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)

660 The double axes of Tenedos

Alexander tyrant of Pherai was specially devoted to the cult of
Dionysos Pclekys, Dionysos the ' Double Axe,' at Pagasai on the
Thessalian coast1. Silver coins struck by this Alexander between
369 and 357 B.C. have as their reverse type a warrior sitting a horse,
whose flank is marked with the double axe, another double axe
being beneath it (fig. S98)2, or a lion's head, sometimes with a
double axe below it3, or a double axe alone (fig. 599)4. Hence
B. V. Head5 suggested that the Janiform type of the Tenedian coins

strung lyre of B (cp. Artemon of Kassandreia frag. 12 (Frag. hist. Gr. iv. 342 f. Mtiller)
ap. Athen. 637 B—F, where Pythagoras of Zakynthos invents a musical tripod composed
of three lyres). In both A and B, according to Schultz, the ' goat ' and ' dolphin ' are
wrongly conceived as on the ringing vessel, not in it ; and ' dolphin' is a blunder for
' crab.' In R he supposes that ' Dithyramb ' means ' Dionysos.' In C we are to assume
that Dionysos was awakened out of his annual sleep by an axe used to strike a caldron
containing bellows (dcr/cos) and tongs (napKivos) : on account of its contents the caldron
was dubbed a smithy (xaXKewv), on account of its rumbling echoes a bull (implied in
j3ovcp6i>os). The whole riddle is translated as if there were a comma after, not before,
Alwvvctolo cLvclktos: ' Der Vater des vermischt weidenden Bdckleins (Ba/g) und der
schreckliche Fisch (Zange) | stiessen die Haupter an einander : der das Kind der Nacht
(Schlaf) I von den Lidern des Herrn Dionysos nehmen will— | dass dieser Rinder totende
Diener (Axl) gelabt werde—das wollen sie nicht.'

I fear that Simonides' riddle remains unread. See, however, infra p. 663 ff. for the
combination of crab with double axe.

1 Theopomp. frag. 339 (Frag. hist. Gr. i. 332, iv. 643 Miiller) ap. schol. II. 24. 428
koX OeoTTOfMiros <f>7]aiv 'A\i^av5pov Qepaiov Aiovvcrov tov iv Hayaaah, 8s eKaXeiro JIAe/coy
(leg. IIAe/cus with Preller—Plew Gr. Myth. i. 566 n. 2 rather than 7re\e/cas or 7re\e/aeos
with L. Stephani in the Compte-rendu St. Pt't. 1863 p. 116 n. 4), eiiaefieiv Siacpopus.
KaTairovTwdevro's 8e 'AXefdvdpov, Aiovvaos ovap eTnards tlvl tQiv d\iewv «re\eucree dva\aj3e7v
rbv (popfov tQ)v octtlov, 6 5£ aTreXdwv es IrLpdvvwva toZs olk€lols diribwKev, oi Oe 'idaxpav. So
cod. V. Cod. T. reads 8s eKaXeiro UeXdyios—a needless emendation (accepted by E. Maass
'AI0NT202 IIEAAriOS' in Hermes 1888 xxiii. 70—80). Parallels abound : e.g. Kpovos,
the ' Chopper' (? see supra p. 549) ; Hamar or Hamer as a title of the Germanic thunder-
god (J. Grimm Teutonic Mythology trans. J. S. Stallybrass London 1882 i. 11 n. 1, 181 f.,
1883 ii. 883, 885 n. 2, 1888 iv. 1344 f., 1605, E. H. Meyer Germanische Mythologie
Berlin 1891 pp. 204, 208 ff. and Index s.v. ' Hammer') ; Charles Martel, whose gigantic
hammer is still to be seen cut in the hillside at Tours (H. Bayley Archaic England
London 1919 p. 355). My brother-in-law the Rev. H. E. Maddox notes that the sixth
incarnation of Vishnu was Para'su-rama, the 'Axe-Rama,' a Brahman who cleared the
earth of the Kshatriya race twenty-one times till he was at last defeated by Vishnu's
seventh incarnation Rama-'candra, the ' Moon-like-Rama.' Parasu-rama forced the ocean
to retire for the formation of the Malabar coast, caused vast fissures in the Western Ghats
and other mountains by blows of his axe, etc. He is still worshipped in Malabar and the
Konkan (Sir M. Monier-Williams Brahmanism and Hinduism* London 1887 pp. no,
270 f.).

2 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Thessaiy etc. p. 47 pi. ro, 1 r ( = my fig. 598) didrachm, Head
Hist, num.2 p. 308 fig. 176.

3 Head Hist, num.1 p. 261 drachm: 'Lion's head; beneath, sometimes, bipennis.'
Id. id.2 p. 308 omits all reference to the 'bipennis.' Are we to infer that this weapon
figures only on the didrachm and the obol?

4 Head Hist, num.2 p. 308 obol. Fig. 599 = the Pozzi Sale Catalogue Geneve 1920
p. 70 no. 1257 pi. 41.

6 Head Hist, num.1 p. 476, ib.2 p. 551.