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)

Superstitious practices with axes 699

On this Sir Richard Jebb remarked : 'Some child's-game, of which
nothing is known. It may have consisted, for instance, in one of the
players bringing down his hand edgewise ("hatchet") on the other's
clenched fist, before he could snatch it away. That the words are not
names which the guest calls the children—as they have usually been
explained1—is clear from...the text, which shows that the children
said them too. Casaubon's theory that the "wine-skin" and "hatchet"
were little toys...hung round the children's necks, which the guest
takes up and names successively, supposes the children to be in-
fants.' The latest editors, J. M. Edmonds and G. E. V. Austen,
likewise conclude that the words in question 'refer to some children's
game, or possibly to an early lesson in spelling2.' More probably
Casaubon was right in suggesting the amulets hung round the necks
of children {perideraid)21. The imperial cabinet at Vienna possesses
a handsome gold necklace to which are attached no fewer than fifty
of these charms, including an excellent little hatchet (fig. 633)4. And
the Museum at Reading has several bronze models of similar shape
found during the excavations at Silchester (fig. 634)5. Analogous
examples doubtless exist in other collections. They attest the
curious fact that the dreaded weapon of the Thunderer can degenerate
into an infant's toy without losing all trace of its superhuman quality.
Pliny6 mentions, on the authority of 'Osthanes7,' that one species

Sir J. E. Sandys (London 1909), leaves text, translation, and notes unaltered, so far as
this passage is concerned.

1 E.g. by H. G. Liddell—R. Scott A Greek-English Lexicon* Oxford 1897 pp. 232
s.v. acFKos ' Punch,' 1171 s.v. Trekeuvs 'a sharp blade.'

2 Theophr. char. ed. by J. M. Edmonds and G. E. V. Austen London 1904 p. 58.
They rightly scout the cjj. /cacr/c6s, ' little finger,' and dvXaKos, ' wallet.'

3 On these irepiairTO. or Treptafj.fxa.Ta see O. Jahn in the Ber. scichs. Gesellsch. d. Wiss.
Phil.-hist. Classe 1855 p. 40 ff.

4 J. Arneth Die antiken Gold- und Silber-monumente des k. k. Miinz- und Antiken-
Cabinettes in Wien Wien 1850 p. 19 no. 1 pi. 1 ( = my fig. 633), E. Fernique in Darem-
berg—Saglio Diet. Ant. i. 1561 fig. 2066. This necklace, together with a sumptuous
gold bulla, fourteen gold medallions of various emperors, and other objects of interest,
was found in 1797 by a couple of Walachian goat-herds at Szilagy-Somlyo in Siebenbtirgen
(Transylvania). Its central pendant is a ball of smoky quartz enclosed by gold bands and
surmounted by two panthers or tigers on either side of a krate'r.

5 Fig. 634 is from a photograph kindly obtained for me by my friend Prof. P. N. Ure.
I made a sketch of one of these trinkets many years ago, and mentioned it once as the
best illustration of the passage in Theophrastos to Sir Richard Jebb. He told me that,
if he ever brought out a second edition of his commentary, he would consider the point.

6 Plin. nat. hist. 30. 14.

7 Plin. nat. hist. 30. 8 and 11 distinguishes two writers on magic named Osthanes,
one a contemporary of Xerxes, the other of Alexander the Great. Xanthos the Lydian
frag. 29 {Frag. hist. Gr. i. 44 Miiller) ap. Diog. Laert. prooem. 2 %avQos de 6 Avdbs et's
T7]V Sep'ou oiafiacnv awb rod Zwpodarpov e£a/ci<TXi\td (prjcri (sc. 'irrf yeyove'vat), /cat fier'
avTbv yeyovivai ttoWovs rtvas M.ayovs Kara biaboxw, 'Oardvas /cat 'Aarpafxtpuxovs Kai
Twfipvas /cat Hat&ras, LiexP1 T7)s T^v nepcrwi' vir' 'AAe£de5poi; KaTaXvaews was taken by