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)

544 The deity of the double axe

enabled here to publish (fig. 419)1 a lenticular gem of onyx-marble,
probably from Melos, now in his possession. It shows a bearded
god with wings on his shoulders2 and winglets on his heels, who is

Fig. 419.

rushing through the air with a double axe in his hand. We can
hardly be wrong in identifying him as the ' Minoan' sky-god in his
stormy aspect.

It would seem, then, that, just as various nations of antiquity
worshipped axe3 or spear4 or sword5 meaning thereby to extol the

1 Fig. 419 is drawn from an impression, to the scale of f. Fig. 419 a is a sketch of
the gem itself.

2 In accordance with a well-known convention of archaic art {e.g. Furtwangler Vasen-
samml. Berlin i. 38 no. 301, E. Gerhard in Arch. Zeit. 1854 180 ff. pi. 6i = Reinach
Rdp. Vases i. 380, 4, F. Studniczka in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 1751 f. fig. 7), which aptly
illustrates E. Loewy's law of memory-pictures, the wings, seen in their greatest extension,
are simply superposed on the figure without organic connexion.

3 The Egyptian term for 'god,' 'spirit,' 'supernatural power' is neter—a word of
very uncertain origin. The hieroglyph that is used both as the determinative of this word

and also as an ideograph is ""j. Thus or denotes 'god,' and ""j or | or ^'"j^

qcqq |

I 'gods.' Birch, Brugsch, Budge and other competent Egyptologists hold that

1

represents an axe-head let into and fastened in a long wooden handle (E. A. Wallis Budge
The Gods of the Egyptians London 1904 i. 63 ff. and A. Wiedemann in J. Hastings
Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics Edinburgh 1913 vi. 275. See also F. Legge in the
Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology 1899 xxi. 310 f., A. Mosso The Damn of
Mediterranean Civilisation London 1910 p. 145 fig. 83). A dissentient is F. LI. Griffith
A Collection of Hieroglyphs London 1898 p. 46 col. pis. 3, 26 ( = my fig. 421), 8, 114
( = my fig. 420), who says : 'A roll of yellow cloth (for bandaging?), the lower part bound
or laced over, the upper end appearing as a flap at the top, probably for unwinding... In
N. K. hatchets were made which in outline resemble this figure, perhaps intentionally.
It is possible, indeed, that the present object represents a fetish, e.g. a bone carefully
wound round with cloth, and not the cloth alone ; but this idea is not as yet supported by
any ascertained facts.' The green colouring of the handle in the two figures here given
suggests that the haft of the sacred axe was conceived as a living vegetable stem, cp. the
sarcophagus of Hagia Triada (supra p. 520 f.). Griffith op. cit. p. 63 f. col. pi. 5, 60
(—my fig. 422) is a graphic compound consisting of an open stand or funnel (?), an axe,