DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0708
The axe carried by priests and priestesses 633
the symbolic or model axe-head in bronze have come down to us.
One in the British Museum has a perforated crescentic blade backed
by a bull, the whole measuring some three inches in length
(fig. 542y. The other, once in the Forman collection, is very similar
in design and size, but has a solid blade (fig. 543)2. The bull pre-
sumably, though not quite certainly, here stands for the victim
sacrificed.
In this connexion a word may be added concerning the axes
carried by Roman lictors. It seems probable that they were ori-
Fig. 542.
ginally no ordinary instruments of execution, but sacred weapons
borne before the king as human representative of the sky-god.
The lictor's axe-blade, at least in late republican times, was given
a semi-equine form. Denarii of A. Postumius Albinus struck
c. 82 B.C. show a togate figure erect between an eagle-standard and
a lictor's axe, the blade of the latter being combined with the fore-
1 Brit. Mus. Cat. Bronzes p. 357 no. 2959 (wrongly described), supra p. 622 n. 3.
Fig. 542 is from a photograph by Mr R. B. Fleming.
2 Sir C. H. Smith The Forman Collection: Catalogue of the Egyptian, Greek & Roman
Antiquities London 1899 p. 29 no. 160 fig. ( = my fig. 543): 'Sacrificial axe (?). The
blade, which has an almost lunate edge, appears never to have been sharpened. The
thicker part above the blade is modelled in the form of a bull, whose hollow body is
intended for receiving the heft. At the point where the heft is inserted is a slight pro-
longation with two grooves, intended for the attachment of the binding ; between these
grooves a hole is pierced, probably for a rivet, and two further holes are left, one on each
side of the blade. Along the back of the animal a club is moulded in relief, the handle
towards its tail; and below the bull's belly on each side is a sacrificial knife (?) in relief____
The form of knife here shown seems to be represented on Pergamene coins of Maxi-
minus.... Height o-o8 in.; width 0*095 m- > greatest thickness, 0^025 in. [For 'in.' read
' m.r A.B.C.] On a label inside is written, " Pr. Vans, 1865."' The axe was acquired by
Mr W. T. Ready.
the symbolic or model axe-head in bronze have come down to us.
One in the British Museum has a perforated crescentic blade backed
by a bull, the whole measuring some three inches in length
(fig. 542y. The other, once in the Forman collection, is very similar
in design and size, but has a solid blade (fig. 543)2. The bull pre-
sumably, though not quite certainly, here stands for the victim
sacrificed.
In this connexion a word may be added concerning the axes
carried by Roman lictors. It seems probable that they were ori-
Fig. 542.
ginally no ordinary instruments of execution, but sacred weapons
borne before the king as human representative of the sky-god.
The lictor's axe-blade, at least in late republican times, was given
a semi-equine form. Denarii of A. Postumius Albinus struck
c. 82 B.C. show a togate figure erect between an eagle-standard and
a lictor's axe, the blade of the latter being combined with the fore-
1 Brit. Mus. Cat. Bronzes p. 357 no. 2959 (wrongly described), supra p. 622 n. 3.
Fig. 542 is from a photograph by Mr R. B. Fleming.
2 Sir C. H. Smith The Forman Collection: Catalogue of the Egyptian, Greek & Roman
Antiquities London 1899 p. 29 no. 160 fig. ( = my fig. 543): 'Sacrificial axe (?). The
blade, which has an almost lunate edge, appears never to have been sharpened. The
thicker part above the blade is modelled in the form of a bull, whose hollow body is
intended for receiving the heft. At the point where the heft is inserted is a slight pro-
longation with two grooves, intended for the attachment of the binding ; between these
grooves a hole is pierced, probably for a rivet, and two further holes are left, one on each
side of the blade. Along the back of the animal a club is moulded in relief, the handle
towards its tail; and below the bull's belly on each side is a sacrificial knife (?) in relief____
The form of knife here shown seems to be represented on Pergamene coins of Maxi-
minus.... Height o-o8 in.; width 0*095 m- > greatest thickness, 0^025 in. [For 'in.' read
' m.r A.B.C.] On a label inside is written, " Pr. Vans, 1865."' The axe was acquired by
Mr W. T. Ready.