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

2o8 The Solar Wheel in Greece

The second with equally little alteration served as the emblem of
Auramazda (Zeus Oromasdes)1. He appears in the reliefs of

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Fig. 153-

Persepolis encircled by the same solar2 ring, which is winged and
furnished with the like appendages: his royal robe {kdndys), as

before, passes into the tail-feathers3. A specimen
figured by F. Lajard illustrates both types at once,
the latter being superposed on the former (fig. 15 3)4-
Cilician coins struck by the Persian satrap Tiri-
bazos (386—380 B.C.) show the same deity Aura-
mazda rising from a similar ring or wheel: he
holds a wreath in one hand, a lotus-flower in the
other (fig. 154)5.

1 Supra p. 10 n. i.

2 Sepulchral reliefs from Persepolis give the symbol a lunar significance, the crescent
moon being inscribed in the ring (see G. Hiising ' Iranischer Mondkult' in the Archiv f.
Rel. 1901 iv. 349—357).

3 G. Maspero The Passing of the Empires London 1900 p. 577, cp. 68 r.

4 F. Lajard Recherches sur le culte, les symboles, les attributs, et les monuments figure's
de Vdnus Paris 1837 pp. 156 f.

5 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Lycaonia etc. Issos p. 90 pi. 15, 3; Mallos p. cxxii (cp.
Hunter Cat. Coins ii. 537 pi. 59, 15); Soloi p. 148 pi. 26, 2; Tarsos p. 164 pi. 29, 1.
I have figured the coin of Tarsos. Head Hist, num.2 pp. 722, 724, 728, 730.