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

Triptolemos 231

standards was interpreted as a solar emblem1. The Mithraic
sun-god was figured with a lion's face2. The sign Leo was called
'the house of the sun3,' and—be it noted—the sun was in Leo
when Persephone was carried off4. What is perhaps more to the
point, it was Helios that took pity on Demeter and told her where
her daughter was to be sought5. Did he not also lend her his
chariot for the search6 ?

Other deities too on occasion appear in a like conveyance.
Dionysos, according to certain ceramic artists of the sixth and fifth
centuries B.C., roamed the world a la Triptolemos on a wheeled and
winged seat7. And even Athena is represented, on a red-figured
pyxis of fine style at Copenhagen, as drawn in a chariot by yoked
snakes to the judgment of Paris8.

i

1 Lyd. de mens. i. 22 p. 12, 15 Wiinsch.

2 Lact. Plac. in Stat. Theb. 1. 720 = Myth. Vat. 2. 19, Tertull. adv. Marc. 1. 13,
Porph. de abst. 4. 16.

3 Ail. de nat. an. 12. 7, Macrob. Sat. 1. 21. 16, Serv. in Verg. georg. 1. 33.

4 Schol. Arat. phaen. 150. 5 H. Dem. 62 ff.

6 In h. Dem. loc. cit. 63, 88 Helios has a chariot drawn by horses. So has the
questing Demeter on many sarcophagi (Overbeck op. cit. p. 627 ff. Atlas pi. 17, 4, 8, 10,
11, 17, 18, 19, 23). But another line of tradition gave Helios a snake-drawn chariot:
see infra ch. i § 6 (d) i (7, 5).

Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. pp. 130, 538 n. 2, 546, 1138 n. 2, 1145, 1149, 1167 n. 1
suggests that Helios was often associated in cult with Demeter. But of this I find no
convincing proof. 7 Supra p. 214 ff.

8 A. Conze Heroen- und Gottergestalten der griechischen Kunst pi. 102, 1, A. Dumont—
J. Chaplain—E. Pottier Les ceramiques de la Grece propre Paris 1888 i. 368 f. pi. 10 -
Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 1617 f. fig. 7. Hera's chariot on this vase is drawn by four
horses; that of Aphrodite by two Erotes. Probably the artist gave Athena a team of
snakes because the snake was associated with her on the Akropolis at Athens: cp. also
the cults of Athene TLapela on the road from Sparta to Arkadia (Paus. 3. 20. 8), of
Athena 'Tyela at Acharnai (Paus. 1. 31. 6) and Athens (Paus. 1. 23. 4 with J. G. Frazer
ad loc), and the word Sp&Kaiva used of Athena in Orph. h. Ath. 32. 11.

Athena is not normally connected with the solar wheel. In a vase-painting already
described [supra p. 199) she brings up the winged wheel of Ixion and may
perhaps be regarded as Athena 'Epydpyj later replaced by Hephaistos
(supra p. 200 ff). Certain small silver coins of Lampsakos (fig. 170) have
as their reverse type a head of Athena, whose helmet is marked with a
wheel (Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Mysia p. 80 no. a I. The specimen figured
is from my collection) : cp. a silver obol of Massalia c. 500 B.C. with obv.
archaic head wearing a helmet on which is a wheel, rev. a four-spoked
wheel (E. Muret—M. A. Chabouillet Catalogue des monnaies gauloises de la Biblwtheque
Nationale Paris 1889 p. 12, H. de la Tour Atlas de monnaies gauloises Paris 1892 no. 520
pi. 2, Head Hist, num.2 p. 6), and a barbarised copy of it—both found at Morella in Spain
(E. Muret—M. A. Chabouillet loc. cit., H. de la Tour op. cit. no. 524 pi. 2, R. Forrer
Keltische Numismatik der Rhein- und Donaulande Strassburg 1908 p. 81 figs. 154, 155
pi. 7). A. de Ridder Collection de Clercq Paris 1905 iii (Les Bronzes) 206 f. no. 296 pi. 48
publishes a bronze statuette of Athena holding lance and owl. The crest of her helmet is
supported by 1 une rouelle,' as on Panathenaic amphoras found in Kyrenaike (id. p. 203 ; but
see G. von Brauchitsch Diepanathendischen Preisamphoren Leipzig and Berlin 1910 p. 46 ff.).