DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0742
The double axes of Tenedos 667
affiliation of the creature to Hephaistos stood to reason : was
not he a smith ? and were not the smith's tongs or pincers com-
monly dubbed ' crabs' (karkinoiy, while a certain species of crab
was known as 'tongs' {pyrdgra)2} Finally, a parallel to the
Tenedian river-crabs signed with the double axe can be found
in the Agrigentine river-crabs marked with a bull's head (?)
(fig. 604)3 or a Gorgdneion (fig. 605)4.
If we are justified in supposing that the double axe of Tenedos
belonged to a god conceived as the rebirth of his own father,
analogy with the Cretan Zagreus would lead us to expect that
the Tenedian god too was served with rites of omophagy, in
which a human victim, regarded as consort of the goddess5, was
dismembered and even devoured by the kingK. This expectation
is to some extent realised. For we have already had occasion to
notice the horrible statement of Euelpis that in Tenedos, as in
Chios, 'they used to rend a man in pieces, sacrificing him to Dionysos
1 Stephanus Tkes. Gr. Ling. iv. 971 B—c.
2 Hesych. s.v. wvpaypa and irvpaypt) 7} Trvpdypa.
3 Tetradrachms of Akragas, struck c. 472—415 B.C., have for reverse type a large
crab {Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Sicily p. 8 no. 38 fig., Hunter Cat. Coins i. 156 pi. 11, 13,
Babelon Monn.gr. rom. ii. 1. 1545 f. pi. 78, 4, Imhoof-Blumer and O. Keller Tier- tend
Pflanzenbilder auf Miinzen und Gemmen des klassischen Allertnms Leipzig 1889 P* 49
pi. 8, 1). Mr L. A. Borradaile agrees with O. Keller loc. cit. that this is Telphusa
fluviatilis, a species of crab common in the sweet waters of central and southern Italy,
Sicily, Greece, and Asia Minor. He adds that, apart from Japanese pictures, he has
never seen a more exact representation of it in art. Fig. 604 is from
a specimen in my collection. Mr E. J. Seltman, from whom I
obtained it, holds that the crab is marked with a bull's head as
sign of the tauriform river-god, and compares the didrachm in-
scribed A~T"3 {Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Sicily p. 7 no. 25, Babelon
Momi.gr. rom. ii. 1. 1547 f. pi. 78, 12. Fig. 606 is from a specimen
of mine), which he would read as an allusion to a festival of Ache-
loios (Babelon Monn. gr. rom. ii. 1. 1405 ff. pi. 66, 20, Head Hist. Yig. 606.
num.2 p. 76 fig. 36 a stater of Metapontum with river-god inscribed
AyEAOSO AEOAON. Schol. T. II. 24. 616 says of the Acheloios
avrbv TL/j.Qaiv). This combination, which is undeniably ingenious, was accepted by the
late J. R. McClean, but involves two doubtful assumptions: {a) that the markings on the
crab's back were viewed as a bull's head by the ancients, and {b) that A~f"3 is f°r A "HE.
4 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Sicily p. 12 no. 62 fig., Imhoof-Blumer and O. Keller Tier-
und Pflanzenbilder auf Mii7izen und Gemmen des klassischen Altertums Leipzig 1889
p. 50 pi. 8, 13 (=my fig. 605), O. Keller Die antike Tienvelt Leipzig 1913 ii. 485 f. pi. 2,
10 (a fanciful rendering of the Telphusa fluviatilis, cp. ypavs as a name for ' crab ' in
Artemid. oneirocr. 2. 14), Head Hist, num.2 p. 121. The coin is a drachm of c. 413—■
406 B.C.
For the crab as an apotropaion on ' Gnostic ' gems etc. see Imhoof-Blumer and O. Keller
op. cit. p. 146 f. pi. 24, 24—34, O. Keller op. cit. ii. 486, S. Seligmann Der bose Blick und
Verwandtes Berlin 1910 ii. 124 and Index p. 500 s.v. 'Krebs'; and for the crab in
folk-medicine etc., E. Riess in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. i. 74.
5 Supra i. 649 n. 7. 8 Supra i. 656 ff.
affiliation of the creature to Hephaistos stood to reason : was
not he a smith ? and were not the smith's tongs or pincers com-
monly dubbed ' crabs' (karkinoiy, while a certain species of crab
was known as 'tongs' {pyrdgra)2} Finally, a parallel to the
Tenedian river-crabs signed with the double axe can be found
in the Agrigentine river-crabs marked with a bull's head (?)
(fig. 604)3 or a Gorgdneion (fig. 605)4.
If we are justified in supposing that the double axe of Tenedos
belonged to a god conceived as the rebirth of his own father,
analogy with the Cretan Zagreus would lead us to expect that
the Tenedian god too was served with rites of omophagy, in
which a human victim, regarded as consort of the goddess5, was
dismembered and even devoured by the kingK. This expectation
is to some extent realised. For we have already had occasion to
notice the horrible statement of Euelpis that in Tenedos, as in
Chios, 'they used to rend a man in pieces, sacrificing him to Dionysos
1 Stephanus Tkes. Gr. Ling. iv. 971 B—c.
2 Hesych. s.v. wvpaypa and irvpaypt) 7} Trvpdypa.
3 Tetradrachms of Akragas, struck c. 472—415 B.C., have for reverse type a large
crab {Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Sicily p. 8 no. 38 fig., Hunter Cat. Coins i. 156 pi. 11, 13,
Babelon Monn.gr. rom. ii. 1. 1545 f. pi. 78, 4, Imhoof-Blumer and O. Keller Tier- tend
Pflanzenbilder auf Miinzen und Gemmen des klassischen Allertnms Leipzig 1889 P* 49
pi. 8, 1). Mr L. A. Borradaile agrees with O. Keller loc. cit. that this is Telphusa
fluviatilis, a species of crab common in the sweet waters of central and southern Italy,
Sicily, Greece, and Asia Minor. He adds that, apart from Japanese pictures, he has
never seen a more exact representation of it in art. Fig. 604 is from
a specimen in my collection. Mr E. J. Seltman, from whom I
obtained it, holds that the crab is marked with a bull's head as
sign of the tauriform river-god, and compares the didrachm in-
scribed A~T"3 {Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Sicily p. 7 no. 25, Babelon
Momi.gr. rom. ii. 1. 1547 f. pi. 78, 12. Fig. 606 is from a specimen
of mine), which he would read as an allusion to a festival of Ache-
loios (Babelon Monn. gr. rom. ii. 1. 1405 ff. pi. 66, 20, Head Hist. Yig. 606.
num.2 p. 76 fig. 36 a stater of Metapontum with river-god inscribed
AyEAOSO AEOAON. Schol. T. II. 24. 616 says of the Acheloios
avrbv TL/j.Qaiv). This combination, which is undeniably ingenious, was accepted by the
late J. R. McClean, but involves two doubtful assumptions: {a) that the markings on the
crab's back were viewed as a bull's head by the ancients, and {b) that A~f"3 is f°r A "HE.
4 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Sicily p. 12 no. 62 fig., Imhoof-Blumer and O. Keller Tier-
und Pflanzenbilder auf Mii7izen und Gemmen des klassischen Altertums Leipzig 1889
p. 50 pi. 8, 13 (=my fig. 605), O. Keller Die antike Tienvelt Leipzig 1913 ii. 485 f. pi. 2,
10 (a fanciful rendering of the Telphusa fluviatilis, cp. ypavs as a name for ' crab ' in
Artemid. oneirocr. 2. 14), Head Hist, num.2 p. 121. The coin is a drachm of c. 413—■
406 B.C.
For the crab as an apotropaion on ' Gnostic ' gems etc. see Imhoof-Blumer and O. Keller
op. cit. p. 146 f. pi. 24, 24—34, O. Keller op. cit. ii. 486, S. Seligmann Der bose Blick und
Verwandtes Berlin 1910 ii. 124 and Index p. 500 s.v. 'Krebs'; and for the crab in
folk-medicine etc., E. Riess in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. i. 74.
5 Supra i. 649 n. 7. 8 Supra i. 656 ff.