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)

628 The axe carried by priests and priestesses

temple of Zeus at Olympia, carved before the middle of the fifth

century perhaps by an Elean sculptor, figures
him swinging the same trusty weapon against
a brutal Centaur1. Finally, Theseus was said
to have freed from robbers the old mountain-
road that led from Athens to Delphoi2; and,
whenever the Athenians sent a sacred embassy
along that road3, it was customary for the pro-
cession to be headed by men bearing double
axes as though to clear the way4. In these
peculiar axe-bearers I would venture to detect,
not a meaningless company of pioneers5, but
the performers of an ancient ' Minoan ' lustra-
tion, the true significance of which had long
been forgotten6. It is noteworthy that a fine
axe of bronze, inscribed with ' Minoan' cha-
racters, has come to light at Delphoi (fig. 533)7,

k.t.X.). In the Class. Rev. 1904 xviii. 84 I suggested that
this was an ancient ritual costume. But ?

1 G. Treu in Olympia iii. 76 f. pi. 18—21, 2, pis. 26, 27,
if., Overbeck Gr. Plastik* i. 317 ff. fig. 77 M and fig. 84,
Collignon Hist, de la Sculpt, gr. i. 446 ff. fig. 232 A, B. The
restoration of the axe is certain, thanks to Paus. 5. 10. 8 r-rj
de Qrjcrevs apt,vv6/j.evos ireKeKei tovs Keuravpovs. So on a vase-
fragment at Berlin (Furtwangler Vasensamml. Berlin ii. 664 f.
no. 2403, E. Curtius in the Arch. Zeit. 1883 xli. 348 ff. pi. 17,
1 f., Reinach Rip. Vases i. 450, 3 f.).

2 Schol. Aisch. Eum. 13 (cited infra n. 4), schol. Aristeid.
p. 324, 20 ff. Dindorf.

3 E. Pfuhl De Atheniensium pompis sacris Berolini 1900
p. 104 ff.

4 Schol. Aisch. Eum. 13 oi 'A^ratoi. G^creus yap ttjv odbv
eKadrjpe tQv Xtjcttioj' Kal, orav Trefnruxjiv eis Ae\(poi>s dewpida,
irpoepxovTai ^x0VT6S T"^eKeLS cos Strj/jLepetiaovTes (F. H. M.
Blaydes corr. §ir\p.epih<jovTes or e^rifiepuiaovTes) ttjv yijv.

5 E. Curtius ' Zur Geschichte des Wegebaus bei den
Griechen' in his Gesammelte Abhandhingen Berlin 1894 i. 33
(cp. p. 69) : ' Erinnerung an die alien Werkmeister, die einst
zuerst dem Gotte die Stege bereitet hatten.'

6 A. Boethius Die Pytha'is: Stitdien zur Geschichte der
Verbindungen zwischen Athen und Delphi Uppsala 1918
p. 31 ff. thinks that the axes were originally votive, like the
Tenedian axe (infra §3 (c) i (0)). G. C. Richards in the
Class. Rev. 1919 xxxiv. 113 says : ' Either this was the case,
or they were relics of the ancient ritual, as observed in the
case of the Buphonia ' (infra § 9 (h) ii (a)).

7 Sir A. J. Evans in the Joum. Hell. Stud. 1894 xiv. 280
fig. 7, P. Perdrizet in the Fouilles de Delphes v. 1. 5 fig. 14
(=my fig. 533). The axe is now in the Ashmolean Museum

533> at Oxford.