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

The Mountain as the Throne of Zeus 137

altars of Kybele discovered by Prof. Sir W. M. Ramsay on the
plateau of Dogkanlu, the Phrygian town of Midas, resemble
thrones at least as much as altars1. The most striking example
of these rock-cut thrones is, however, one on Mount Sipylos in
Lydia. Pausanias, a native of the locality, calls it the ' throne of
Pelops2.' And Dr Frazer in his commentary describes the scenery
as follows3: ' On the south side of the fertile valley of the Hermus,
Mount Sipylus (Manissa-dagh) towers up abruptly, like an immense
wall of rock. Its sides are very precipitous, indeed almost perpen-
dicular. The city of Magnesia, the modern Manissa, lies immediately
at its foot. About four miles east of Magnesia the mountain wall
of rock is cleft, right down to the level of the Plermus valley, by
a narrow ravine or canon, which pierces deep into the bowels of the
mountain. It is called by the Turks the Yarik Kaya or " rifted
rock." The canon is only about 100 feet wide; its sides are sheer
walls of rock, about 500 feet high; there is a magnificent echo in it.
A small stream flows through the bottom; it is probably the
Achelous of Homer {Iliad, xxiv. 616). It is plain that the ravine
has been scooped out in the course of ages by the stream wearing
away the limestone rock ; but it would naturally be regarded by the
ancients as the result of a great earthquake, such as are common
in this district. On the western edge of the canon, half-way up
the mountain-wall of Sipylus, there shoots up a remarkable crag,
which stands out by itself from the mountain-side. On one side
it is possible from its summit to drop a stone 900 feet sheer into
the canon ; on all other sides it rises with a perpendicular face 100
feet from the mountain. Even to reach the foot of this crag from
the plain, stout limbs and a steady head are needful; for the ancient
mule-path, partly hewn out of the rock, partly supported on walls
on the edge of precipices, has mostly disappeared ; and there is
nothing for it but to cling as best you can to the bushes and the
projections of the rock. In this way you at last reach the foot of
the cliff, the sheer face of which seems to bar all further advance.
However, on the western side of the crag there is a cleft or "chimney"
(cheminee), as they would call it in Switzerland, which leads up to
the top, otherwise quite unapproachable, of the crag. In antiquity
there seems to have been a staircase in the " chimney." The first
few steps of it may be seen under the bushes with which the rocky
fissure is overgrown. The upper surface of the crag, reached

1 Perrot-Chipiez Hist, de VArtv. 148. ff. figs. 102—-104, W. M. Ramsay in fount.
Hell. Stud. 1882 iii. 13 f. figs. \ 42 fig. 9, pi. 21 B. On the thrones of Kybele and the
Korybantes see further Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 1523 n. 4.

2 Append. B Lydia. 3 J. G. Frazer on Paus. 5. 13. 7 (iii. 552 f.).