DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0787
712 The sword of Zeus
Iupiter, grasping a bolt in one hand and a spear in the other,
fittingly expressed the popular belief in a sky-god, whose weapons
were thunder and lightning.
In conclusion, it should be noticed that Roman lamps with
crescentic handles not unfrequently have the crescent embellished
with a relief of Iupiter holding a thunderbolt in his right hand and
a spear or sceptre in his left (fig. 652)1. An example in the British
Museum gives him an unmistakable spear (fig. 653)2. The lightning-
god was a suitable adornment of the light-giving lamp3, and his
threatensome attitude an excellent apotropaion.
iii. The sword of Zeus.
Greek literature never equips Zeus with a sword. Can the same
be said of Greek art ? The question arises in connexion with an
important Attico-Ionian amphora found at Caere in Etruria and
now preserved in the Louvre (pi. xxx)4. The body of the vase
exhibits two scenes, which together form one of our earliest repre-
sentations of the Gigantomachia5. The main combat is that of Zeus,
who single-handed attacks three Giants. Agasthenes is down and
out; Ephialtes and Hyperbios still show fight. The Giants are
armed like Greek hoplites. So too is Zeus, except that the round
shield borne on his left arm is fringed with twenty bristling snakes
sens et ne servent plus que de pretexte a une pose, d'occasion a un geste____ De meme,
ici, la lance au lieu du sceptre.'
1 J. Toutain in Daremberg—Saglio Diet. Ant. iii. 1327 f. fig. 4593 ( = my fig. 652)
from a terra-cotta specimen in the Louvre, Brit. Mus. Cat. Lamps p. U29 nos. 854—857
terra-cotta handles only.
2 Brit. Mus. Cat. Lamps p. 129 no. 857 fig. 159 (=my fig. 653). Height 2-f inches.
According to H. B. Walters, 'Zeus has three darts or arrows in r. hand.' But nos. 854—
856 make it clear that a thunderbolt is intended.
3 G. Supka in the Jahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch. Lust. 1915 xxx Arch. Anz. pp. 24,
27 f. fig- 6 publishes a large bronze lamp from Mor, now in the National Museum at
Buda-Pesth, which has a fine bust of Zeus (eyes and lips originally incrusted), without
thunderbolt, spear, or sceptre, between the horns of the crescent and below it on the
crescent a bust of Helios. Other lamp-handles show Zeus between the horns, upborne
on an eagle grasping a thunderbolt (A. C. P. de Tubieres Comte de Caylus Recueil
d''antiquite's egyptiennes, e'trusques, grecques, romaines et gauloises Paris 1764 vi. 305
pi. 97, 5, Babelon—Blanchet Cat. Bronzes de la Bibl. Nat. p. 11 no. 20 fig. Cp. supra
p. 102 f. fig. 64).
4 Pottier Cat. Vases du Louvre ii. 544 f. no. E 732, id. Vases antiques du Louvre
2me Serie Paris 1901 p. 68 f. no. E 732 pi. 54 (views of front and back from photographs),
O. Jahn 'Gigantomachia, dipinto vasculare ceretano' in the Ann. d. Lnst. 1863 xxxv.
243—255, Mon. d. Lnst. vi—vii pi. 78 ( = my pi. xxx), Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus
p. 349 ff. no. 13 with Atlas pi. 4, 8, Reinach Rep. Vases i. 162, 3—5, J. Endt Beitrdge
zur jonischen Vasenmalerei Prag 1899 p. 38 f., H. B. Walters History of Ancient Pottery
London 1905 ii. 13 f. fig. rn,
5 M. Mayer Die Giganten und Titanen Berlin 1887 p. 282 ff. no. 4.
Iupiter, grasping a bolt in one hand and a spear in the other,
fittingly expressed the popular belief in a sky-god, whose weapons
were thunder and lightning.
In conclusion, it should be noticed that Roman lamps with
crescentic handles not unfrequently have the crescent embellished
with a relief of Iupiter holding a thunderbolt in his right hand and
a spear or sceptre in his left (fig. 652)1. An example in the British
Museum gives him an unmistakable spear (fig. 653)2. The lightning-
god was a suitable adornment of the light-giving lamp3, and his
threatensome attitude an excellent apotropaion.
iii. The sword of Zeus.
Greek literature never equips Zeus with a sword. Can the same
be said of Greek art ? The question arises in connexion with an
important Attico-Ionian amphora found at Caere in Etruria and
now preserved in the Louvre (pi. xxx)4. The body of the vase
exhibits two scenes, which together form one of our earliest repre-
sentations of the Gigantomachia5. The main combat is that of Zeus,
who single-handed attacks three Giants. Agasthenes is down and
out; Ephialtes and Hyperbios still show fight. The Giants are
armed like Greek hoplites. So too is Zeus, except that the round
shield borne on his left arm is fringed with twenty bristling snakes
sens et ne servent plus que de pretexte a une pose, d'occasion a un geste____ De meme,
ici, la lance au lieu du sceptre.'
1 J. Toutain in Daremberg—Saglio Diet. Ant. iii. 1327 f. fig. 4593 ( = my fig. 652)
from a terra-cotta specimen in the Louvre, Brit. Mus. Cat. Lamps p. U29 nos. 854—857
terra-cotta handles only.
2 Brit. Mus. Cat. Lamps p. 129 no. 857 fig. 159 (=my fig. 653). Height 2-f inches.
According to H. B. Walters, 'Zeus has three darts or arrows in r. hand.' But nos. 854—
856 make it clear that a thunderbolt is intended.
3 G. Supka in the Jahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch. Lust. 1915 xxx Arch. Anz. pp. 24,
27 f. fig- 6 publishes a large bronze lamp from Mor, now in the National Museum at
Buda-Pesth, which has a fine bust of Zeus (eyes and lips originally incrusted), without
thunderbolt, spear, or sceptre, between the horns of the crescent and below it on the
crescent a bust of Helios. Other lamp-handles show Zeus between the horns, upborne
on an eagle grasping a thunderbolt (A. C. P. de Tubieres Comte de Caylus Recueil
d''antiquite's egyptiennes, e'trusques, grecques, romaines et gauloises Paris 1764 vi. 305
pi. 97, 5, Babelon—Blanchet Cat. Bronzes de la Bibl. Nat. p. 11 no. 20 fig. Cp. supra
p. 102 f. fig. 64).
4 Pottier Cat. Vases du Louvre ii. 544 f. no. E 732, id. Vases antiques du Louvre
2me Serie Paris 1901 p. 68 f. no. E 732 pi. 54 (views of front and back from photographs),
O. Jahn 'Gigantomachia, dipinto vasculare ceretano' in the Ann. d. Lnst. 1863 xxxv.
243—255, Mon. d. Lnst. vi—vii pi. 78 ( = my pi. xxx), Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus
p. 349 ff. no. 13 with Atlas pi. 4, 8, Reinach Rep. Vases i. 162, 3—5, J. Endt Beitrdge
zur jonischen Vasenmalerei Prag 1899 p. 38 f., H. B. Walters History of Ancient Pottery
London 1905 ii. 13 f. fig. rn,
5 M. Mayer Die Giganten und Titanen Berlin 1887 p. 282 ff. no. 4.