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

Triptolemos

235

Iao is here expressly identified with both Zeus and Helios. These
identifications might be illustrated by some of the bizarre devices
to be seen on Gnostic amulets. For example, an onyx published
by Spon (fig. 172)1 represents a youthful,
beardless Zeus enthroned with sceptre,
thunderbolt, and eagle, the legend on
the back being Iao Sabao(tk)2.

The Phoenician quarter-shekel—to
judge from its weight, style, and fabric—
was struck about 350 B.C., and therefore
furnishes our earliest evidence of Jehovah Fig. 172.

conceived by the gentiles as Zeus. Un-
fortunately we do not know where the coin was issued. The
eminent numismatist J. P. Six ascribed it, along with a series of
somewhat similar pieces, to Gaza Minoa in southern Palestine3. If
this attribution is sound—and it has been widely accepted4,—I
would suggest that the helmeted head with a bay-wreath on the
obverse is that of Minos the eponymous founder, who figures as
a helmeted warrior holding the branch of a sacred bay-tree on later
coins of the town (fig. 174)5. The grotesque face or mask on the

179 f. = F. G. Kenyon op. cit. i. 70 no. 46, 175 f.) and deairor 'I&co cpwacpope (Wessely ib. 46.
304 f. = Kenyon ib. i. 74 no. 46, 300 f.) : see H. van Herwerden in Mnemosyne N.S. 1888
xvi. 323 f. Finally, in the Gnostic gospel Pistis Sophia 26, 34, 193, 322 we get Ieii (who
is distinguished from three several divine powers named lad: see Baudissin op. cit. i. 186)
described as the 'eirLcrKoiros of Light,' cp. the prayers ib. 357 airepavrou Light: aerjiovw,
law, aw't, wia...Ieov, 2a/3aa;#, 375 airepavrov Light : taw touw taw awt' wi'a...tat* tat. The
ultimate source of these conceptions is, doubtless, 'the glory of the lord' familiar to
us from the Old Testament (B. Stade Biblische Theologie des Alten Testaments Tubingen
1905 i. 94f.).

. 1 J. Spon Miscellanea eruditce antiquitatis Lugduni 1685 p. 297 f. 'Amuleta' no. 14,
Montfaucon Antiquity Explained trans. D. Humphreys London 1721 ii. 232 pi. 50, 34.

2 Another gem given by Montfaucon op. cit. 1725 Suppl. i. 242 pi. 5.2, 4 = fig. 173
bears no inscription, but exhibits the same latter-day syncretism.
It shows Zeus enthroned with a sceptre (?) in his hand amid a
group of signs apparently representing the heavenly bodies—
a winged globe, the moon, the evening star, the constellation
Cancer, and other symbols of more doubtful meaning. For
Babylonian and Greek ideas were freely blended in an omni-
credulous age.

3 J. P. Six in the Num. Chron. New Series 1877 xvii. 229 f.,
cp. ib. 1878 xviii. 125 'dans le sud de la cinquieme satrapie.'

4 E.g. by Head Hist, num.'1 p. 805, Babelon Monn. gr. rom. ii.
2. 655 f. pi. 124, 5.

5 Eckhel Doctr. num. vet.2 hi. 449, 45t, Rasche Lex. Num.
Suppl. ii. 1196, Head Hist, num.2 p. 805, inscr. A\EINCO. K. B. jrjg ty^.
Stark Gaza und die philistaische Kiiste Jena 1852 p. 580 ff. regards

the alleged connexion of Minos with Gaza as ' eine gelehrte Sagenbildung aus romischer
Zeit' ; but he is over-sceptical.