Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 2,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (thunder and lightning): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1925)

to tree- or plant-forms 523

One of the short sides (pi. xxvii, c) represents a pair of horses,
blue and yellow on a white ground, drawing a two-wheeled chariot, in
which rides a couple of white-skinned women. Their robes are pink
bordered with blue, and blue bordered with yellow and white. The
four red reins are apparently held by the woman nearest the spec-
tator: she has two in her left hand and two in her right, which
encircles her companion. We have no reason to think that these
are goddesses1 or even priestesses2. More probably the}- are just
ladies belonging to the princely court—the queen, let us suppose,
and her charioteer.

The other short side (pi. xxvii,d) shows a group roughly similar in
appearance but widely different in meaning. A two-wheeled chariot
on a red ground is drawn by a pair of griffins with canine rather
than leonine bodies, variegated wings, and high plumed crests. In it
ride two female figures, of whom the nearer one in a blue robe
bordered with yellow and white holds the reins round her more
gorgeously dressed companion. In the field above the griffins hovers
a bird, which has been compared with a hoopoe3 and even with a
sparrow-hawk4. But its short beak, yellow-brown, blue, and white
feathers, black marking, and erectile crest proclaim it to be a some-
what glorified jay5. This bird, the corvusglandarius of Linnaeus, the
garruhis glandarius of later ornithologists, gets its modern scientific
name from the fact that 'the acorn is its favourite food6.' But the
ancients wrere mainly impressed by its bright colouring and its
talkative tongue. The former trait made it comparable with the
wroodpecker: the Romans called the one pica, the other picus1; and,

1 Cp. E. Petersen in the Jahrb. d. kais. dentsch. arch. List. 1909 xxiv. 168 ft".

2 A. J. Reinach in the Rev. Arch. 1908 ii. 287.

3 R. Paribeni in the Mon. d. Lincei 1908 xix. 61 : ' Xon esiste nelF avifauna medi-
terranea 1111 uccello di quella forma e di quei colori : 1' upupa, alia quale si potrebbe
pensare, ha il becco lungo, e drizza il suo pennacchio, ma non lo rovescia in avanti, come
fa il nostro uccello, e come avviene nel cacatua e in qualche altro uccello esotico.' But it
must be remembered that the young hoopoe develops its crest before its beak (R. Lydekker
The Royal Natural History London 1895 iv. 58).

4 F. M. J. Lagrange in the Revue Biblique Internationale Nouvelle Serie 1907 iv. 339
would recognise ' un epervier : !

5 I am indebted for this suggestion to my wife. A good coloured plate of the jay is
given by J. L. Bonhote Birds of Britain London 1907 p. 1 56 ff. pi. 47.

6 R. Lydekker Wild Life of the World London s.a. i. 108 with col., pi., cp. id. The
Royal Natural History London 1894—95 iii. 319 f. with fig., C. Svvainson The Folk Lore
and Provincial Names of British Birds London 1886 p. 75. Hence the Italian name
ghiandaia, and the German Eichel-hdher. Aristot. hist. an. 9. 13. 615 b 22 b orav 5'
iiiroKLiTLccFLV at (BdXavoL, clttokpuTTTOucra TafjueveTcu (sc. 7/ kitto,).

7 The relation of both words to pingo, ttolkLXos, etc. is doubtful (Walde Lat. etym.
Worterb? p. 580). So is that of our jay, French geai (in Picardy gai), Spanish gayo, gaya,
Portuguese gaio to the adjective gay (G. Kbrting Lateinisch-romamsches Wdrterbnch-
Paderborn 1901 p. 187).