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)

of the thunderbolt

767

or straightish lines (figs.; 726, 727)1. From s. ix B.C. onwards there
is a tendency to duplicate2 these forks by giving them prongs at
either end (figs. 728—730)3. And under the Sargonid dynasty

Die Hettiter\ Leipzig 1*1903
p. 24 f. fig. 25, A. Jeremias
in Roscher Lex. Myth. iv. 53
fig. 12 f., E. Meyer Reich und
Kultur der Chetiter Berlin
1914 p. 66 ff. fig. 56, R.
Koldevvey The Excavations at
Babylon trans. A. S. Johns
London 1914 p. 164 f.
fig. 103 f.) : Tesub standing
with axe and lightning-fork.

Fig. '725 from a somewhat
later Hittite relief in dolerite
(height i-27m), found at
Sinjerli (F. von Luschan
Aitsgrabnngen in Sendschirli
Berlin 1902 iii. 2i8f. fig. 114
and pi. 41, a ( = my fig. 725),
A. Jeremias in Roscher Lex.
Myth. iv. 53 fig. r4, J. Gar-
stang The Land of the Hittites
London 1910 p. 291 pi. 77, 1,
E. Meyer op. cit. p. 67 fig. 57):
Tesub standing with axe and
lightning-fork.

1 Fig. 726 from a cylinder
(W. H. Ward The Seal Cylin-
ders etc. pp. 174 fig. 468, 399):
lightning-fork on a bull.

Fig- 727 from a northern
cylinder (id. ib. p. 383
fig. [48 a]) : Adad seated
with the lightning-fork in his
hand.

2 P. E. Newberry 'The
Egyptian cult-object
and the "Thunderbolt"' in
the Ann. Arch. Anllir. 1910
iii. 50—52 pi. 19, 1 — 17
argues that the cult-object,
which appears as a double-
headed dart on prehistoric
vases etc. and in shapes com-
parable with the Greek thun- Fig. 725.
derbolt on monuments of the

Middle Kingdom and later, was ' always used in hieroglyphic inscriptions as a symbol

of the god Min----the original form of Anion... Lord of Heaven and God of Thunder "

and presumably represents the thunderbolt in types derived from flint arrow-heads, stone
celts, and belemnites.

:) Fig. 728 from an alabaster relief found in the N.W. palace of Ashur-nasir-pal iii