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

548 Zeus and the Bull in Cretan Myth

Crete struck under Caligula and Claudius have a head of Augustus
with radiate crown (fig. 416)1, or Augustus radiate with sceptre and
phidle sitting on a curule chair (fig. 41 j)2 or .on a car drawn by four
elephants (fig. 418)3, in each case encircled by the same seven stars.
The emperor poses as the Cretan Zeus4.

Fig. 415. Fig. 416.

What was this group of seven stars ? Dr B. V. Head, who
formerly5 left them nameless, now6 follows J. N. Svoronos7 in
identifying them with the septem triones8, the 'seven stars' par
excellence, best known to us as the Great Bear. They are in fact
sometimes (fig. 418) grouped about the divinised emperor in ap-

Fig. 417. Fig. 418.

proximately the same position as on a modern star-map, four of
them forming an irregular square and three a broken line. This
constellation was called Helike and connected with the Cretan
nurse of Zeus9. Popular fancy may have traced in it some

1 Svoronos op. cit. i. 335 pi. 32, 4, Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Crete etc. p. 1 pi. 1, 2,
Hunter Cat. Coins ii. 164 pi. 40, 1.

2 Svoronos op. cit. i. 334 pi.. 32, 2, Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Crete etc. p. 1 pi. 1, 1,
Head Hist, num.2 p. 479.

3 Svoronos op. cit. i. 335 f. pi. 32, 3 and 8, Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Crete etc. p. 1 pi. r,
3. Hunter Cat. Coins ii. 164, Head Hist, num.'1 p. 479.

4 Head Hist. num.x p. 384 'perhaps in the character of Zeus Kretagenes.'

5 Id. id.1 p. 384.

6 Id. id.2 p. 479.

7 J. N. Svoronos in the Bull. Corr. Hell. 1894 xviii. 115 f.

8 So already Rasche Lex. Num. viii. 629, ix. 78 f., x. 48.

9 Gundel in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. vii. 2858 ff., who attributes the connexion to
Epimenides.