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)

6io The double axe and the labarum

of Constantine's Forum1. But it is a charred ruin'2. The statue on
it was upset by a great south wind in 1105 A.D.3 The porphyry-
drums were encircled by bands of iron before 1561 A.D.4 The four
marble steps then visible5 were concealed, probably after the fire of
l779 A.D., by a clumsy cloak of masonry6. Does the base yet guard
the axe of Noah as part of its 'inviolable treasure7'?

Schremmer looks to the Germanic north for an explanation of
the labarum. I should look rather to the east, where Constantine
had served under Galerius for the best part of a decade (296—
306 A.D.). When we remember, on the one hand, the role played by
the double axe in the religion of Phrygia8, on the other, the fact
that Noah in the ark appears on coins of the Phrygian Apameia
Kibotos from the end of the second to the middle of the third cen-
tury A.D.9, it does not seem extravagant to conjecture that the axe
of Noah was but the ancient Anatolian Idbrys, in a novel Jewish
disguise. Indeed, it is more than probable that in the near east the
cult of the Idbrys, under various modifications, lingered on through-
out the early centuries of the Christian era. F. Legge10 has recently
drawn attention to the Ophite diagram of the supramundane region,
which included two pairs of concentric circles, the one pair inscribed
'Father' and 'Son,' the other pair coloured yellow and blue, and
between them a barrier in the form of a double axe11. The original

1 J. Ebersolt Constantinople Byzantine et les Voyageurs du Levant Paris 1919 Index
p. 271 s.v. ' Colonne de Constantin' (elevation on p. 69 fig. 12), id. Sancluaires de
Byzance Paris 1921 p. 71 ff. fig. 13.

I Hence it is called 1 la Colonne Brulee.'

3 Anonymos iraTpia 45 a p. 138, 13 ff. Preger with J. Ebersolt'f/. cit. p. 43.

4 P. Gyllius De topographia Constantinopoleos, et de illius aniiquitatibus Lugduni 1561
p. 142. Cp. E. Oberhummer loc. cit.: 'tiirkisch Dschemberli Tasch (d.i. "Saule mit den
Reifen ").'

8 J. Ebersolt Constantinople Byzantine et les Voyageurs dn Levant p. 79 f.

6 Id. id. p. 196.

7 Id. Sanctuaires de Byzance p. 73 says of the axe : 'sa presence au palais est attestee
en 115711 (nCf. Riant, Exuvicc, t. II, p. 215.); mais les pelerins slaves de la derniere
epoque la mentionnent toujours dans la Colonne12 (12Cf. Itin. russes, p. 119, 203, 238).'

8 Supra p. 572.

9 For the literature of this famous type see W. Drexler in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 448.
Good illustrations in F. W. Madden ' On some coins of Septimius Severus, Macrinus,
and Philip I., struck at Apameia, in Phrygia, with the legend NH6 ' in the Num. Chron.
New Series 1866 vi. 173—219 pi. 6, 1—3, Hunter Cat. Coins ii. 480 pi. 56, 16,
G. F. Hill A Handbook of Greek and Roman Coins London 1899 p. 170 fig. 28,
G. Macdonald Coin Types Glasgow 1905 p. 173 f. fig- 18.

10 F. Legge Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity Cambridge 1915 ii- 67.

II Orig. c. Cels. 6. 38 ovk dpKecrdeis 5' 6 yevvddas {sc. 6 Ke\<ros) tols dirb rov 5iaypdp./j.a.T0s
i/3ov\rjdri inrep tov av^rjaai ras ko.6' r)p.Giv Karrjyoplas, twv fi-qtHev ixbvrwv kolvov irpbs eKeivo,
5ia p.ecrov aXX' drra elirelv, ivavaKaffthv ra eKeivwv wcnrepel < 7)p. > erepwv (so P. Koetschau).
<pTjal ydp- ' 6avp.a 5' clvtQv ovx rjKLara eKeivo- e^yowrai. yap riva fiera^ii rQiv vwepovpavLuv