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)

sacred tree at Rhegion

681

image in its branches, attacked by two men with double axes and
defended by two snakes (fig. 620)1. This unusual design can be
paralleled by quasi-autonomous coppers of Aphrodisias in Karia :
here a leafless tree is attacked by two naked men, wearing Phrygian
caps, of whom one brandishes a double axe and the other kneels or
runs away (figs. 621, 622)2. On specimens struck by Saloninus
(253—266 (?) A.D.) (fig. 623)3 or Valerianus (253—260 A.D.) (fig.

Fig. 621. Fig. 622. Fig. 623. Fig. 624.

624)4 a third man is present, with uplifted arms. A. Lobbecke5 and
F. Imhoof-Blumer6 interpret these coins of Myra and Aphrodisias
as representing the myth of Myrrha. The latter scholar even sup-
poses that the third person present (a grown man !) is meant for
Adonis. In my opinion it is far more probable that the coins of
both towns commemorate a local rite of threatening the sacred tree
in order to make it fruitful. Sir James Frazer collects analogous

1 Brit. Mtis. Cat. Coins Lycia pp. livf., 71 pi. 15, 6 (=my fig. 620), Imhoof-Blumer
and O. Keller Tier- tend PJlanzenbilder auf Miinzen tend Gemmen Leipzig 1889 p. 63
pi. 10, 42, P. Gardner Types of Gk. Coins p. 78 pi. 15, 6, Head Hist, num.'1 p. 695 f.
fig. 3 r6. G. F. Hill in the Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Lycia p. 71 describes the goddess as
' simulacrum of Artemis Eleuthera, wearing modius and veil' (cp. Artemid. oneirocr. 2. 35
i) Xeyo/j-eur] wapa AvkLols 'E\eu(?epa), but id. p. liv admits that there may be ' a contamina-
tion of the cult of Eleuthera with the legend of Myrrha or of Myrike' (cp. J. Murr Die
PJlanzenwelt in dergriechischen Mythologie Innsbruck 1890 pp. 76 f., 106 f.).

2 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Caria, etc. p. 36 pi. 6, 7, Imhoof-Blumer and O. Keller
op. cit. p. 64 pi. 10, 43 ( = my fig. 621), Head Hist, num." p. 610. Fig. 622 is from a
specimen in my collection.

:i Imhoof-Blumer Gr. Miinzen p. 142 f. no. 422 pi. 9, 29 ( = my fig. 623).

4 A. Lobbecke in the Zeitschr. f. Num. 1890 xvii. 11 f. pi. 2, 1 ( = my fig. 624).

5 A. Lobbecke loc. cit. 6 Imhoof-Blumer Gr. Miinzen p. 143.