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 Meiltchios

1117

his right, seated on a rock (P)1. Before him is an altar of rude stones. Beyond it
stand two female worshippers, presumably mother and daughter, conceived on a
smaller scale than the god himself. The moulding above bears traces of fifth-
century letters, which were read by Skias as a dedication to Zeus Ndios2: they
may equally well, indeed better, be completed as a dedication to Zeus Meilichiosz.
The second relief (fig. 948)* represents Zeus holding a jug in both hands as he
sits on a horned and bearded head, which is inscribed in lettering of the Alexan-
drine age Achel6ios'°. Behind Zeus stands a female (?)—perhaps Kallirrhoe,
daughter of Acheloios,—fronting us with a cornn copiae in her left hand and
dLphidle in her right. Before Zeus stand Hermes and Herakles. Hermes has a
trefoil oinochoe in his right hand, the caduceus in his left. Herakles, equipped
with lion-skin and club, extends his right hand with something in it (another
oinochoe ?) towards Zeus. To either side of the heads of Zeus and Herakles are
two holes of doubtful significance.

It is not quite certain that either of these reliefs figures Zeus Meittchios.
But it is probable that both do so. The former bears a general resemblance to
the Meih'chios-reXmfe of the Peiraieus (figs. 942, 943)6, though it shows a more
primitive type of altar and dispenses with architectural framework. The latter
represents a chthonian Zeus of some sort; for it associates him closely with
Acheloios7 and Kallirrhoe (?). Now somewhere in the immediate neighbourhood

pi. 130, 2 (=my fig. 947). The dimensions of the slab, which is now preserved in the
National Museum (no. 1779), are as follows: breadth 0*31™, height 0-22™.

1 Cp. Svoronos^. cit. pi. 130, 3 (no. 1781), infra p. 1119 n. o.

2 to ! \ L" HHAI = \s> SeTva a.v~\edt)Kev Ncu[y All]. The lettering is hardly later
than c. 450 B.C.

3 Skias himself supposes that the god portrayed is Zeus MetXtx'os, who qua watery
chthonian Zeus might—he thinks—bear the title Ncuos. But it is surely simpler to restore
[Ait MclXlxllol /car' evxw dv^40r)Kep Nat[as] or Nav[ylov\ or the like.

4 P. Kabbadias in the'E</>.'Ap%. 1893 p. 137 n. 1, A. N. Skias ib. 1894 p. 137ff.pl. 7
( = my fig. 948), Svoronos Ath. Nationalmus. pi. 131 (larger, but not so clear), Reinach
Re^p. Reliefs ii. 351 no. 3 (summary sketch). The slab, now in the National Museum
(no. 1778), measures: greatest height o-8sm, breadth below o-53m, breadth above o-6om,
thickness of base o-i6m, thickness of background c. o- iom.

5 AXEAHIOI. 6 Supra?. "°5f-

7 A votive relief of Pentelic marble (height o-42m, breadth 0'49m, thickness o-o8m:
it had originally a tenon for insertion in a mortise), found at Megara (F. Wieseler ' Ueber
ein Votivrelief aus Megara' in the Abh. d. gott. Gesellsch. d. Wiss. Phil.-hist. Classe 1875
xx. 6. 1—39) and now in the Berlin Museum {Ant. Skulpt. Berlin p. 251 f. no. 679 with
fig.), is referable to the early part of s. iv. B.C. (Furtwangler Samml. Sabouroff Sculptures
pi. 27=my fig. 949). On the back wall of a cavern is carved the head of Acheloios, and
immediately beneath it is set a table for offerings. Ranged round the cavern we see a
semicircle of divinities. Zeus in the centre is flanked by Pan (horns) and Kore (torches).
Next to Pan is Demeter (?); next to Kore, Plouton (?—possibly Agathos Daimon) {phidle,
Cornu copiae). The reclining youth on the extreme left and the seated female figure on the
extreme right are insufficiently characterised as deities (Apollon?? Aphrodite?? cp. Paus.
1. 44. 9) and more probably represent the eponymous hero Megaros and his mother, one of
the nymphs called Sithnides, who was beloved by Zeus (Paus. r. 40". 1, cp. et. mag. p. 228,
21 ff. where the hero is called Megareus): the fact that they alone occupy the ground-level
would not justify the inference that they are merely the dedicators of the ex vote.

The nearest parallel to this relief as a whole is furnished by the rock-carvings at
the entrance to the marble-quarries of Paros: see J. Stuart—N. Revett The A}ttiquilies of
Athens London t8i6 iv pp. ix, 34b, ch. 6 pi. 5, Muller—Wieseler Denkm. d. alt. Kunst