sitting, holding a sceptre
in the left hand and a cup in the right".'
Prof. A. H. Sayce regards the seated figure
as that of a king and interprets the Hittite
inscription that accompanies it as the
royal name Tarkyanas (fig. 102)4. Dr J.
Garstang accepts this reading as against

Prof. Ramsay's Tarkuattes, but adds:
.big. 102. . -ill

' it is conceivable that we have here a

representation of the deity called by a name which was that used
also by the priest5.' The priestly king thus postulated was doubt-
less the dynast of Barata at the mountain-foot6. Rock-cut thrones
have been repeatedly seen in Phrygia by A. Korte7. The rock-cut

1 Ber. sacks. Gesellsch. d. Wiss. Phil.-hist. Classe 1896 xlviii. 115. Gelzer cites from
the Armenian version of Faustus of Byzantion 5. 25 the following statement about the
Greek anchorite Epiphanios: ' Und er sass auf dem grossen Berge an der Statte der
Gotzen, welche sie Thron der Nahat nennen.'

2 Arch.-ep. Mitth. 1896 xix. 34.

3 W. M. Ramsay Luke the Physician London 1908 p. 160 pi. 16.

4 A. H. Sayce in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology 1909 xxxi. 83 ff.
pi. 7, 1.

5 J. Garstang The Land of the Hittites London 1910 p. 176 ft".

6 A copper of Barata struck by Otacilia Severa shows Tyche with kdlathos, branch (?)
and cornu copiae seated on a rock, a river-god at her feet {Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins
Lycaonia etc. p. 2 pi. 1, 3). Another noteworthy coin-type of the same town is a standing
Zeus, who rests on a sceptre and holds a phidle or globe, with an eagle beside him
(id. p. xix). Head Hist, num.? p. 713. Is Tyche enthroned on a rock the successor of
a pre-Greek mountain-mother ?

7 W. Reichel Uber norhellenische Gbtterculte Wien 1897 p. 31.