DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0684
The double axe and the labarum 609
lucky star of Venus1. Having disposed of a solar and of a stellar
hypothesis, Schremmer attacks the problem de novo, indeed ab ovo.
Surveying the whole history of the double axe, he argues that in the
Stone Age and the Bronze Age it was worshipped first as 'ein selb-
standiges Zauberwerkzeug2'and then as the attribute of some deity;
that in Asia Minor, to judge from numismatic evidence, the sacred
weapon, there called the labrys, survived, usually as a divine attribute,
far into the historic period (c. 400 B.C.—c. 200 A.D.); that it received
a fresh lease of life from its association with Iupiter Dolichenus, the
Roman army taking it, under its old name3, as his attribute through
Pannonia and Raetia into Germany and Gaul ; that in the north
like met like, when the double axe of Iupiter encountered the ham-
mer of Donar; and that from the north Constantine brought a
military signum, bearing the ancient name of labarum, to which later
the monogram of Christ was attached. Very ingeniously, but also
very improbably, Schremmer supposes that Constantine ascribed
his victories to the possession of an actual labrys and finds a dis-
torted allusion to it in a curious passage of Nikephoros Kallistos4.
That belated historian (s. xiv A.D.) tells how Constantine brought a
big porphyry pillar from Rome to Constantinople5, set upon it a
bronze effigy of himself holding in his right hand a large golden
apple surmounted by the cross, and buried beneath its base a variety
of sacred relics including 'the axe with which Noah made the ark.'
The big pillar still stands in a square at Stamboul marking the site
1 This symbol, usually regarded as the mirror of Venus (A. Bouche-Leclercq Vastro-
logie grecque Paris 1899 p. xix), is explained by Jeep loc. cit. p. 89 as a derivative of c/>
( = (piocr<p6pos).
2 B. Schremmer op. cit. p. 21.
" Id. ib. p. 40 notes Laburns as the name of a god worshipped near Emona (Laibach)
in Pannonia Superior (Orelli Inscr. Lat. sel. no. 2017 = Dessau Inscr. Lat. sel. no. 4877
= Corp. inscr. Lat. iii no. 3840 Laburo | ex vot. | sacr. | etc.), Labaro{!) as perhaps the
name of a god in a Spanish inscription (M. Ihm in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 1775 citing
Corp. inscr. Lat. ii no. 732 {San Vincente near Norba in Lusitania) Labaro. n. e. n. | leg.
p(ro ?). s(e ?). s(uisque?). 1.m), and Labants as the name of a Gallic soldier (Sil. It. 4. 232).
4 Nikephoros Kallistos hist. eccl. 7. 49 (i. 519 f. Ducaeus) iv Si tcj eVtXryoMeVa; is Sevpo
1&U)V(jTavTive'ux> <popip /cat tov iropcpvpovv pLeyiaTov Kiova avaffTrjcras, 8v e/c 'Pai^s rjy&yeTO, iirl
Toting tov iavrou avSpidvTa aviiTTr) Tre iroirjp.ivov ^aA/coO. iv u> /cat xP^a(OV P-^ov P-tyiarov
rrj Seljia xarexuv xeiP' eiravu) tov rlfxiov KareTtiyyvv araupov iiuypaipas ravra' 'trot, Xptcrre
6 Geo?, TrupaTLdrj/j-l tt\v ttoXiv to.vt^v.'1 a\pi<n Si areppah reaaapai ttjv tov ctti'Xou wepLKvuXcp
Qdaiv iSpdaas, viroK&TU) ttjs tvv cttvXov BdafOis tovs lB' Ko<pivovs /cat rds f airvpiSas, eVt Si
/cat tovs f apTovs, ods euXcrytas /cara|tii)cras Xptcrros rd TrXrjdr) SiidpeiJ/ev, ert Si Kal tt)v tov
Ntoe d£ivr)v, jj tt\v kiBwtov ireKTr/vaTO, avTos t'Stats xePaLV 0 BaaiXevs tui a<ppayio-Tr)pi arjp.dvas
Ka.Te'deTO' Kal vvv is ip.i tt) iroXei. acrvXos 6r)aavpbs irapap.ivov(ii.
5 Hesych. Illustr. of Miletos irdTpia KwvcrTavTivovTroXews 41 p. 17, 13 ff. Preger
(s. vi A.D.) /cat 6 iropcpvpovs /cat iveplBXeiTTOs k'iwv, iip' ov-rrep idpuadai KwvaravTivov 6pQ/xev
diKTjv jjXlov TrpoXd/j-irovTa tois iroXiTais = Anonymos iraTpia 45 p. 138, 11 ff. Preger. See
further E. Oberhummer in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. iv. 987.
C. II. 39
c
lucky star of Venus1. Having disposed of a solar and of a stellar
hypothesis, Schremmer attacks the problem de novo, indeed ab ovo.
Surveying the whole history of the double axe, he argues that in the
Stone Age and the Bronze Age it was worshipped first as 'ein selb-
standiges Zauberwerkzeug2'and then as the attribute of some deity;
that in Asia Minor, to judge from numismatic evidence, the sacred
weapon, there called the labrys, survived, usually as a divine attribute,
far into the historic period (c. 400 B.C.—c. 200 A.D.); that it received
a fresh lease of life from its association with Iupiter Dolichenus, the
Roman army taking it, under its old name3, as his attribute through
Pannonia and Raetia into Germany and Gaul ; that in the north
like met like, when the double axe of Iupiter encountered the ham-
mer of Donar; and that from the north Constantine brought a
military signum, bearing the ancient name of labarum, to which later
the monogram of Christ was attached. Very ingeniously, but also
very improbably, Schremmer supposes that Constantine ascribed
his victories to the possession of an actual labrys and finds a dis-
torted allusion to it in a curious passage of Nikephoros Kallistos4.
That belated historian (s. xiv A.D.) tells how Constantine brought a
big porphyry pillar from Rome to Constantinople5, set upon it a
bronze effigy of himself holding in his right hand a large golden
apple surmounted by the cross, and buried beneath its base a variety
of sacred relics including 'the axe with which Noah made the ark.'
The big pillar still stands in a square at Stamboul marking the site
1 This symbol, usually regarded as the mirror of Venus (A. Bouche-Leclercq Vastro-
logie grecque Paris 1899 p. xix), is explained by Jeep loc. cit. p. 89 as a derivative of c/>
( = (piocr<p6pos).
2 B. Schremmer op. cit. p. 21.
" Id. ib. p. 40 notes Laburns as the name of a god worshipped near Emona (Laibach)
in Pannonia Superior (Orelli Inscr. Lat. sel. no. 2017 = Dessau Inscr. Lat. sel. no. 4877
= Corp. inscr. Lat. iii no. 3840 Laburo | ex vot. | sacr. | etc.), Labaro{!) as perhaps the
name of a god in a Spanish inscription (M. Ihm in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 1775 citing
Corp. inscr. Lat. ii no. 732 {San Vincente near Norba in Lusitania) Labaro. n. e. n. | leg.
p(ro ?). s(e ?). s(uisque?). 1.m), and Labants as the name of a Gallic soldier (Sil. It. 4. 232).
4 Nikephoros Kallistos hist. eccl. 7. 49 (i. 519 f. Ducaeus) iv Si tcj eVtXryoMeVa; is Sevpo
1&U)V(jTavTive'ux> <popip /cat tov iropcpvpovv pLeyiaTov Kiova avaffTrjcras, 8v e/c 'Pai^s rjy&yeTO, iirl
Toting tov iavrou avSpidvTa aviiTTr) Tre iroirjp.ivov ^aA/coO. iv u> /cat xP^a(OV P-^ov P-tyiarov
rrj Seljia xarexuv xeiP' eiravu) tov rlfxiov KareTtiyyvv araupov iiuypaipas ravra' 'trot, Xptcrre
6 Geo?, TrupaTLdrj/j-l tt\v ttoXiv to.vt^v.'1 a\pi<n Si areppah reaaapai ttjv tov ctti'Xou wepLKvuXcp
Qdaiv iSpdaas, viroK&TU) ttjs tvv cttvXov BdafOis tovs lB' Ko<pivovs /cat rds f airvpiSas, eVt Si
/cat tovs f apTovs, ods euXcrytas /cara|tii)cras Xptcrros rd TrXrjdr) SiidpeiJ/ev, ert Si Kal tt)v tov
Ntoe d£ivr)v, jj tt\v kiBwtov ireKTr/vaTO, avTos t'Stats xePaLV 0 BaaiXevs tui a<ppayio-Tr)pi arjp.dvas
Ka.Te'deTO' Kal vvv is ip.i tt) iroXei. acrvXos 6r)aavpbs irapap.ivov(ii.
5 Hesych. Illustr. of Miletos irdTpia KwvcrTavTivovTroXews 41 p. 17, 13 ff. Preger
(s. vi A.D.) /cat 6 iropcpvpovs /cat iveplBXeiTTOs k'iwv, iip' ov-rrep idpuadai KwvaravTivov 6pQ/xev
diKTjv jjXlov TrpoXd/j-irovTa tois iroXiTais = Anonymos iraTpia 45 p. 138, 11 ff. Preger. See
further E. Oberhummer in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. iv. 987.
C. II. 39
c