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)

The double axe and Zeus Labrayndos 593

four rows of female breasts. We are, of course, inclined to regard
this effeminate form as a goddess, not a god, till we come to examine
its counterpart on the second relief (fig. 497)1. That is a sunk panel
of white marble surmounted by a pediment, found at Tegea near
the temple of Athena Alea and acquired in 1914 by the British
Museum. In the centre of the relief stands a bearded god, definitely

■

Fig. 497.

inscribed Zeus. He faces us, in chiton and himdtion, holding a double
axe over his right shoulder and a spear in his left hand. A small
piece of marble, filling the space between the head and the edge of
the panel, suggests a kdlathos. Round his neck Zeus wears a large
necklace. On his chest, and apparently outside his chiton, he has six

1 P. Foucart ' Le Zeus Stratios de Labranda' in the Mon. Piot 1910 xviii. 145—175
with figs. 1 —10, Am. Journ. Arch. 1913 xvii. 276, E. Kuhnert in Roscher Lex. Myth.
iv. 1548 f. with fig., A. H. Smith ' Some recently acquired reliefs in the British Museum '
in the Journ. Hell. Stud. 1916 xxxvi. 67—70 fig. 1 f. My fig. 497 is from a photograph
kindly supplied to me by Mr Smith. The inscriptions are published by F. Hiller von
Gaertringen in the Inscr. Gr. Arc. Lac. Mess, ii no. 89 and by F. H. Marshall The
Collection of Ancient Greek Inscriptions hi the British Museum Oxford 1916 iv. 2. 116
no. 950.

c. 11. 38