DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0661
The double axe and Zeus Labrdyndos 587
are known to have had priests of Zeus Kretagenes and the Kouretes1.
Reverence paid to Cretan powers is at least suggestive of Cretan
affinity.
Another point deserving of consideration is the possibility that
the axe-god of Mylasa was at one time named Labrdyndos, 'He of
Labranda,' without any more exact determination. The Etymolo-
gicum Magnum*- tells how the Kouretes Labrandos, Panamoros,
and Palaxos or Spalaxos came in consequence of an oracle to Karia
and, being overtaken by night, slept on the banks of a river which
they therefore called the Heudonos. As two of these Curetic names
were obviously cult-titles of Zeus, Labrandos being derived from
the Zeus Labrdyndos of Labranda and Panamoros from the Zeus.
Pandmaros of Panamara3, O. Hofer in 1894 suspected that the third
name likewise, Palaxos or Spalaxos, might prove to be a ' Zeus-
epithetonK' His suspicion was well founded; for seven years later he
triumphantly quotes3 a dedication to Zeus Spdloxos on a small altar
found by W. Kubitschek and W. Reichel at Mastaura and published
by them in 1894". The altar in question is decorated with a double
axe also; and this tempts Hofer to hazard the guess that Palaxos
may be connected with pelekys, 'an axe.' In view of the various
disguises worn by this much-travelled word7 there is no phonetic
1 Lebas—Waddington Asie Mineure no. 394, 8 f. = Michel Recueil d'Inscr. gr. no. 472,
8 f. (Mylasa) etraSri Moc [x'w]'' 'Apiareidov, iepevs Atos Kprirayevovs /cat KovpriTcov k.t.X.
(suprai. 149 n. 1). Eid. ib. no. 406, 1 (Mylasa) [iirl aTecpaurjcpopov tov odvos tov oeiVos,
tepews Aids ~Kp-qTa]yevovs /cat Kovprjruv, k.t.X. Cp. eosd. ib. no. 338, 8 (Olymos) 'Ep/^iat
'AvTLTrarpov tov '~Epp.iov, iepei Atos KptjTa[y]evovs K[a]l KovpriTto[i> llapep.fiwpoe'i, k.t.X.].
Michel refers the first of these inscriptions, which is now in the Louvre (W. Frcehner
Miestfe imperial du Louvre. Les inscriptions grecques Paris 1865 no. 56), to the close of
s. ii B.C.
2 Et. mag. p. 389, 55 ff. EOSowos' irorapibs rrjs ttots p,ev Atas re /cat 'Fipufivrjs /cat
Aapiarjs, vvv Se Tp&Wewv Ka\ovp.€vr)s ttjs 'Actas' ort A&ftpavdos (\a/j.j3pa.5os cod. D.) /cat
Havdfxopos (cat IldXafos (IId\e£os cod. D.), rj 27rd\a£os, oi Koup^res, /card xpr\<jpx>v eVt
tt]v Kapta^ oppuivres, vvktos iTriKa.Ta\a(3ov<Tr]s, e!7rt rats 6'x^ats avrov KareKOtp'rjdrjcrai'. 7rapd
to evdrjaai ovv EuSw^oy tov woTap.bv &v6p.ao-av. Supra i. 18 n. 4.
3 Supra i. 18 ff.
4 O. Heifer in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 1777 f.
5 Id. ib. iii. 1276.
6 W. Kubitschek—W. Reichel in the Anzeiger der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wisscn-
schaften Phil.-hist. Classe 1893 (Wien 1894) xxx. 93 no. 2: ' aus Mastaura ein kleiner
Altar, dessen Vorderseite in Relief die Biiste eines unbartigen Kopfes mit Schleier und
die Worte 7' Att 27raXcj|o;''A/xfxi(o)v evxv" trkgt, wahrend auf der Rttckseite eine Doppelaxt
erscheint.'
7 7rAe/ci<s, Sanskrit paracu-h (pdrcu-k), was a loan-word from the east, cp. Babylonian-
Assyrian pilaqqu, Sumerian balag, 'axe' (H. Lewy Die semitischen Fremdivdrter itn
Griechischen Berlin 1895 p. 178, Prellwitz Etym. Wdrterb. d. Gr. Spr.- p. 358, Boisacq
Diet. etym. de la Langue Gr. p. 761 f.). Babr. 64. 9 koX tQi> ireKvKWv tQv del ae TetxvbvTwv
(so W. G. Rutherford, in his ed. of 1883, with excision of line 8) implies a form 7rAi7£.
R. Eisler in Philologns 1909 lxviii. 126 n. 27 derives Bepenvvdai, BepeKwres, Bepticvvdos,
are known to have had priests of Zeus Kretagenes and the Kouretes1.
Reverence paid to Cretan powers is at least suggestive of Cretan
affinity.
Another point deserving of consideration is the possibility that
the axe-god of Mylasa was at one time named Labrdyndos, 'He of
Labranda,' without any more exact determination. The Etymolo-
gicum Magnum*- tells how the Kouretes Labrandos, Panamoros,
and Palaxos or Spalaxos came in consequence of an oracle to Karia
and, being overtaken by night, slept on the banks of a river which
they therefore called the Heudonos. As two of these Curetic names
were obviously cult-titles of Zeus, Labrandos being derived from
the Zeus Labrdyndos of Labranda and Panamoros from the Zeus.
Pandmaros of Panamara3, O. Hofer in 1894 suspected that the third
name likewise, Palaxos or Spalaxos, might prove to be a ' Zeus-
epithetonK' His suspicion was well founded; for seven years later he
triumphantly quotes3 a dedication to Zeus Spdloxos on a small altar
found by W. Kubitschek and W. Reichel at Mastaura and published
by them in 1894". The altar in question is decorated with a double
axe also; and this tempts Hofer to hazard the guess that Palaxos
may be connected with pelekys, 'an axe.' In view of the various
disguises worn by this much-travelled word7 there is no phonetic
1 Lebas—Waddington Asie Mineure no. 394, 8 f. = Michel Recueil d'Inscr. gr. no. 472,
8 f. (Mylasa) etraSri Moc [x'w]'' 'Apiareidov, iepevs Atos Kprirayevovs /cat KovpriTcov k.t.X.
(suprai. 149 n. 1). Eid. ib. no. 406, 1 (Mylasa) [iirl aTecpaurjcpopov tov odvos tov oeiVos,
tepews Aids ~Kp-qTa]yevovs /cat Kovprjruv, k.t.X. Cp. eosd. ib. no. 338, 8 (Olymos) 'Ep/^iat
'AvTLTrarpov tov '~Epp.iov, iepei Atos KptjTa[y]evovs K[a]l KovpriTto[i> llapep.fiwpoe'i, k.t.X.].
Michel refers the first of these inscriptions, which is now in the Louvre (W. Frcehner
Miestfe imperial du Louvre. Les inscriptions grecques Paris 1865 no. 56), to the close of
s. ii B.C.
2 Et. mag. p. 389, 55 ff. EOSowos' irorapibs rrjs ttots p,ev Atas re /cat 'Fipufivrjs /cat
Aapiarjs, vvv Se Tp&Wewv Ka\ovp.€vr)s ttjs 'Actas' ort A&ftpavdos (\a/j.j3pa.5os cod. D.) /cat
Havdfxopos (cat IldXafos (IId\e£os cod. D.), rj 27rd\a£os, oi Koup^res, /card xpr\<jpx>v eVt
tt]v Kapta^ oppuivres, vvktos iTriKa.Ta\a(3ov<Tr]s, e!7rt rats 6'x^ats avrov KareKOtp'rjdrjcrai'. 7rapd
to evdrjaai ovv EuSw^oy tov woTap.bv &v6p.ao-av. Supra i. 18 n. 4.
3 Supra i. 18 ff.
4 O. Heifer in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 1777 f.
5 Id. ib. iii. 1276.
6 W. Kubitschek—W. Reichel in the Anzeiger der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wisscn-
schaften Phil.-hist. Classe 1893 (Wien 1894) xxx. 93 no. 2: ' aus Mastaura ein kleiner
Altar, dessen Vorderseite in Relief die Biiste eines unbartigen Kopfes mit Schleier und
die Worte 7' Att 27raXcj|o;''A/xfxi(o)v evxv" trkgt, wahrend auf der Rttckseite eine Doppelaxt
erscheint.'
7 7rAe/ci<s, Sanskrit paracu-h (pdrcu-k), was a loan-word from the east, cp. Babylonian-
Assyrian pilaqqu, Sumerian balag, 'axe' (H. Lewy Die semitischen Fremdivdrter itn
Griechischen Berlin 1895 p. 178, Prellwitz Etym. Wdrterb. d. Gr. Spr.- p. 358, Boisacq
Diet. etym. de la Langue Gr. p. 761 f.). Babr. 64. 9 koX tQi> ireKvKWv tQv del ae TetxvbvTwv
(so W. G. Rutherford, in his ed. of 1883, with excision of line 8) implies a form 7rAi7£.
R. Eisler in Philologns 1909 lxviii. 126 n. 27 derives Bepenvvdai, BepeKwres, Bepticvvdos,