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

4-02 The Ram and the Sun in Phrygia

The well-known fragment of Euripides' Cretans1 suffices to prove
that the mysteries of Zeus Idazos, the mountain-mother, and
Zagreus were already connected with that island in the fifth
century B.C. Not improbably they had been celebrated there from
time immemorial. Silver coins of Priansos in Crete from c. 430 B.C.
onwards represent a goddess enthroned beneath a palm-tree, who
caresses with her hand the head of a great snake (fig. 299)2.
F. Lenormant3, Prof. P. Gardner4 and Mr W. Wroth5 have made
out a strong case for regarding this goddess as Persephone the
mother of Zagreus. J. N. Svoronos would see in her Hygieia6.
Dr B. V. Head cautiously observes: ' The goddess fondling the
serpent may be Persephone approached by Zeus in the likeness of
a serpent..., or possibly Hygieia7.' Whatever her name, she could
doubtless claim kinship with the snake-goddess of Knossos,
Gournia, and Palaikastro8. Other silver coins, probably struck at

Gortyna between 66 and 31 B.C., belong to the large series of
kistophoroi. This quasi-federal currency had on its obverse side

maior qui gregem anteire consuevit: sicut etiam in comoediis invenitur. And Gruppe
Gr. Myth. Bel. p. 1388 n. 8 thinks that this use of rirvpos came to Sparta from Crete.
It is therefore just possible that at Gortyna Zeus was originally a ram-god. But?

The head of Zeus Amnion, both bearded and beardless, occurs on coins of the Cretan
towns Arkadia c. 300 B.C. (J. N. Svoronos Numismatique de la Crete ancienne Macon
1890 i. 26 f. pi. 2, 16—31, Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Crete etc. p. 12 pi. 3, 7 f., Hunter Cat.
Coins ii. 170, Head Hist. 7ium? p. 458) and Knossos c. 200—100 B.C. (Svoronos op. cit.

i. 78 f. pi. 6, 24, 26, Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Crete etc. p. 23 pi. 6, 9, Hunter Cat. Coins

ii. 176 pi. 41, 4, Head Hist, num.'2, p. 462).

1 Eur. Cretes frag. 472 Nauck2.

2 J. N. Svoronos Numismatique de la Crete ancienne Macon 1890 i. 295 f. pi. 28,
21—23, Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Crete etc. p. 73 pi. 18, 6 ( = my fig. 299), 7, Head Hist.
num.12 p. 476.

3 F. Lenormant in the Gaz. Arch. 1879 v. 24.

4 P. Gardner Types of Gk. Coins p. 162 pi. 9, 5.

5 W. Wroth in the Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Crete etc. p. xxxii f., cp. Journ. Hell.
Stud. 1884 v. 87 f.

6 J. N. Svoronos loc. cit.

7 Head loc. cit.

8 The examples of a 'Minoan' snake-goddess are listed by H. Prinz in the Ath. Mitth.
1910 xxxv. 157 f.

Fig. 299.

Fig. 300.

Fig. 301.