DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0633
The double axe and Zeus Labrayndos 559
(£) The double axe and Zeus Kataibates.
We are, therefore, prepared to find that towns and districts for-
merly occupied by ' Minoans' might centuries later connect Zeus
with the double axe that had belonged to his predecessor. This
seems to have been the case, for example, in south Italy. Tradition
derived the Iapyges from the Cretan followers of king Minos ; and
in Iapygia 'bolts from heaven forged of bronze were long to be
seen.' The deity who hurled these bolts—' fire and bronze from
the sky'—had a pillar-cult, and was called by the Tarentines Zeus
Kataibates1. A strong presumption is thus raised that the old
' Minoan' sky-god had here passed on the double axe of bronze to
his Hellenic successor Zeus2.
(17) The double axe and Zeus Labrayndos, etc.
The same thing happened repeatedly in Asia Minor. Evidence
is forthcoming from Lydia, Karia, Kypros, and Kappadokia. Plu-
tarch propounds, as one of his Hellenic Questions'", the following
problem : ' Why does the image of Zeus Labradeus in Karia bear
an uplifted double axe, and not a sceptre or a thunderbolt?' His
solution is this :
'Because Herakles slew Hippolyte, took her double axe along with the rest
of her weapons, and gave it as a gift to Omphale. The kings, who, after Omphale,
reigned over Lydia4, used to carry it, receiving it in succession as a sacred heir-
loom, till Kandaules, disdaining to do so, gave it to one of his friends to carry5.
But when Gyges revolted from him and made war against him, Arselis0 came
from Mylasa" with a force to help Gyges, and slew Kandaules and his friend.
The double axe he took into Karia together with the rest of the spoils. He made
1 Supra pp. 29—31.
2 Not improbably bronze axes, regarded as thunderbolts (C. Blinkenberg The Thunder-
weapon in Religion and Folklore Cambridge 1911 p. 121), were from time to time dug up
in the locality. E.g. T. E. Peet The Stone and Bronze Ages in Italy and Sicily Oxford
1909 p. 423 records the finding of a bronze winged axe in the terraviara at Taranto.
3 Plout. quaestt. Gr. 45 did rl rod Aa(3pa5ecos Aids ev Kapiq. to dyaX/xa ireXeKvv rjp/x4vov,
ovxl Se aKTjivTpov 7? Kepawov, TrewoLrjTai;
4 See now Frazer Golden Bough'-'': Adonis Attis Osiris3 i. 182 fif. ('The Divinity of
Lydian Kings').
5 G. Radet La Lydie et le monds grec au temps des Mermnades (687—546) Paris 1893
pp. 88 f., 129 f.
B M. Duncker Geschichte des Alterthums° Leipzig 1878 i. 488 conjectured thaGApcnyXis
was not a historical personage, but the name or epithet of the Zeus of Mylasa—'eine
Vermuthung, die dadurch Gewissheit wird, dass Chars-El in den semitischen Sprachen:
Beil des El, Beil Gottes bedeutet2 [2Lassen Z. D. M. G. 10, 381].' This ingenious explana-
tion, first put forward by C. Lassen in the Zeitschrifl der Deutschen morge?ildtidischen Gesell-
schaftx. 381, is rightly rejected by R. Schubert Geschichte der Konige von Lydien Breslau
1884 p. 32 f. and G. Radet op. cit. p. 136 n. 2.
7 A. Meineke corrects £k MvXewv codd. into e/c MuAcwrewv.
(£) The double axe and Zeus Kataibates.
We are, therefore, prepared to find that towns and districts for-
merly occupied by ' Minoans' might centuries later connect Zeus
with the double axe that had belonged to his predecessor. This
seems to have been the case, for example, in south Italy. Tradition
derived the Iapyges from the Cretan followers of king Minos ; and
in Iapygia 'bolts from heaven forged of bronze were long to be
seen.' The deity who hurled these bolts—' fire and bronze from
the sky'—had a pillar-cult, and was called by the Tarentines Zeus
Kataibates1. A strong presumption is thus raised that the old
' Minoan' sky-god had here passed on the double axe of bronze to
his Hellenic successor Zeus2.
(17) The double axe and Zeus Labrayndos, etc.
The same thing happened repeatedly in Asia Minor. Evidence
is forthcoming from Lydia, Karia, Kypros, and Kappadokia. Plu-
tarch propounds, as one of his Hellenic Questions'", the following
problem : ' Why does the image of Zeus Labradeus in Karia bear
an uplifted double axe, and not a sceptre or a thunderbolt?' His
solution is this :
'Because Herakles slew Hippolyte, took her double axe along with the rest
of her weapons, and gave it as a gift to Omphale. The kings, who, after Omphale,
reigned over Lydia4, used to carry it, receiving it in succession as a sacred heir-
loom, till Kandaules, disdaining to do so, gave it to one of his friends to carry5.
But when Gyges revolted from him and made war against him, Arselis0 came
from Mylasa" with a force to help Gyges, and slew Kandaules and his friend.
The double axe he took into Karia together with the rest of the spoils. He made
1 Supra pp. 29—31.
2 Not improbably bronze axes, regarded as thunderbolts (C. Blinkenberg The Thunder-
weapon in Religion and Folklore Cambridge 1911 p. 121), were from time to time dug up
in the locality. E.g. T. E. Peet The Stone and Bronze Ages in Italy and Sicily Oxford
1909 p. 423 records the finding of a bronze winged axe in the terraviara at Taranto.
3 Plout. quaestt. Gr. 45 did rl rod Aa(3pa5ecos Aids ev Kapiq. to dyaX/xa ireXeKvv rjp/x4vov,
ovxl Se aKTjivTpov 7? Kepawov, TrewoLrjTai;
4 See now Frazer Golden Bough'-'': Adonis Attis Osiris3 i. 182 fif. ('The Divinity of
Lydian Kings').
5 G. Radet La Lydie et le monds grec au temps des Mermnades (687—546) Paris 1893
pp. 88 f., 129 f.
B M. Duncker Geschichte des Alterthums° Leipzig 1878 i. 488 conjectured thaGApcnyXis
was not a historical personage, but the name or epithet of the Zeus of Mylasa—'eine
Vermuthung, die dadurch Gewissheit wird, dass Chars-El in den semitischen Sprachen:
Beil des El, Beil Gottes bedeutet2 [2Lassen Z. D. M. G. 10, 381].' This ingenious explana-
tion, first put forward by C. Lassen in the Zeitschrifl der Deutschen morge?ildtidischen Gesell-
schaftx. 381, is rightly rejected by R. Schubert Geschichte der Konige von Lydien Breslau
1884 p. 32 f. and G. Radet op. cit. p. 136 n. 2.
7 A. Meineke corrects £k MvXewv codd. into e/c MuAcwrewv.