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)

642 The decoration of the double axe

however, led me to abandon any such view of the patterned axe or
hammer, as involving a piece of—I do not say
impossible, but at worst improbable and at best
unproved, symbolism. I incline rather to take a
hint from my friend Dr A. C. Haddon, who points
out that patterns of the sort are often to be de-
rived from the lashing used to hold an early axe-
head in position1. The double axe, when a sacred
weapon, would tend to be decorated ; and its deco-
ration need not have a more recondite meaning.

A neolithic celt of greenstone published by
C. Blinkenberg2 has incised upon it an arborescent
design (fig. 559) resembling the Donnerbesen* or
' thunder-besom' marked on the walls of old-
fashioned houses in Holstein, Vierlande, etc. as
a protection against lightning4. Now Donnerbesen
is the name popularly given in Germany and
Switzerland to the mistletoe5 or to any bushy

n. 23, O. Waser Charon, Charun, Charos p. 15 f., id. in Pauly—
Wissowa Real-Enc. hi. 2177 (' Xdpwv...ist eine Art Kurzform zu xaP~07r&~s> mit (wild)
funkelndem Blick'). On lightning as a flash from the eye of a deity see supra p. 501 ff.
B. Schmidt Das Volksleben der Neugriechen Leipzig 1871 i. 224 f. justly compares the fiery
eyes of Charon as described by Verg. Aen. 6. 300 stant lumina Jlamma (in culex 216 f.
flagrantia taedis \ lumina is the reading of the better codd. B. C.H.) with the lightning
glance repeatedly attributed to him in modern Greek folk-song (e.g. A. Passow Popularia
cartnina Gmcia: recentioris Lipsiae i860 no. 428.4 aav aarpairri V to ^\ep.ixa tov,
no. 430. 10 and no. 516. 20 rrjs aarpairris ra /xdna : see also N. G. Polites op. cit. ii.
254 f., J. C. Lawson op. cit. p. 100).

1 A. C. Haddon Evolution in Art London 1895 p. 85 f. pi. 1, 1—3.

2 C. Blinkenberg The TTiunderweapon in Religion and Folklore Cambridge 1911 p. 98
ng- 34 ( = my ng- 559) a celt (o"2m long) of unknown provenance, formerly in the Kyhn
collection, now owned by A. Petersen of Lyngby in Denmark.

3 C. Petersen Der Donnerbesen (xxi. Bericht der Konigl. Schleswig-Holstein-Lauen-
burgischen Gesellschaft fur Sammlung und Erhaltung vaterlandischer Alterthtimer) Kiel
1862 (extr. from the Jahrbnch fur die Landeskunde der Ilerzogthiimer Schleswig u.s.w.
1862 v. 225 ff.).

On the folk-lore of brooms in general see F. Kunze ' Der Birkenbesen ein Symbol des
Donar' in the Internationales Archiv fur Ethnographie 1900 xiii. 81—97, 125—162 (the
author deals with the Donnerbesen on p. 145 f., but fails to establish any special connexion
between the birch and the thunder-god), E. Samter Geburt, Hochzeit und Tod Leipzig—
Berlin 1911 pp. 32ft'., 155, 170, i99f., W. L. Hildburgh 'Some Magical Applications
of Brooms in Japan ' in Folk-Lore 1919 xxx. 169—207.

4 Fraulein J. Mestorf in the Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie 1889 xxi. (184) with figs. 1—3
(Holstein), Virchow id. 1890 xxii. (77) figs. 1 and 2 (pattern in brick-work of a Saxon
smithy, Holstein), id. ib. 1890 xxii. (554) (Vierlande, on houses dated 1618 and 1626 A.D.).

6 C. L. Rochholz Schweizersagen aus dem Aargau Aarau 1856 ii. 202 cited by A. Kuhn
Die Herabkimft des Eeuers und des Gottertranks2 Giitersloh 1886 p. 204, R. Folkard
Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics London 1884 p. 440, W. Schwartz Indogermanischer
Volksglaube Berlin 1885 p. 102, E. H. Meyer Germanische Mythologie Berlin 1891 pp. 86,
121, 260, S. Seligmann Der bbse Blick und Verwandtes Berlin 1910 ii. 77, cp. 92.