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 in the West 619

Not till we reach the Roman period can we beyond all question
connect the axe with particular deities; A plate of copper dis-
covered near Cadenet in the district of Apt amid a heap of ashes
to the west of a circular wall records the gift of an axe to Mars and
an axe to Dexsiva1 (a Celtic goddess2) in fulfilment of a vow3. Six

little hatchets of bronze found in the ruins of a temple at Allmen-
dingen near Thun bear votive inscriptions 'to Iupiter,' 'to the
Matres' (fig. 516), 'to the Matronae,' 'to Mercurius/ 'to Minerva'
(fig. 517), and 'of Neptunus' respectively4. In Gallia Lugudunensis
Esus the axe-god was associated with Iovis and Volcanus5, while

1 Corp. inscr. Lai. xii no. 1063 (with fig.) d(onum) d(at) Quartus Mar(ti) | secujrem. |
d(onum) d(at) d (?) Dexsive | Quartus secujrem. v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) m(erito).
T. Mommsen suggested as a possible reading : d(is) d(eabus) Quartus m(e)r(itis) | secu]rem. |
d(is) d(eabus) o(mnibus) etc.

2 M. Ihm in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Etic. v. 295.

3 S. C. F. Calvet cp. Fredegodus v. S. Wilfridi Eboracensis (died 709 a.d.) 15. 558
(cxxxiii. 992 a Migne) non igitur coeptum dissolvit Dexia votum.

4 T. Mommsen Inscriptiones confoederationis Helveticae Latinae {Mittheilungen der
Antiquarischen Gesellschaft in Zurich x) Zurich 1854 p. 39 no. 211 (1) Iovi, (2) Matribus
with fig. (=my fig. 516), (3) Matronis, (4) Mercurio, (5) Minervae with fig. ( = my fig. 517),
(6) Neptuni, M. Ihm 'Der Mutter- oder Matronenkultus und seine Denkmaler'in the
[ahrb. d. Vereins v. Alterthumsfreund. im Rheinl. 1887 lxxxiii. 128 nos. 156, 157.

5 Supra i. 481 n. 9, ii. 547 n. o.