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

752 Zeus as god of the Starry Sky

Greek with Egyptian art1. If so, we may suppose that the deco-
ration of the roof was deliberately chosen to mark the celestial
character of the god.

A notable coin-type of imperial date shows Zeus as cosmic lord
surrounded by the signs of the zodiac. Several varieties of the
type are found. Thus a magnificent copper coin of Nikaia in
Bithynia, struck by Antoninus Pius and now in the Paris cabinet,
has (fig. 551 )2 Zeus enthroned with sceptre and thunderbolt between

the chariots of the Sun and of the Moon; at his feet on either
side are two reclining figures, Gaia with corn-ears and a horn of
plenty, Thalassa with a stern-ornament and a rudder: round the
whole is the zodiac, its twelve signs all clearly expressed. Even
more ambitious is a copper coin of Perinthos in Thrace, struck by
Severus Alexander and now in the British Museum (fig. 5 5 2)3.
Within a dotted circle sits Zeus with sceptre,phidle, and eagle. In
the field above him Helios drives a team of four horses, Selene a
team of two bulls, the former accompanied by the crescent of the
latter, the latter by the star of the former. Beneath Zeus are Gaia

ways. The Theseion affords a simple example. The soffits of the coffers each present a
single star, painted probably in gold against a blue ground, and hence called ovpavos, or
ovpavlffKos—The Parthenon and the Propylaia show doubly recessed coffers....Some of
the plates of cofferings from the Propylaia still show stars' etc.), A. H. Smith in the
Brit. Mus. Cat. Sculpture ii. 84 ('When found the lower side of the lacunar stone [of
the Mausoleum] was painted bright blue.' Cp. Durm Baukunst d. Gr? p. 330 fig. 316).
The coffering of the Erechtheion is restored in gold and colours by Durm id.2 p. 261 pi.
opposite p. 252 {ib.z p. 341 pi. opposite p. 31*6 worse).

1 See J. Pennethorne The Geometry and Optics of Ancient Architecture London and
Edinburgh 1878 p. 173 f. pt. 5 pi. 3 (a comparative series of Egyptian tomb-ceilings from
Thebes and of Greek temple-ceilings from the ' Theseum' and Erechtheion, fully
coloured and gilded).

2 Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus pp. 155, 160 f. Miinztaf. 2, 13, Waddington —
Babelon—Reinach Monn. gr. d'As. Min. i. 407 pi. 68, 2, Head Hist, num.2 p. 517.

■'' Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Thrace etc. p. 157 fig. ( = my fig. 552), J. N. Svoronos in the
Bull. Corr. Hell. 1894 xviii. 104 fig. 3, Head Hist, num.2 p. 271.

Fig- 551-

Fig. 552.