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

706

Goat instead of Bull

(k) Zeus, Dionysos, and the Goat.

The Attic festivals with their amazing output of tragedy and
comedy tended to obscure the early Thraco-Phrygian relations
of Zeus, Dionysos, and the goat. But it would be a mistake
to suppose that those relations were wholly forgotten. For ex-
ample, at the Phrygian Laodikeia, a town once called Diospolis1,

Fig. 521. Fig. 522.

quasi-autonomous coppers were issued with a bust of Zeus Aseis2
on the obverse and sometimes a goat on the reverse side (fig. 521)3,
or again with a youthful head of Demos on the obverse and Zeus
Aseis carrying the infant Dionysos with a goat beside him on the
reverse (fig. 522)4.

A fragmentary kylix of red-figured technique, painted in the
style of Hieron and found on the Akropolis at Athens (fig. S23)5,

1 Plin. nat. hist. 5. 105.

2 This cult-title has been usually identified with the name of the Syrian and Arabian
god Azizos (O. Jessen in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. ii. 1531, Sir W. M. Ramsay The Cities
and Bishoprics of Phrygia Oxford 1895 i. 33), who along with Monimos was worshipped
at Edessa as a supporter of Helios (Ioul. or. 4. 150 c, 154 a), the pair being probably
conceived as morning- and evening-star (F. Cumont in Pauly—Wissowa Keal-Enc. ii.
2644, H. Steuding in Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 743, W. Drexler id. ii. 3202, R. Dussaud in
the Rev. Arch. 1903 i. 128—133, 1904 i. 208 n. $ = id. Notes de mythologie syrienne Paris
1903 pp. 9 —14, 1905 p. 75 n.3). If so, the epithet is Semitic {laziz, 'the Strong').
But P. Carolidis Bemerkungen zu den alten kleinasiatischen Sprachen und My then Strass-
burg 1913 p. 32 f. proposes to refer it to an Armenian cus, ' Luft, dann Geist, Damon
und Gott.' Both explanations are highly precarious.

3 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Phrygia pp. lxxxi, 300 pi. 36, ri S6VC AC6IC
and AAOAI [K]GilN, Imhoof-Blumer Monn. gr. p. 407 no. 128, Head Hist, num.2
p. 679.

4 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Phrygia pp. lxxxi, 298 pi. 36, 5 AHMOC and A AO AI
K €f!N» Eckhel Doctr. num. vet.2 iii. 158 f., Rasche Lex. num. Suppl. hi. 263,
Imhoof-Blumer Monn. gr. p. 407 no. 129 pi. G, 30. The same reverse is found on a
coin struck by Iulia Domna {id. ib. p. 407 no. 131), and, with the head of Zeus turned to
the left, on a coin of Otacilia {Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Phrygia p. 323 no. 258, Imhoof-
Blumer Monn. gr. p. 407 no. 132 pi. G, 31). Cp. also a coin of L. Aelius Caesar with
reverse showing Zeus Aseis, who stands to the left and extends his right hand over the
head of a goat {Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Phrygia p. 311 no. 20T AC6IC AAOAI KGflN,
Imhoof-Blumer Monn. gr. p. 407 no. 130).

5 First published in the Jahi-b. d. kais. deutsch. arch. Inst. 1891 vi. 43 pi. 1 by