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

Zeus and Argos

Coins of Euboia from the earliest times exhibit a variety of
bovine types1, the interpretation of which is doubtful2. None of
them can be proved to have any connexion with the cult of Zeus
or Argos, Hera or Io. Still, the ox-head bound with a fillet, which
appears at Eretria (?) (fig. 31 g)3, Histiaia4, and Karystos5, is best
explained as a religious type ; and it is not unreasonable to con-
jecture that the allusion is to the cult of Hera6, who perhaps,
as at Argos7, bore the title Eitboia*. The head of Hera, likewise
bound with a fillet and often mounted on the capital of an Ionic
column, is found on coppers of Chalkis from c. 369 B.C. onwards9,
and an inscribed figure of the goddess sitting on a conical stone
with phidle and filleted sceptre occurs on a copper of the same town
struck by Septimius Severus10. At Histiaia ' rich in grape-clusters11'

Fig. 3[9. Fig. 320.

the bull stands before a vine (fig. 320)1-, and we legitimately suspect
a Dionysiac meaning.

From Euboia it is but a step to Thespiai, where a boundary-

1 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Central Greece p. 94 ff. pi. 17 ff., Hunter Cat. Coins ii. 42 ff.
pi. 33, Babelon Monn. gr. rom. ii. 1. 677 f., 685 ff. pi. 31 f., Head Hist, num.2 p. 355 ff.

2 Prof. W. Ridgeway The Origin of Metallic Currency and Weight Standards
Cambridge 1892 pp. 5, 313, 322 holds that the bovine types of Euboia point to the ox
as the original monetary unit. This view, which has been severely criticised by
Mr G. Macdonald Coin Types Glasgow 1905 p. 23 ff., does not to my thinking necessarily
conflict with the religious interpretation put upon the same types by Dr B. V. Head
Hist, num.'1 pp. 357, 361 and others: cp. infra ch. ii § 3 (c) i (0).

3 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Central Greece p. 95 f. pi. 17, 5—8, Hunter Cat. Coins
ii. 42.

4 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Central Greece p. 128 pi. 24, 8, p. 135 pi. 24, 15, Hunter
Cat- Coins ii. 48f. pi. 33, 13, Head Hist, num.11 p. 364.

5 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Central Greece p. 102 f. pi. 18, 13, 19, 3.

6 Head Hist, num.2 p. 357 : 'The Bull or Cow is possibly connected with the cult of
Hera,' etc.

7 Supra p. 445 f.

8 See Gruppe Gr. Myth. Bel. p. 417 n. 3.

9 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Central Greece pp. lx f., 112 f. pi. 20, 15, p. 115 f. pi. 21,
5 f., cp. p. 117 pi. 21, 9—11, Hunter Cat. Coins ii. 45 f., cp. p. 46 pi. 33, 8, Head
Hist, num.'2 p. 359.

10 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Central Greece p. 118 pi. 21, 12, Head Hist, num.2 p. 360.

11 II. 2. 537 iro\vc>Ta<pv\bv 6' 'Icrriaiav.

12 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Central Greece p. 125 f. pi. 24, 1, 2, 5, Hunter Cat. Coins
p. 48 ff. pi. 33, 14, 16, Head Hist, num.2 p. 364.