DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14695#0365
Zeus and the Solar Disk 291
iii. Zeus and the Solar Disk.
Closely akin to the wheel is its genetic precursor1 the disk.
' The Paiones,' says Maximus Tyrius, ' worship Helios, and the
Paeonian image of Helios
is a small disk on the top
of a long pole2.' With
this ritual object I have
elsewhere3 compared the
sceptre surmounted by a
circle held by Aphrodite
Ourania on coins of Ouran-
opolis in Makedonia4 (fig.
210) and the kopo or olive-
wood staff topped by a
bronze ball representing
the sun in the Boeotian
Daphnephoria5. But in-
deed the same conception
could be traced much fur-
ther afield: it accounts
satisfactorily, as I shall
hope to show on another
occasion, for the various
forms taken by May-
poles and ' Celtic' crosses
throughout Europe.
Confining our attention
to Greece, we note that a
revolving disk of bronze,
originally mounted on a
long columnar handle, was
Fig. 2ii.
1 On the evolution of the wheel from the disk see A. C. Haddon The Study of Man
London 1898 p. 168 ff., cp. Schrader Reallex. p. 929 ff.,.H. Hirt Die Indo-germanen
Strassburg 1905 i. 354 f., M. Hoernes Natur- und Urgeschichte des Menschen Vienna and
Leipzig 1909 ii. 475 ff. N. Gordon Munro in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society
of Japan 1911 xxxviii. 3. 37 f. rightly assumes the sequence O O 0 tne pictograph
of the sun, the solar disk, the solar wheel.
2 Max. Tyr. diss. 8. 8 Dlibner Uaioves aeftovoi /j.iv'"H.Xiov, dya\/j.a de'HXiov Hollovlkov
SLctkos /3pa%i)j virep /naKpov £6\ov.
3 Folk-Lore 1904 xv. 410 n. 221.
4 Anson Num. Gr. vi pi. 1, 102, pi. 2, 122 f., 126, Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Macedonia
etc. p. 133 f., Head Hist, num.2 p. 206. I figure a fine specimen in the McClean collection
at Cambridge.
5 Prokl. chrestomath. 25 p. 352 f. Gaisford ap. Phot. bibl. p. 321 a 34 ff., schol. Clem.
Al. protr. p. 298, 29 ff. Stahlin, Folk-Lore 1904 xv. 4096°.
iii. Zeus and the Solar Disk.
Closely akin to the wheel is its genetic precursor1 the disk.
' The Paiones,' says Maximus Tyrius, ' worship Helios, and the
Paeonian image of Helios
is a small disk on the top
of a long pole2.' With
this ritual object I have
elsewhere3 compared the
sceptre surmounted by a
circle held by Aphrodite
Ourania on coins of Ouran-
opolis in Makedonia4 (fig.
210) and the kopo or olive-
wood staff topped by a
bronze ball representing
the sun in the Boeotian
Daphnephoria5. But in-
deed the same conception
could be traced much fur-
ther afield: it accounts
satisfactorily, as I shall
hope to show on another
occasion, for the various
forms taken by May-
poles and ' Celtic' crosses
throughout Europe.
Confining our attention
to Greece, we note that a
revolving disk of bronze,
originally mounted on a
long columnar handle, was
Fig. 2ii.
1 On the evolution of the wheel from the disk see A. C. Haddon The Study of Man
London 1898 p. 168 ff., cp. Schrader Reallex. p. 929 ff.,.H. Hirt Die Indo-germanen
Strassburg 1905 i. 354 f., M. Hoernes Natur- und Urgeschichte des Menschen Vienna and
Leipzig 1909 ii. 475 ff. N. Gordon Munro in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society
of Japan 1911 xxxviii. 3. 37 f. rightly assumes the sequence O O 0 tne pictograph
of the sun, the solar disk, the solar wheel.
2 Max. Tyr. diss. 8. 8 Dlibner Uaioves aeftovoi /j.iv'"H.Xiov, dya\/j.a de'HXiov Hollovlkov
SLctkos /3pa%i)j virep /naKpov £6\ov.
3 Folk-Lore 1904 xv. 410 n. 221.
4 Anson Num. Gr. vi pi. 1, 102, pi. 2, 122 f., 126, Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Macedonia
etc. p. 133 f., Head Hist, num.2 p. 206. I figure a fine specimen in the McClean collection
at Cambridge.
5 Prokl. chrestomath. 25 p. 352 f. Gaisford ap. Phot. bibl. p. 321 a 34 ff., schol. Clem.
Al. protr. p. 298, 29 ff. Stahlin, Folk-Lore 1904 xv. 4096°.