DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0692
The double axe in the West 617
otherwise known as Zeus Euxeinos1 or Xenios2, who had a sanctuary
on the Genetaean headland adjoining the Pontic river Genes3, derived
his title from genet's, ' an axe4,' though that derivation would har-
monise well with the neighbourhood of the Chalybes5.
On the whole, it may be predicted with assurance that the
thorough exploration of Asia Minor, which despite all drawbacks
must some day be completed, will accumulate further evidence of an
axe-bearing Zeus, successor and heir of a yet more ancient sky-god.
(X) The double axe in the West.
It would seem, then, that over a wide area, from Doliche in
Syria to Tarentum in Calabria, the prehistoric lightning-axe passed
through the successive phases of fetish, attribute, and symbol. In
western Europe analogous causes were doubtless at work ; but their
results are either wholly hidden from us by the darkness of bar-
barism or at best dimly discernible on the fringe of advancing
civilisation.
Double axes of copper, with the hafting hole too small to be of
use for tool or weapon, and therefore probably intended for purposes
of exchange or ceremony, make their appearance in the west as far
back as the Copper Age. A. Lissauer6 holds that they were imports
from Kypros and attempts to trace the routes by which they tra-
velled through Europe. But Sir W. M. Flinders Petrie7, arguing
that double axes with effective hafting are limited to the Mediter-
ranean area, whereas double axes with ineffective hafting belong
almost exclusively to the north, denies that Kypros was the centre
of distribution and classifies the northern axes under three local
types of separate origin. In Bronze-Age deposits ceremonial axes
1 Ap. Rhod. 2. 378 Zrjvos 'Ev^slvolo YevrjTairiv inrep axpyv with schol. Paris, ad loc.
Tifiaprjvol de edvos ~Zkv6ikov. oikoucti de Tr)v Ka\ovp.evr)v Yevr)Taiav axpav aird YevrjTOS wora-
fJLod, iv r\ Aids eo~nv Yjv^eivov iepov.
- Schol. Ap. Rhod. 2. 378 YevrjTaLa aKpa nvpicos ovtcc \eyop.ev7] awb YevrjTos ttotolixov,
evda Aios aeviov iepov ean.
3 Steph. Byz. s.v. YevrjTos-...So0ok\t]s TroTa.iJ.bv Yevyra (pTjcriv [frag. 1036 Jebb). See
further W. Ruge in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. vii. 1132.
4 Stephanus Tkes. Gr. Ling. ii. 567 B.
5 Supra i. 631 f., 648.
6 A. Lissauer ' Die Doppelaxte der Kupferzeit im westlichen Europa' in the Zeitschrift
fur Ethnologie 1905 xxxvii. 519—525 with figs, and a map, id. 'die Doppelaxt aus Kupfer
von Pyrmont' id. pp. 770—772, id. ' eine Doppelaxt aus Kupfer von Ellierode, Kr.
Northeim, Hannover' id. pp. 1007—1009, R. Forrer Antigua 1885 p. 106, id. 'Die
agyptischen, kretischen, phonikischen, etc. Gewichte und Masse der europaischen Kupfer-,
Bronze- und Eisenzeit' in the Jahr-Buch der Gesellschaft fur lothrin^ische Geschichte und
Alterluviskunde 1906 pp. 1—77, id. Keallex. p. 188 f., A. J. Reinach in Daremberg—
Saglio Did. Ant. iv. 1166 n. 8, J. Dechelette Manuel d''archeologie prihistorique Paris
1910 ii. 1. 403 ff. fig. 163, 483 n. 1.
7 Sir W. M. Flinders Petrie Tools and Weapons London 1917 pp. 13—15 pi. 12.
otherwise known as Zeus Euxeinos1 or Xenios2, who had a sanctuary
on the Genetaean headland adjoining the Pontic river Genes3, derived
his title from genet's, ' an axe4,' though that derivation would har-
monise well with the neighbourhood of the Chalybes5.
On the whole, it may be predicted with assurance that the
thorough exploration of Asia Minor, which despite all drawbacks
must some day be completed, will accumulate further evidence of an
axe-bearing Zeus, successor and heir of a yet more ancient sky-god.
(X) The double axe in the West.
It would seem, then, that over a wide area, from Doliche in
Syria to Tarentum in Calabria, the prehistoric lightning-axe passed
through the successive phases of fetish, attribute, and symbol. In
western Europe analogous causes were doubtless at work ; but their
results are either wholly hidden from us by the darkness of bar-
barism or at best dimly discernible on the fringe of advancing
civilisation.
Double axes of copper, with the hafting hole too small to be of
use for tool or weapon, and therefore probably intended for purposes
of exchange or ceremony, make their appearance in the west as far
back as the Copper Age. A. Lissauer6 holds that they were imports
from Kypros and attempts to trace the routes by which they tra-
velled through Europe. But Sir W. M. Flinders Petrie7, arguing
that double axes with effective hafting are limited to the Mediter-
ranean area, whereas double axes with ineffective hafting belong
almost exclusively to the north, denies that Kypros was the centre
of distribution and classifies the northern axes under three local
types of separate origin. In Bronze-Age deposits ceremonial axes
1 Ap. Rhod. 2. 378 Zrjvos 'Ev^slvolo YevrjTairiv inrep axpyv with schol. Paris, ad loc.
Tifiaprjvol de edvos ~Zkv6ikov. oikoucti de Tr)v Ka\ovp.evr)v Yevr)Taiav axpav aird YevrjTOS wora-
fJLod, iv r\ Aids eo~nv Yjv^eivov iepov.
- Schol. Ap. Rhod. 2. 378 YevrjTaLa aKpa nvpicos ovtcc \eyop.ev7] awb YevrjTos ttotolixov,
evda Aios aeviov iepov ean.
3 Steph. Byz. s.v. YevrjTos-...So0ok\t]s TroTa.iJ.bv Yevyra (pTjcriv [frag. 1036 Jebb). See
further W. Ruge in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. vii. 1132.
4 Stephanus Tkes. Gr. Ling. ii. 567 B.
5 Supra i. 631 f., 648.
6 A. Lissauer ' Die Doppelaxte der Kupferzeit im westlichen Europa' in the Zeitschrift
fur Ethnologie 1905 xxxvii. 519—525 with figs, and a map, id. 'die Doppelaxt aus Kupfer
von Pyrmont' id. pp. 770—772, id. ' eine Doppelaxt aus Kupfer von Ellierode, Kr.
Northeim, Hannover' id. pp. 1007—1009, R. Forrer Antigua 1885 p. 106, id. 'Die
agyptischen, kretischen, phonikischen, etc. Gewichte und Masse der europaischen Kupfer-,
Bronze- und Eisenzeit' in the Jahr-Buch der Gesellschaft fur lothrin^ische Geschichte und
Alterluviskunde 1906 pp. 1—77, id. Keallex. p. 188 f., A. J. Reinach in Daremberg—
Saglio Did. Ant. iv. 1166 n. 8, J. Dechelette Manuel d''archeologie prihistorique Paris
1910 ii. 1. 403 ff. fig. 163, 483 n. 1.
7 Sir W. M. Flinders Petrie Tools and Weapons London 1917 pp. 13—15 pi. 12.