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)

668 The double axes of Tenedos

Omddios (" the god of Raw Flesh ")V That the man thus done to
death was viewed as partner of the goddess, or was actually eaten
by the king, we are not told. But some such beliefs, more than
half forgotten, may underlie the later rationalised and romanticised
legends of the island, which tell how a prince, caught in adultery,
was savagely slain with an axe.

The oldest version of the story is preserved in a fragment of
Aristotle's work On the Government of Tenedos'2:

'A certain king in Tenedos made a law that he who found adulterers should
slay them both with an axe. And, when it fell out that his son was found in
adultery, he ordained that the law should be kept even in the case of his own
son. The son having been slain, the thing passed into a proverb, which is used
of cruel actions. Hence too the coins of Tenedos have stamped upon them an
axe on the one side and two heads on the other, to remind men of the fate of
the king's son.'

With this may be combined sundry statements occurring in the
mediaeval collections of ancient Greek proverbs. Thus Makarios
Chrysokephalos (s. xiv A.D.) d propos of the proverbial ' Tenedian
axe' says: 'In the island of Tenedos were dedicated two axes,
which were worshipped, and by means of them adulterers were
slain3.' Apostolios too, in explaining another proverb, that of the
'Tenedian advocate,' refers to the same alleged fact: 'The Tene-
dians among their dedicated objects honour a couple of axes4.'
Apostolios certainly is a very late authority (s. xv A.D.); but he
appears to be copying verbatim from Souidas5 (j\ x A.D.) or Photios6
(s. ix A.D.), and they in turn depend upon earlier and more reliable
sources. If these allusions to the cult of two axes in Tenedos are
trustworthy, they furnish an interesting point of comparison with
Cretan practice7. For here, as there, the two axes might be taken
to signify god and goddess respectively8:

Further evidence with regard to the Tenedian axe is forth-
coming in connexion with another proverb, the 'man of Tenedos.'
Photios9 and Souidas10 have the following paragraph:

1 Supra i. 656, 659 n. 6.

2 Aristot. frag. 551 Rose ap. Steph. Byz. s.v. Tevedos, cp. Phot. lex. and Souid. s.v.
TefeStos ^vv-qyopos, Apostol. 16. 26 s.z'. TeveSios aw-qyopos. The same account of the
coin-types is given by Herakleides Pont, de rebus publicis 7. 3 {Frag. hist. Gr. ii. 213 f.
Miiller).

3 Makar. 8. 7 ev yap TeveSip rri vrjaip Suo weXeKets avineivro o~ef3do-p.ioL, 5i' ihv avypovvTo
oi p-oixol.

4 Apostol. 16. 26 dvo yap weXeKvs (sic) ev dvadrjfj.aai Tip.u>cri Tevedioi.

6 Souid. S.v. Tevidios ^vvr/yopos '...dtjo yap 7re\e/c6ts ev avadripacri TLpwcn Tevedwi.

6 Phot. lex. s.v. Teve5i.os £vvr)yopos '...8{io yap TreX^Keis ev avadrjfxacu ripiwcri Tevedioi.

7 Supra p. 522. 8 Supra pp. 537, 653.

9 Phot. lex. s.v. TeceSco? avdpwiros. 10 Souid. s.v. Tevidios avdpwiros.