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)

The axes of Penelope

'AcppLKavos (pr/ffL, k.t.X.),—it would seem that the whole story of II(kos 6 /cat Zeis was already
current c. 200 a.d. ; for the chronographer, a native of Jerusalem [The Oxyrhynchus
Papyri London 1903 iii. 36ff. no. 412, 59 ff.: but see B. P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt ad loc),
is known to have been on intimate terms with Abgar ix of Edessa (179—216 a.d.) and his
son Mannus (Iul. Afr. tact. 29: cp. W. Kroll in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. x. 116). The
common assumption that Malalas rests largely on Iulius Africanus is contested by K. Krum-
bacher op. cit? p. 327, who holds that there were in all probability intervening authors,
links now lost to us. Nor was Iulius Africanus the staple of the whole chain. For in
Cramer anecd. Paris, ii. 236, 19 f. [supra p. 695) Diodoros is expressly quoted as a
source, and the entire context, in which UIkos 6 ical Zeus, brother of Ninos, is said to have
reigned 120 years over the west, to have begotten sons and daughters, and to lie buried in
Crete, is printed by F. Vogel the latest editor (Lipsiae 1890) as Diod. 6. 5. This brings
us back to a date c. 60 b.c. and to a suitable atmosphere of Euhemerism [supra i.
662). But even so we have not reached the starting-point. I observe that the Chronicon
Paschale 38 b (i. 68 Dindorf) cites a certain Se/xr/pcii'tos 6 BafivXwvios Yl^parjs [supra
p. 695), whose name has been curiously misinterpreted. C. Miiller in the Frag. hist. Gr.
iv. 492 would turn it into that of the Persian ZeipdfxuTjs (Plout. reg. et imperator. apophth.
172 d). H. Gelzer Sextus Julius Africanus und die byzantinische Chronographie Leipzig
1880 i. 77 says: 'Der Name selbst is aber echt assyrisch, er bedeutet einfach "der Sume-
rier.'" I should rather suppose that 'Ze/j.rjpdivi.os is a blundered form of ^epLirpdiwios, i.e. the
annalist C. Sempronius Tuditanus, consul in 129 b.c., who concerned himself much with
the primitive history of Italy [Hist. Pom. frag. p. 89 ff. Peter): 6 Baj3v\wvios Ilepcnjs would
then be an attempt or attempts to make sense of his misspelt name. On this showing the
story of IUkos 6 kclI Zevs may be as early as the second century b.c.

Further than this we cannot trace it. But C. Trieber in his important article 'Die Idee
der vier Weltreiche' [Hermes 1892 xxvii. 321—344) arrives at the heart of the matter,
when he points out that, according to a view prevalent in antiquity, the end of the As-
syrian empire coincided with the beginning of three others—the Medo-Persian, the Mace-
donian, and the Roman. The chronographer that first brought Rome into this scheme
(Trieber id. p. 340 n. 2 thinks it was Kastor of Rhodes, whose work j. W. Kubitschek in
Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. x. 2348 dates in 61 b.c.) used Hikos 6 tcai Zeus as a tie between
east and west. His procedure is not easy to explain. ILkos in the west we know: he was
an ancient Italian power, who appears in tradition sometimes as a bird, the woodpecker,
sometimes as a god, sometimes as a king (J. B. Carter in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 2494 ff.).
But who was UTkos in the east? Pekah king of Israel [c. 735—730) is near enough in point
of date to the foundation of Rome and might, I suppose, be regarded as a vassal of Assyria;
but he was a monarch of no particular importance. Mr N. McLean, whom I consulted on
the matter, suggested that ILIkos perhaps coverspekha, a Hebrew word for 'governor' of
Assyrian origin. So I applied to my friend Prof. S. Langdon, who kindly sent me the
following comment (Feb. 24, 1920): 'The titlepihatu " provincial governor," or originally
bcl.piha.ti "lord of a province," passed into Hebrew as i"^?? pechd "governor," and As-
syrian and Persian governors of Syria were known to the Hebrews under this title. It is
probable that some governor of the late period at Tarsus or some other city may have
received apotheosis and identified himself with Zeus. There is no Assyrian king whose
name is similar to HIkos.' Prof. Langdon further informs me that 'The Assyrians and
Babylonians never deified and worshipped birds,' and that 'No bird was ever known
to have been identified with a king.' With regard to the woodpecker in Mesopotamia he
says : ' The pilakki of Ishtar [M. Jastrow Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens Giessen
1912 ii. 2. 802 n. 1] probably is the woodpecker commonly called kuzazu and hanzizitu
the "gnawer," but what Houghton says in PSBA. 1885, 67 [W. Houghton 'The Birds of
the Assyrian Monuments and Records' in the Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archce-
ology 1885 viii. 67-—70 with H9f.] is totally erroneous. The "axe of Ishtar" is a poetical
name for the woodpecker....But otherwise no connection between Ishtar and the wood-
pecker is known. The bird is described as "green" in a syllabary. It is certain that the
woodpecker was not a deity, but it may have been the symbol of Ishtar.' Another possi-