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

262 The Solar Wheel in Greece

with which alone we are concerned, has been very variously inter-
preted1. It is—I submit—none other than the Delphic iynx. That
this symbol should be found so far west as Etruria need not surprise
us. We have here again to reckon with the possibility of Celtic
influence. A silver disk forming part of a hoard unearthed in 1836
at Notre-Dame d'Alencon near Brissac (Maine-et-Loire) and later
acquired by the Louvre brings the wheel—presumably the Gallic
solar wheel2—into close relation with Apollon (fig. 189)3.

Philostratos, who in his Life of Apollonios spoke of the golden
iynges that hung from the Delphic temple as 'echoing the persuasive
notes of siren voices4,' records an interesting parallel from the far
east. In describing the palace of the king of Babylon he mentions
'a hall, whose ceiling was vaulted like a sky and roofed with
sapphire, a stone of the bluest and most heavenly colour. Images
of the gods whom they worship are set up above, and appear as
golden figures emerging from the upper air. Here the king passes
judgment; and iynges of gold are hung from the roof, four in
number, assuring him of divine Necessity and bidding him not to
be uplifted above mankind. These the Magians declare that they
themselves attune, repairing to the palace, and they call them the
voices of the gods5.' We should, I think, attempt to elucidate
Philostratos' account in the light of a stone tablet found by the
veteran explorer Mr Hormuzd Rassam at Abu-Habbah, the site of
the old Babylonian city Sippar (fig. 190)6. This monument, which
is now in the British Museum, is officially described as follows:

1 Korte op. cit. ii. 130 argues that the figure holding the wheel must be Myrtilos, not
Neoptolemos at all, because in one example (pi. 56, 8) four horses are present. But the
horses may quite well be those of Neoptolemos or Orestes, or may even represent the
race-course at Delphoi, where Orestes according to the feigned tale (Soph. El. 68r ff.)
was killed by his own restive team. The pillar in the background of our illustration is
equally indecisive : it stands, I think, for the Delphic omphalos, though it might perhaps
be explained as the goal-post of Oinomaos' race. Our real and conclusive reason for
regarding the scene as the death of Neoptolemos, not Myrtilos, is that the former was
notoriously slain at the altar of Apollon (Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 172), while the latter
was no less notoriously flung into the sea by Pelops (ib. ii. 3315 ff.).

2 Infra p. 288 f.

3 F. Lajard Recherches sur le culte du cypres pyramidal Paris 1854 pp. 107, 261 ff.,
362 pi. 20, 5.

4 Supra p. 258 n. 5.

5 Philostr. v. Apoll. 1. 25 p. 29, iff. Kayser...5t/edfet [xev dr] 6 ^aacKevs evravda, xpvcral
de 'ivyyes airoKpifiavTai rod 6p6(pov rerrapes tt]v 'Adpaareiav avrcp TrapeyyvQcrac kclI to /at]
virep roiis avdpwirovs atpeadai. ravras oi fiayoi. avToL cpaaiv ap/m-OTrecrdai (froiT&VTes is ra
(3ao~i\eLa, KaXovai 8e avras 6eG>v yXcbrras.

6 T. G. Pinches in the Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archeology 1885 viii.
1646°., C. J. Ball Light front the East London 1899 pp. 155—157, L. W. King Baby-
lonian Religion and Mythology London 1899 p. 19, G. Maspero The Dawn of Civilization*
London 1901 p. 657.