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 the labarum 611

home of the Ophites was Phrygia1; and there can be little doubt
that in this, the central portion of their otherworld chart, they sought
to combine old Phrygian beliefs with new Christian teaching2. The
appearance of a labrys in such a context is in the highest degree
significant: it attests precisely the same spirit of accommodation that
we detect in the Constantinian labarum. Another Gnostic reminis-
cence of the double axe has been recognised by F. de Melya in the

Fig. 5 11.

first book of the Kyranides. The author of that magico-medical
compilation, who writes under the name of Hermes Trismegistos
(the late Greek equivalent of the Egyptian Thoth)4 at some date
prior to c. 408 A.D.5, informs us in his prologue that he has put
together the book of Kyranos king of Persia" and another book
dedicated by Harpokration of Alexandreia7 to his own daughter.

avuiTepu kvkXwv einyeypap.fxeva, aXXa re (ecu 5^0 arra, /xel^ov re Kai puKporepov viov Kai
7rarp6s.' eiipofxev 8 'rjp.eh ev tovtl) rq. 8 lay pa pi plan, tov piel^ova kvkXov Kai tov fxiKpbrepov, wv
eirl TTjs 8iap.erpov eireyeypaitTO ' iraT^p' Kai ' wo?,' Kai fxera^v tov pielfovos, ev a; 6 fiLKporepos
riv, Kai aWov avyKei/xevov (so P. Koetschau, after E. Bouhereau, for aWovs avyKeL/xevovs
cod. A.) £k 8vo kvkXwv, rod jxkv ei^wripov ^avdov tov Se evdoTepco Kvavov, to eiriyeypafxfxevov
did(ppay/na 7re\e/<oei5et (rxwan, k.t.X.

1 F. Legge op. cit. p. 28.

2 On ihe Phrygian conception of the Son as a rebirth of the Father and its relation to
Christianity see supra pp. 287 ff., 292 ff., 303 ff. The colouration of the concentric circles,
yellow and blue, may have been suggested by the zones of aithir, the 'burning sky,' and
aer, the ' moist sky' (supra i. 101 rig. 74).

3 F. de Mely in the Comptes rcnJus de f Acad, des inscr. et belles-lettres 1904 p. 340 f.

4 W. Kroll in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. viii. 792 ff.

5 F. de Mely Les Lapidaires de Cantiquiti et du moyen dge Paris 1902 iii. r. lxxi
notes that the Kyranis is quoted c. 408 a.d. by Olympiodoros (M. Berthelot—C. E. Ruelle
Collection des anciens Alchimistes grecs Paris 1888 Texte grec p. joi, 13 n. and 17
(Traduction p. no) Olympiod. 52 ev 7-77 Kvpavl8i...ev ttJ apxaiKri /3i/3Xy).

6 Quis? F. de Mely op. cit. Paris 1902 iii. 1. lxxii conjectures that Kyranos may have
something to do with Kei Kaous, a Persian king described by the Mobed Bahram as
belonging to the dynasty of the Ke'ianides and living in the age of Solomon (J. Mohl in
the Journal Asiatique Troisieme Serie 1841 xi. 321 ff.).

7 C. Graux held that the Harpokration in question was the writer of the letter
KpitoKpaTiwv Kalcrapi Kvyovarig (sc. Julian) xaLpt<-v k.t.X. (Rev. Philol. N.S. 1878 ii. 65 ff.),
to be identified both with the Egyptian friend of Libanios (O. Seeck in Pauly—Wissowa

39—2