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)

572 The double axe and Zeus Labrayndos

on the Lykos ^z^z'-autonomous coppers issued by Pythes in the
time of Augustus exhibit a panther (?) shouldering a filleted double
axe, the whole encircled by a bay-wreath (fig. 470)1. The device is
Dionysiac rather than Apolline2.

On the whole, I conclude that in Phrygia, as in Lydia, the
ancestor or local hero inherited the double axe of the younger
Hittite sky-god, and in Graeco-Roman times commonly acquired
the traits of Apollon and Helios. The evidence from these adjacent
countries prepares me, then, to accept as true Plutarch's assertion
that a particular Amazonian (Hittite) axe was a sacred heirloom of
the Lydian kings. Nothing more probable.

But what of his further statement that Arselis transferred
the Lydian labrys to the Carian Zeus Labradeusz ? In Karia
the simple labrys occurs first on small gold pieces of the satrap
Pixodaros (340—334 B.C.)4, then as a symbol on bronze coins
issued at Mylasa(?) by Eupolemos, the general of Kassandros, in
314—313 B.C.5, and subsequently as an obverse or reverse type
on coppers of Alinda6, Euromos7, Mylasa (fig. 471)8, Orthosia9,
Plarasa and Aphrodisias10, Sillyon (?)n, as a symbol on coins of

1 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Phrygia p. 2871". pi. 34, 14, Imhoof-Blumer Gr. Miinzen
p. 218 nos. 712 pi. 12, 25 ( = my fig. 470) and 712 a.

2 Imhoof-Blumer loc. cit. says 'Wolf oder Hund,' but thinks that the die-sinker was
trying to represent a wolf as emblem of the river Lykos. Rasche Lex. Num. Suppl. i.
1379 f., after D. Sestini Descriptio numorum veterum ex wz«-«'j\..Lipsiae 1796 p. 467,
had long since said 'lupus.' But B. V. Head in the Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Phrygia p. 287
describes the creature as 'Lynx or Panther (?)' and in Hist, num.2 p. 679 as 'Panther.'
Cp. the pantheress with thyrsos on coins of Orthosia [Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Caria, etc.
p. 143 f. pi. 23, 5f.).

3 Supra p. 559 f.

4 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Caria, etc. p. 184 pi. 28, 12, Babelon Monn. gr. rom. ii. 2.
155 f. pi. 90, 14 on gold twenty-fourths with obv. head of Apollon, laureate.

5 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Caria, etc. p. 128 pi. 2r, 11, W. M. Leake Ntimismata
Hellenica London 1856 Kings and Dynasts p. 20, Head Hist, num.2 p. 622. See further
W. Wroth ' Eupolemus' in the Num. Chron. Third Series 1891 xi. 135—139, F. Imhoof-
Blumer ' Zur griechischen und romischen Miinzkunde' in the Revue Suisse de Numis-
matique 1908 p. 260 n.

6 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Caria, etc. p. n no. 10 early in s. ii B.C., with obv. young
male head (Herakles?), laureate, Head Hist, num.2 p. 607.

7 Imhoof-Blumer Monn. gr. p. 310 no. 54 with obv. head of Zeus, laureate.

3 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Caria, etc. p. 129 pi. 21, 16 of s. ii B.C. and later, with rev.
MYAA ZEflN ornamented trident, Imhoof-Blumer Monn. gr. p. 312 no. 70s, Head
Hist, num? p. 622. I figure a specimen from my collection.

9 Head Hist, num.2 p. 624 autonomous bronze of s. ii—i B.C.

10 Brit. Mus Cat. Coins Caria, etc. p. 25 pi. 5, 1 f. after 166 B.C., with rev. cuirass on
trophy-stand; Imhoof-Blumer Kleinas. Miinzen i. 112 no. 1 pi. 4, 11 with obv. bust
of Eros.

11 Imhoof-Blumer Kleinas. Miinzen ii. 351 no. 8 pi. 12, 9 with obv. bust of Zeus,
remarking that the rev. legend CIA AVG may be a variant spelling of the ethnic form