Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 2,2): Zeus god of the dark sky (thunder and lightning): Appendixes and index (Cambridge, 1925)

Zeus Meilichios

1095

to it quadrangular pieces of wood, whose sides were flat and covered with lettering,
and that pivots at either end enabled readers to move and turn about the text (Aristo-
phanes (of Byzantion) ap. Souid. s.v. Kupfieis-...'Apicrrocpavris 8k ofMoias elvaL <p-qai rocs
a^ocn' ...d/J.(pOTkpojv 5e to Karao-Kevacr/LLa tolovtov ttXlvBlov ti fxiya, av8pbp.i)Kes, 7)pp.o<rpAva
%X0V reTpdywva £v\a, ras wXevpas Tr\areLas 'ixovra KaL ypa-P-p^dncv 7r\r)peis ■ eKarepudev 8e
KvdiSaKas, (Scrre KLveiadai nai p,eTa<XTpecpeo-dai virb rCov CLvayivwcrKovriov). On the whole it
seems clear that the wooden amoves of the Prytaneion are to be distinguished from the
stone Kvppeis of the Stoa Basileios. The amoves were apparently shaded as in fig. 935, the
ictipfieis as in fig. 936 (on the former is inscribed frag. 149 (I. B. Telfy Sufcryory?) tu)p
'Attikwv vbfxwv Corpus iuris Attici Pestini et Lipsiae 1868 p. 39 f.) ap. Dem. c. Timocr.
33; on the latter, frag. 562 (Telfy op. cit. p. 137) ap. Dem. c. Timocr. 151). Neither
shape was chosen at random. The wheel of Nemesis {supra i. 269 ff.) had a long history
behind it and was related [supra i. 267) to that wheel, which in India symbolised rta, the
course of nature, the right path, in short, law and order (W. Simpson The Buddhist
Praying-wheel London 1896 p. 898"., H. Oldenberg La religion du Vida Paris 1903
p. 163 ff., Harrison Themis p. 526 f., F. M. Cornford From Religion to Philosophy
London 1912 p. 172 ff.). It seems highly probable that Solon inscribed his laws on
wooden amoves because he wished to represent them as the crepLva 6ep.e0\a Mkt]s (Solon
frag. 2. t4 Hiller—Crusius). At the same time the shape chosen would be convenient for
purposes of reference or consultation : my friend Dr P. Giles tells me that in the parish
church of Great Yarmouth documents are, or were, arranged a la Solon. Individual
enactments appear to have been copied on stones of the characteristic wedge-like form,
as may be seen from an extant fragment [Corp. inscr. Att. iv. 1.2 no. 559 with figs.) first
published by S. A. Koumanoudes, to whose brilliant article in the "E<p. 'Apx- 1885
pp. 215—218 figs. 1—3 I am indebted for the main idea of my restoration in fig. 935
(Koumanoudes fits his wedges on to an axle that is circular, not square, in section).
Again, it seems likely that the Kvpfieis—as indeed I conjectured in the Class. Rev. 1904
xviii. 86—copied the primitive idols of Zeus. Their shape, to judge from Apollodoros'
words (supra p. 1094 n. o), was identical with that of Zeus 'Zropirdoi, Zeus Ildcrtos, Zeus
Harpipos, etc. (supra i. 520 n. 2, ii. 815 fig. 781). If so, the implication is that the laws
were the very voice of Zeus (cp. Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. pp. 426 n. r, 1001 n. 5). There
was a tradition that Solon had tried to express his laws in hexameter verse and had begun
with a couplet invoking Zeus: TrpGira pev evx^P-ecOa Att KpoviSy plaaiXTj'C \ decrpiois roicrSe
t6xvv d.yadrjv /cat kv8os oTr&ffcrcu (Plout. v. Sol. 3). The original form of his famous oath
may have been 7rp6s Atos iKealoio Kadapcriov e^aKecravros (cp. for the last word Pyth. carm.
aur. 66) or the like. Analogous to the Kupfieis as inscribed obelisks were the Egyptian
tcvp(3eis of the Colchians (Ap. Rhod. 4. 279 ff. with schol. ad loc), not to mention the
pillar of Zeus T/)t0uXtos (supra i. 662). Cp. also the marble obelisk from Kition, the
base of which bears a votive inscription for Esmun (Corp. inscr. Sent, i no. 44 pi. 8
fig. 44, Perrot—Chipiez Hist, de VArt iv. 385 fig. 203, Ohnefalsch—Richter Kypros
pp. 173 ff., 416 pi. 80, 5. Seleukos, a grammarian of Alexandreia, wrote a whole treatise
t£)v SoXw^os d^ovwv (Frag. hist. Gr. iii. 500 Midler), and modern writers have devoted
much attention to them, e.g. E. Caillemer in Daremberg—Saglio Diet. Ant. i. 589, G.
Busolt Griechische Geschichte Gotha 1895 ii.2 2906°., E. Szanto in Pauly—Wissowa Real-
Enc. ii. 2636, Liibker Reallex.8 pp. 153, 963 f., and the literature there cited. E. Beule
Les 7?ioitnaies d'Athenes Paris 1858 p. 399 f. fig. would recognize Solon with one of his
amoves on a copper coin of Athens: but see K. Lange in the Ath. Mitth. 1881 vi. 68 f. fig.,
Imhoof-Blumer and P. Gardner Alum. Comm. Pans. iii. 152 pi. ee, 16f.).

Similarly at Thera in s. vi B.C. the same appellative occurs without the name of Zeus
(supra i. 143 in three rock-cut inscriptions). Elsewhere name and title appear together:
so at Kos in s. iv B.C. (A. Hauvette-Besnault and M. Dubois in the Bull. Corr. Hell.
1881 v. 224 no. 12 on a slab fixed in the pavement of an ancient chapel of S. John Atos
'Iksctlov I Hip.wvi8av = W. R. Paton—E. L. Hicks The Inscriptions of Cos Oxford 1891
p. 161 no. i49 = Collitz—Bechtel Gr. Dial.-Inschr. iii. 1. 376 no. 3674 = IMichel Recueil
dPnscr.gr. no. 796 = Dittenberger Syll. inscr. Gr? no. 929) and at Delos in s. iii B.C.